Kung Pao Chicken

I have never made any Chinese food aside from ramen noodles and I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.  So I was nervous, I don't even know what some of the ingredients are.  However one of my all time favorite meals is Kung Pao Chicken from Pei Wei.

I had this recipe sitting in my "need to make" file for years.  I don't even remember where I got it from.  I was ready for this meal to fail, and told my kids we would have Eggo Waffles if this went bad.  That being said, I LOVED THIS!  My kids LOVED this and didn't even want to save any for my husband (who wasn't home yet) and wanted to know when I would be making it again!  It was easy (once I got over my nervousness) and super fast!

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless chicken breasts (cut into 1in chunks)
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/2 cup green onions (chopped)
6 garlic cloves (minced)
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 tsp sugar
10 red dried chili peppers
2/3 cup dry roasted peanuts

Directions:

Coat chicken with cornstarch in small bowl.  Heat sesame oil in a walk over medium heat, add chicken and stir fry 5-7 min or until no longer pink inside.  Remove chicken from wok.

Add green onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, dried chili's and powdered ginger to the wok and stir fry for 15 seconds.

Combine vinegar, soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl.  Mix well and add the sauce to the wok.

Return chicken to the wok and coat with sauce.  Stir in roasted peanuts.  Heat thoroughly.  Top with additional green onions if desired and serve over white rice.

*the only other thing I would do different is to add snow peas and thinly sliced carrots