hello faithful viewers and welcome to an episode of pretty good cooking the cooking show in which we cook items and pass the benefit on to you by telling you that I've been watching a lot of It's Always Sunny lately and there's an episode in which Frank talks about not knowing how much time he has left to live which I don't relate to but I he did he does say that he's like I'm gonna get really weird with it and so I just want to say that that's why I want to do with our show so tonight we're gonna get weird with it we've been drinking I have the cameraman has and no one else is here so that's everybody we tried to get Kevin to come he said he needed more notice well I tell you what Kevin you're on notice I'm gonna make General Tso's chicken some people say sow or Cho and I don't know what the right one is and there's documentaries that have background on the dish but really it's American Chinese food it's pretty good I don't know if it's worth making but we're gonna do anyways okay so like before what my fridge is open at the suggestion of the cameraman he wants me to drink this beer which is from Korea which is not China but China is not where this dish comes from this dish comes from America so it doesn't really matter we also bought this drink in America it's called cloud with a k' it's 100% more real beer which just sounds like toads I'm gonna take approximately one drink and get rid of it does not taste good the first step after you take a drink for been drinking is to get some oil in a pan you know I have some canola which we'll put in this cast-iron skillet to a depth of about halfway and we'll get that heating up this will be our deep fry zone oh [ __ ] I already have here well it's already heating up nice job me and I did a little bit of prep work that was not on camera but I don't think you'll hear I made some chicken stock with chicken paste some water I got some shitty rice going and I chopped the chicken already the chicken that's why we got a fry first all right in this bowl but add some salt oh they're not quite that much salt that much salt some white pepper and the only reason we're using white over black here's that you don't want speckle speckle chicken China has a respectable culture and this dish is not representative of it this is American Chinese food which is not good for you is not Chinese and but it is tasty all right okay in that bowl we have equal parts salt pepper and sugar looks weird you can shake it around if you one do that we're gonna add in metric collaborative cornstarch cornstarch it just completely handsome but you could whisk it together it might be something I can't breathe okay this needs to go on your chicken you got to figure out how to do this okay chicken just like three pounds of chicken it's too much chicken cornstarch mixture most recipes as I said write it red and Santa said do it gradually but why not just do it all once save yourself the trouble why do you do things the right way when you can do with these I'm literally not having any problems because we do it all at once this is just as easy the haters hey also my imitators thinking of you one particular YouTube channel tonight's the night you need to get it even coding if you see any pink stakes let's remember the old saying zero in the pig zero in the Stig listen it's not an H in Chinese proper it's not no one in China or anywhere near China is ever talking about that nor would they they're very respectable it is tolerance is good enough talk about the Chinese go wow look at that we did a pretty good job looks nice okay is that hot that's a little office okay this is the pain in the ass part of the program in which you drop little pieces of chicken into the oil which is not hot enough yet so we'll wait on that wait for the oil you know if you're unsure if it's ready you can put a carrot in it look like it's cooking meanwhile you can prep other things well put my Streeters kids oh look alright well we'll prep other things hey got about four cloves of garlic here it a a chopper Unni now listen now listen everybody listen we up today I forgot to buy the dried chilies to go in this like the big hunk and dried chilies that you get in general snows sometimes so we're gonna have to make a substitution and it's going to be weird and if you what it does require that's fine it's fine everything's fine it's just not gonna be as authentic I'll try it I'll try to tell you how you would've done it you know in a better world well I don't make mistakes the green onions which is also shallots another challenge challenge they're different but the same people use the same term to mean different things you want these in like one inch pieces okay all right it's one of cooking's great mysteries why are there multiple things called shallots pisses me off seeing and recipes and stuff pisses me off alright let's see if we can get a piece of chicken cooking here that doesn't look on maybe we should turn the heat up a little bit what was let it go though we got our shallots first we need I know we need this preposterous amount of safe but let me just tell you about this has to be going off okay so my economic brain is always like buying bulk fill buy and pull cuz you know the more you buy the lower the price per unit that you pay that's how business works so I was at the store and was like I mean since me oil and how much do I need for this recipe like you know a couple spoonfuls but did I buy that much no I bought one and a half liters I'll never run out the chicken is now ready to be put into the frying area this is gonna be our first fry you go and do some of this at a time you gotta be careful you overload the pan will be you and the chicken or one all right that's probably maximum capacity you can use your tongs to break up you checking it sticking sticking chicken all right what we do now we're just doing chicken that's all we're doing you have to double fry the chicken so we're gonna fry it let it rest and fry it again those chickens pretty much already are there you want them golden brown or like at least somewhat brown close to that I'm chopping some broccoli I think that it's important to this dish because when you order it you'll get like three tiny stalks of broccoli and if it was miss you'd be like hey not are you very healthy tonight so anyways put that in the in the smaller stalks you might need to chop some of them and have such as I'm doing now with a knife that's the tool I would recommend for this particular application just like this it's real easy if you got