It's funny, but I cooked in the
restaurant for more than 18 years and we have been eating low
carbohydrate high fat (LCHF) for more than a year, and still my wife brings
me new recipes to try. Heck, I think she has looked at just about
every LCHF / Keto blog but mine when she is looking for recipes. Many
of the recipes she brings me claim they are “low carb”, but when
I look at the nutritional information (if it's there) I am often
disappointed. So I am left to go and modify these recipes to make
them fit our unique nutritional needs.
This particular recipe started out as
'Kung Pao Chicken' from the keto blog 'Ruled-Me'. They actually do a
pretty good job presenting a variety of low carbohydrate recipes, so
go and check them out. Having said that, there were quite a few
ingredients that were in the original recipe from their blog that we
did not have, but have no fear, as a former professional chef, being
able to make substitutions to form variations of specific dishes is
something I was trained to do.
While I have quite a good stock of
basic Asian ingredients in my pantry, I did not have and garlic chili
paste, so it was time for a substitution. because my niece is from
Korea, I have built quite a good stock pile of Korean spices and
seasoning's. I mention this because while this recipe started out as
'Kung Pao Chicken' it morphed into a Korean spicy chicken stir fry
version of this dish. In Korea, this dish would be similar to 'Dak
Galbi' or spicy chicken stir fry. A traditional version of this dish
would have quite a bit more red pepper paste (gochujang) and more red
pepper powder (gochujang) but I have toned down this dish to make it
more agreeable to my wife's particular tastes. So let's get
on with making a spicy Korean style Kung Pao Chicken.
The Recipe
As mentioned, the original recipe for
this dish came from the keto site Ruled Me, and you can find their
recipe by clicking on the link at the end of this article. I have
added a few vegetables and of course the sauce has been changed by
the substitution of Korean red pepper paste as well as tomato sauce
for the garlic chili sauce and the reduced sugar ketchup. While the changes may seem minor, they
change the flavor profile of the dish entirely. This dish calls for
16 ounces (1lb) of de-boned chicken thighs so the number of thighs
required varies between 4 to 6 thighs. The nutritional information
however is for 16 ounces of thigh meat with the skin on.
4 chicken thighs (16 ounces), deboned,
skin on
2 green onions
1 medium carrot, julienned
½ cup green bell pepper, large dice
½ cup onion, large dice
¼ cup peanuts, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
The Sauce
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar with
the Mother
1 teaspoon Korean red pepper paste
(gochujang)
1 teaspoon ginger paste
½ teaspoon sesame oil (optional)
½ teaspoon maple extract
3 drops liquid sucralose
Combine all the ingredients for your
sauce in a small bowl and set aside for later use.
De-bone and cut up the chicken thighs into bite sized pieces and
season with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet or saute pan over
medium-high heat, then add the chicken and saute until the chicken
has browned and is thoroughly cooked (this should take about 5 to 10
minutes depending on the size of the chicken pieces). Remove the
chicken from the heat to a plate or bowl and begin to stir fry the
vegetables.
Chef's Note:
If you do not have any ginger paste, you can season the chicken
thighs with powdered ginger or Chinese five spice powder, or you can
simply omit this if you wish. If you like your food with a bit more
bite, increase the red pepper paste (gochujang) to 2 teaspoons, and
or season the chicken with some red pepper powder (flakes). Just
note that increasing the amount of red pepper pastes or adding red
pepper powder it will change the nutritional information of the dish.
If you left the skin on the thighs
(which you should), then there should be plenty of good delicious fat
in which to stir fry the vegetables (onions, bell peppers, and
carrot). If you did not leave the skin on, or you decided to use
chicken breast instead, then add a small amount of coconut oil and
stir fry your veggies just until the onions begin to turn
translucent. Then remove the cooked vegetables to the plate or bowl
which contains the chicken.
Once all of your vegetables are cooked, examine your skillet or saute
pan, remove all of the fat except for 1 teaspoon. Then return the
chicken and the vegetables to the pan and add your sauce and the
peanuts and stir everything together. Bring the dish to a slight boil
and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the sauce is reduced slightly.
Garnish with spring onions and serve.
Chef's Note: Sesame oil can
be overpowering for some palates, and a little goes along way. The
original sauce recipe called for 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, but we
have found that we like a little less sesame oil in our sauce. If you
like the smoky flavor of sesame oil, then remove all of the oil from
the pan except ½ teaspoon and increase the sesame oil in the sauce
to 1 teaspoon.
Total Recipe
Calories – 1746, fat 110 grams,
protein 156 grams, carbohydrates 22 grams
Per Serving (4 servings)
Calories – 436, fat 28 grams, protein
39 grams, carbohydrates 5.5 grams
Making Your Dish Go Farther
While we generally just make this dish
as is, and eat it without noodles. If you want to increase the bulk
of this recipe without adding a significant amount of carbohydrates
or calories, then you can add ½ head of a small cabbage shredded to
the dish when you cook the other vegetables. Adding cabbage does
increase the bulk or amount of the dish giving you more servings, but
it also increases the overall carbohydrate count.
Cabbage (½ Head)
Calories – 109, fat 0.5 grams,
protein 6.5 grams, carbohydrates 15 grams
Total Recipe w/Cabbage
Calories – 1855, fat 111 grams,
protein 162 grams, carbohydrates 37 grams
Per Serving w/Cabbage (6 servings)
Calories – 309, fat 18.5 grams,
protein 27 grams, carbohydrates 6.1 grams
Per Serving w/Cabbage (8 servings)
Calories – 235, fat 13.8 grams,
protein 20.25 grams, carbohydrates 4.6 grams
Conclusion
Many times a recipe starts out as one
thing and slowly morphs it's way into something else, that's how
creativity in the kitchen works. This particular recipe that my wife
loves started out as another version of Kung Pao Chicken, and it
became an amalgam or fusion of Chinese-American and Korean food. Or
in simpler terms, a Chinese-American recipe made with Korean
ingredients. I realize that many of you will not have some of these
ingredients in your pantry, but if you have the opportunity to visit
a local Asian market that carries a variety of ingredients from other
countries, I encourage you to purchase and try Korean Red Pepper
(gochujang) paste in some of your recipes.
Eating a LCHF / Keto diet never has to
be boring. What you do need to know how to do is make simple
substitutions that can change a recipe that is high in carbohydrates
to one that is low in carbohydrates, and that is the goal of most of
my articles. For Chinese-American foods, most often this is a matter
of finding a substitute for the sugary sauces used in their
preparation. This recipe is no different, omitting the sugar for
liquid sucralose removes the majority of the carbohydrates in this
dish. The only carbohydrates remaining come primarily from the
vegetables (12 grams) and the peanuts (4.95 grams). The sauce for the
whole recipes only contains 5.3 grams of carbohydrates (tomato sauce
1.5 grams, red pepper paste 3 grams, soy sauce 0.8 grams). Depending
on the portion size this dish comes out to somewhere between 5 – 7
carbohydrates per serving. Remember we are eating low carb, not no
carb!
Anyway, as always, I hope that you have
found this information informative and useful. If so I ask that you
share it with your friends and family as well as sharing it on other
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available.
Final Chef's Note: The
original recipe that I started with called for an 2 tablespoons of
chili garlic paste, but I substituted Korean red pepper paste
(gochujang) If you do not have any Korean red pepper paste, you can
substitute 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, or ½ teaspoon cayenne
pepper for the Korean red pepper paste.
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