Kung Pao Shrimp Recipe (2024)

Here’s the most important direction for any Chinese dish: first, start the rice.

A quick soaking of the shrimp in a baking soda and salt solution before coating make them more crunchy GOOGLE "brined shrimp for stir-fries"

The recipe looks quite good, except for just one thing: grated fresh ginger is (in my opinion) an essential ingredient.

This was delicious! Made pretty much as written (added some additional veg and used balsamic and chiles de arbol as suggested). Super easy. Try it!

Needs 1-inch ginger root minced and sautéed with the pepper and garlic. Additionally, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and 1 or 2 tablespoons of Sichuan Chili oil added to the sauce.

This was quite sweet. The recipe for Kung Pao Chicken calls for 2 teaspoons of sugar -- this called for 2 tablespoons. I would recommend the lesser amount, or omit the sugar entirely. Also, don't stint on the chiles.

Technique is a great guide, thank you! Agree with some others that this recipe calls for too much sugar. 2 tablespoons must be a mistake, 2 teaspoons is closer to what I’ve seen other Chinese cooks use, though 2t is still a little too sweet for my taste. The version I first encountered used around 1 teaspoon sugar. Also prefer it with fresh ginger, grated and cooked with the garlic.

Yes. Kung pao does not need any sugar.

This was really good. I added some fresh ginger as others have suggested. I ended up splashing water a couple of times towards the end and I’m glad I did. I wouldn’t have had a sauce otherwise

Really delicious! Added celery with the bell pepper and garlic.

This was great. I used maple syrup (a bit less) instead of sugar because I was weirdly all out of sugar. Added a nice depth I think, and it wasn’t too sweet. The sauce thickened perfectly (I also swapped out the cornstarch for tapioca starch because again, I was out!) and the spiciness was spot-on. Very easy and fast weeknight dish (as long as you remember to put the rice on the boil in advance).

Very good, spicy, and flavorful! I would agree that a touch of grated ginger, maybe a half teaspoon grated ginger would accent the dish nicely.

Useful Comments- brine shrimp first, in b soda/salt briefly, for crispier effect. 1” ginger julienned or minced. Less sugar.

Actually, it isn’t traditional in Kung pao.

Added green beans after peanuts. Then added sliced carrots with the bell peppers. And grated ginger with the garlic.

Great feedback re adding ginger and decreasing sugar. Made with soy curls instead of shrimp. Turned out great!

My husband has made this a few times with balsamic vinegar, and it was pretty good. We finally got around to purchasing some Chinkiang (black) vinegar and used that this time. Oh my, what a difference it made in the depth of flavor.

Made this as is. Miss the ginger and honestly, too sweet. Will remake this with some adjustments including increasing the chillies and peppercorns, which is entirely my preference.

This dish is a winner! I read the comments before I started so eliminated the sugar. Didn't miss it. I used 1/2 cup of dried chiles and my husband loved the heat but it was a bit much for me. I would add the peanuts 1/2 way through as they burned a bit. Also I didn't have sherry so i used dry white wine. A keeper!

Add more szechuan peppers.

Maybe 1/4 cup of chilis

As with a few others, I found the recipe to be far too sweet and the flavor profile didn't quite hit the mark. Perhaps it was the omission of ginger? But I often get Kung Pao chicken from Chinese restaurants and I was unimpressed by this homemade version and quite disappointed.

Just a word of warning: we bought red chilies at our Asian grocery, the only kind they had available, and they were so incredibly hot just one destroyed our palate. Maybe this is supposed to be extremely hot, but I wish we'd been more careful.

This is very tasty and easy, a real winner that I will make again. My only note is a suggestion to use yellow or orange bell peppers rather than red so they can be easily distinguished from the spicy dried red chiles!

Noted other comments and added 2T grated ginger and cut way back on the sugar. However, I found that the 2T of black vinegar overwhelmed the other flavors. Checking my Chinese cookbooks, many other recipes call for just 1/2 or 1 teaspoon of black vinegar. So that's my next try.

This turned out great despite some changes I had to make. No Szechuan peppercorns, so just a lot of regular black pepper. No hot chilis, so red pepper flakes. Added some regular onion in with the peppers. And, I thought 1/2 cup of peanuts was skimpy, so I added more. The sauce was delicious and I’m planning to do this again with the correct ingredients!!

Halved the sugar and added celery and water chestnuts-tasty!

I have made this recipe a number of times and it is wonderful, BUT only if the ingredients are added in the proper (i.e. Effective) order. As written, the dried chiles add nothing of flavor or heat. They need to be seared to darken them and draw out heat. So, the "correct" order: Hot oil; Chiles Stir-fry and press them to the wok surface; then add the peanuts (cook briefly, you do not need to brown them): bell pepper, garlic, and salt; shrimp; scallions; sauce. Five stars!

Cook the shrimp first. This allows them to caramelise and form a bit of a crust. Remove them and then add them back in at the end. This is how my mother taught me to cook stir fries.

We loved it. Cooked a half pound of shrimp for two. But used the same amount of ingredients for sauce. Used Mirin, so cut back on sugar and did not find it too sweet. To increase sauce volume, I added water. I like how the recipe gives both timing and appearance as a guide as you add each ingredient. Used chiles de arbol.