a knife and can put it through things to cut them we're gonna stir fry those okay I think this batch is probably done on the first ravioli so we gotta let this rest for a second of the prior second time I'm not super confident in anything about this so maybe it'll work maybe at whoa kind of running out of room in this bowl it looks like a health hazard for me let me just say this this is MSG free I mean added msg free cuz MST is it everything but what if we did put all [ __ ] dude let's just put the msg in this at the end let's just load it I'll do will do with that we're doing that oh man I can't wait for my msg go accent where's my accent oh yeah rest for a second we gotta let the oil come back up for some tea some temperature maybe maybe let's turn the heat up a little bit what's the worst that could happen we shall be back it's time for the second fry Thank You chicken some only some at a time that's too much bill who cares fry it too it looks more like this Bob Brown we will be you Louie we will be blue get your wok the maximum flame just turn it up to high gonna get some Laurel in there this is canola you should probably do something like peanut what the [ __ ] ever just coat the bottom get that heated up here we have our garlic already chopped once this [ __ ] gets hot then the actions gonna happen so we want to prep everything up ahead is as much as we can so the only thing I haven't done is to prep the cornstarch mixture so I'm actually gonna use chicken stock instead of water I know that's pretty crazy you know whenever no one ever has done that before whenever a little bowl of chicken stock here and some cornstarch which we're not really gonna manage we're just gonna dump some in me will play this works I'm not an [ __ ] we want to create a slurry oh it's already slurry perfect okay we got chicken stock slurry garlic shallot also called green onion sesame oil msg rice vinegar soy sauce broccoli chicken now you're like I'm pretty sure Charles Tso's chicken is spicy and if you assume that you're correct however we forgot to buy the dried chilies what are you gonna do we're gonna substitute some Korean red pepper power this is gonna taste a little bit different but it'll be close enough that we don't care also everything in the world can be used for other things this is called tolerance this is a message of love you can use ingredients from other places to make other things god Bless America and also China and Korea as well they're very nice people at least half of them yeah we also a Korean beer earlier Oh America come on okay look here walks doing some crazy [ __ ] let's get our garlic sauce these are gonna happen fast you gotta keep up cuz you got it first ill brown mister it's great it's wonderful now we take a big thing of the spicy [ __ ] we put it in no if you breathes anymore no worry it's not necessary to breathe holy Oh that's a bonus oi sighs and seems to have calmed it down considerably I'm dyin probably couldn't live with Kapil let the onions cook a little longer but yeah what the [ __ ] oh we need to add sugar to this that's how you know it's American this really don't hold back on this sugar this is throw it in there looks like a veritable best now he had some chicken stock oh [ __ ] okay so now we have enough liquid in here for it to get liquidy we're gonna want that to get back to a Borel serious [ __ ] that's a make it taste good all right let's get our broccoli going for the broccoli but we need some goddamn nutrition right our wok is not nearly hot enough that's okay eventually it will be this is why you take out soggy cuz the cook didn't know what he was doing I'm the cook get hot you [ __ ] let's put our corn starch in there what's oh shut up piggy it's already not thick enough so we're gonna have to let that cook cool but we can add more cornstarch biggest thicker probably have to do that let's see how it treats the broccoli won't be too long you can see by the bubbles that is starting to thicken but it's not enough more cornstarch slurry flying it a little bit at a time and mix it and as it boils we might have to add even more we want this thick just like your mama oh oh look check it out check that it's already Sun pick it up when you hear it sputtering it's desirable I think this might be an ideal consistency maybe just a little thicker well let's see if we can upgrade your mom oh yeah he would go that's that classic chinese-american stickiness just like your mama all right that's dad beautiful look at that just gorgeous you can see how sticky it is that's ready for chicken get that broccoli over to one side it's a little bit wrong maybe you should let's just be cooking boy cook down Bronco you [ __ ] let that broccoli cook you don't want it raw you want to cook right hot cook that's what you're what oh we have made something resembling the fine art of chinese-american it gets too thick we can add more chicken stock let's do a little that looks like the whole thing to me just like your mama can fit it back out no problem check that out bubble bubble bubble bubble we're gonna turn the heat down to low that's cuz the chicken really does not require any more cooked I mean we cooked it twice all right take your chicken and chomp it and mix to incorporate and somehow someway we made something that kind of resembles General Tso's chicken you guys stare at a coat stir to coat looking good looking like Chinese food Chinese American food move this is edible it would look prettier if we had those fancy peppers but you know sometimes in life things oh wait we do oh yeah oh wait here's some colorful peppers and stir this [ __ ] looks pretty legit I'm not gonna lie cuz lying would be a sin let's plate her up baby we got some rice we already cooked so be just like the takeout place cuz the rice will be sitting there forever right right eats price break rice okay alright alright alright how do we scoop it we scoop it with a ladle take our general so-so and put it next to the rice hot damn you got some takeout and only took multiple efforts let's try out how to use chopsticks it's wonderful veg brain don't be spicy I left them in the gym at Chili's but I guess that's how you do it right you want to be festive this dancing sesame seeds my ball I forgot them okay so you're gonna just do that who cares not necessary Sunday's food you put that's mostly how you do it get the Chili's the dried Chili's they're good boy just order it's probably cheaper and easier but if you don't want to go through the upper that's how you do it yeah [Laughter]