One of my all-time favorites. My go-to when I used to order from the Chinese take away. One of the reasons I got fat in the first place. General Tso’s Chicken. The sweet, spicy, savory mixture of sticky sauce slathering that chicken is something I never wanted to forget. This goes great with Cauliflower Fried Rice!
I’ve been experimenting with the sauce since I made the sweet and sour chicken, and I’ve hit the nail on the head! This is one recipe that those of us on a ketogenic diet shouldn’t go without trying.
I wasn’t able to get red chili’s from my grocer, but I highly suggest you use them. For me, this recipe wasn’t spicy enough. The great thing about General Tso’s is that the red chili’s is that every now and again you get a burst of spice that adds a great depth of flavor. For me, I only got a mild spice from the red chili flakes, and it wasn’t enough.
Flavor wise, this chicken is fantastic. I think the depth of flavor that the Hoisen sauce adds makes it worth the extra few carbs, same goes with the chili paste.
If you’re in a bind for time and can’t cook them in the oven, there’s an easy solution. Instead of only par-frying them, fry them so they’re cooked all the way through, drizzle the sauce on top, and serve. If you do this, it may be best to cook the sauce in a saucepan on the stove for a while to allow the flavors to develop a little bit. Also, Id suggest using 1/2 tsp. Xanthan gum if you use this method, as the sauce won’t have as much time to thicken up.
Yields 3 servings that is ~ 1.4 pounds.
The Preparation
Chicken:
- 3/4 cup pork rinds, crushed
- 1/3 cup almond flour
- 2 large egg
- 14 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Sauce:
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce, or coconut aminos
- 2 tablespoons low-carb ketchup
- 2 tablespoons erythritol
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon hoisin sauce
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
The Execution
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Place about half a bag of pork rinds in the food processor.
3. Pulse them until they are a fine and ground powder.
4. Remove the pork rind dust from the food processor and put it in a bowl. Add your almond flour and mix it well.
5. In a separate bowl, scramble 2 eggs for dipping the chicken in.
6. Clean off your chicken breasts, getting rid of any fatty or gritty parts.
7. Cube your chicken breasts, trying to be as uniform as possible.
8. Now get your station ready.
9. Dip the chicken into the egg, dip it into the pork rids and almond flour, and then put them off to the side to get them ready for frying.
10. In a pan, heat up 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil and 1 Tbsp. Coconut Oil. Once it is hot, add your chicken to fry.
11. Continue frying them, flipping them over when needed to create a crust. You don’t want to cook them all the way through here because we’ll be cooking them in the oven later.
12. Once they are finished frying, transfer them to a baking tray. I do about 2-3 batches of frying before I’m finished. Overcrowding the pan will allow too much of the oil to be soaked up and create a soggy texture. Add more oil to the pan as needed.
13. Let’s get started on the sauce. Add all of the ingredients into a bowl.
14. Mix it well until thoroughly combined. It should have a dark red color to it.
15. Cover your fried chicken cubes in the sauce.
16. Mix the sauce and the chicken well, but being careful – you don’t want the batter to peel off.
17. Put the chicken in the oven for 60 minutes. Every 15 minutes you’ll be taking it out to flip the chicken.
18. After 15 minutes there should not be much change, stir the chicken and make sure every piece has sauce.
19. After 30 minutes you can see that the sauce has started to thicken. Continue to mix the sauce and the chicken, flipping the chicken pieces of needed.
20. After 45 minutes you see that it’s almost done. Flip the chicken and cook another 15 minutes.
21. After the one hour is up, the sauce has become thick and rich. Serve as you see it now, without mixing it, to give a nice sauce crust on the chicken.
This makes a total of 3 servings of Keto Bites: General Tso's Chicken. Each serving comes out to be 559 calories, 33.8g fats, 4.3g net carbs, and 53.7g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 3/4 cup pork rinds | 137 | 8.6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 1/3 cup almond flour | 214 | 18.5 | 8.1 | 4.8 | 3.3 | 7.8 |
| 2 large egg | 157 | 10.5 | 0.8 | 0 | 0.8 | 13.8 |
| 14 ounce boneless, skinless chicken breast | 655 | 14.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 123 |
| 2 tablespoon olive oil | 239 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 tablespoon coconut oil | 122 | 13.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/4 cup chicken broth | 4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| 3 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce | 21 | 0.2 | 2 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 3.2 |
| 2 tablespoon low-carb ketchup | 18 | 0 | 1.9 | 0 | 1.9 | 0 |
| 2 tablespoon erythritol | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 teaspoon sesame oil | 80 | 9.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 teaspoon hoisin sauce | 12 | 0.2 | 2.4 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 0.2 |
| 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes | 6 | 0.3 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 |
| 1 teaspoon garlic powder | 10 | 0 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 2 | 0.5 |
| 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger | 1 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 |
| 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum | 4 | 0 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 1692 | 102.3 | 19.8 | 7 | 12.8 | 162.2 |
| Per Serving (/3) | 564 | 34.1 | 6.6 | 2.3 | 4.3 | 54.1 |
Keto Bites: General Tso's Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- ¾ cup pork rinds crushed
- ⅓ cup almond flour
- 2 large egg
- 14 ounce boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Sauce
- ¼ cup chicken broth
- 3 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 ½ tablespoon soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 2 tablespoon low-carb ketchup
- 2 tablespoon erythritol
- 2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon hoisin sauce
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon fresh ginger minced
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F. Place about half a bag of pork rinds in the food processor.
- Pulse them until they are a fine and ground powder. Measure and grind more if needed to equal amount called for.
- Place the pork rind dust in a bowl. Add the almond flour and mix it well.
- In a separate bowl, scramble 2 eggs for dipping the chicken in.
- Clean off your chicken breasts, getting rid of any fatty or gritty parts.
- Cube your chicken breasts, trying to be as uniform as possible.
- Get your station ready.
- Dip the chicken into the egg, then into the pork rinds and almond flour, and then set them off to the side until ready for frying.
- In a pan, heat up half the olive oil and the full amount of the coconut oil. Once it is hot, add some chicken to fry. Continue frying them, flipping them over when needed to create a crust. You don’t want to cook them all the way through, because they’ll be cooking in the oven later.
- Once they are finished frying, transfer them to a baking tray. I do about 2-3 batches of frying before I’m finished. Overcrowding the pan will allow too much of the oil to be soaked up and create a soggy texture. Add more oil to the pan as needed.
- Let’s get started on the sauce. Add all of the ingredients into a bowl.
- Mix it well until thoroughly combined. It should have a dark red color to it.
- Cover your fried chicken cubes in the sauce.
- Mix the sauce and the chicken well, but be careful – you don’t want the batter to peel off. Put the chicken in the oven for 60 minutes. Every 15 minutes you’ll be taking it out to flip the chicken. After 15 minutes there should not be much change; stir the chicken and make sure every piece has sauce.
- After 30 minutes you can see that the sauce has started to thicken. Continue to mix the sauce and the chicken, flipping the chicken pieces if needed.
- After 45 minutes you see that it’s almost done. Flip the chicken and cook another 15 minutes.
- After the one hour is up, the sauce has become thick and rich. Serve as you see it now, without mixing it, to give a nice sauce crust on the chicken.
These are amazing!! I was so sad when I couldn’t order these when I went to restaurants… so much sugar in chinese cooking. I know because I am chinese…
If you tweak this a tiny bit by frying the the chicken with your deep fryer, which I know you have handy :D, then tossing it in that awesome sauce, you can call it Szechuan chicken! + more chili.
This can shush that crunchy texture craving.
Just wanted to say thanks for the recipe. it really satisfied my craving for asian food.
Ooooh, you must get in contact with me on Facebook or something so that I can talk to you about some Asian recipes. I’m sure you have a better insight than I into the flavor profiles/spices to use 🙂
Justkrisssme,
Did you deep fry with the coating of egg, flour and pork rind, because that could be the answer to my issue of having difficulty keeping the coating on the chicken. And I am VERY careful when turning them in the pan, it just does not adhere.
Otherwise, as always, an AMAZING recipe, Craig!
Bob, yeah you have to coat the chicken in the egg wash and then in the pork rinds and almond flour. Once you have them all coated, you pan fry them until crispy. Hope that helps, and thanks!
I subbed the hoisen sauce with fish sauce, just because that’s what I had and it was freaking delicious. Thanks so much for this recipe!
Awesome Adam, glad you liked it! It’s one of my favorites 🙂
Isn’t hoisin sauce usually loaded with tons of sugar and starch? how could you keep this recipe to be keto friendly? What’s the brand that you used?
Jos,
Yes it is but if you look at the nutritional info I only used 1 tsp. of it between 3 servings. So each person is getting 1/3 tsp. hoisin sauce. Which comes out to negligible amounts. I used the brand that was at my local supermarket (forgot the name). You can opt out and not use the hoisin sauce, and then use fish sauce instead (like adam did).
This recipe looks great and I badly want to try it. I can’t find Honeyville blanched almond four where by me so I looked it up on Amazon. Of course they have it but apparently Honeyville also makes a Super Fine Grind. Does that sound like it would work. I’m interested because they sell it in a smaller quantity (3 lbs v 5 lbs) and so it’s cheaper. But if it doesn’t work I wouldn’t want to use it. Any thoughts on that?
Also… Can you use chicken thighs instead of breast meat?
Thanks!
Thanks George! I have never used the super fine grind one, I normally just use their regular blanched almond flour. I think 5 pounds is OK to order because you can use it to make a ton of other stuff (especially baked goods). If you’re not one to make many sweets, you can always freeze half and keep half out.
As for using chicken thighs, that would be no problem, either!
I could be completely blind, but I don’t see the rice vinegar in your macro breakdown and that’s quite a lot of carbs (mine is a total of 18 for 3 tablespoons). Am I missing something? Thanks either way for the recipe, it looks great!
Sav,
The rice wine vinegar I have is 0 carbs, 0 calories and such for 2 Tbsp. serving. I just looked up a few others and saw that some others have carbs. If you want to, you could sub out a different vinegar that is carbless for this if you need to 🙂
Oh I see! I figured it might be mine but I’m still getting the hang of checking various brands and whatnot.
Thank you so much for the prompt response and all your awesome recipes, my family really appreciates them!
Of course and no problem! Try checking out different brands at the store and once you find one that fits you, then you never have to check again!
Seasoned Rice Vinegar is sugar sweetened. Be sure and buy the unseasoned rice vinegar which has 0 carbs.
I made this for dinner last night! Heaven indeed! It was wonderful! This will definitely be in my rotation, hubby loved it too who is non–keto. 🙁 I recently found out I have a gluten allergy so I subbed the gluten free soy sauce. The next time I make this dish, I am going to make a little extra sauce and thicken in up in a sauce pan and drizzle some extra over the chicken, my sauce thickened up really nice in the oven but seemed to absorb most of it so it wasn’t as saucy as I like. Thank you soooooo much! 😉
Hey Becky, happy to hear! Coconut Aminos will do the trick for people that can’t eat soy products (or are gluten free), but the sauce sounds like a great idea. You could also do a “quick” sauce in a saucepan with some xanthan gum if you don’t want to wait for it to thicken 🙂
Great find!
I didn’t have xantham gum so used a tbsp of cornstarch instead. I also added a chopped white onion. My wife and I like it spicy so I doubled the heat and it was fantastic. We also like orange, so added zest of 2 oranges and juice of one of them. A little strong orange flavor so if you don’t LOVE orange, maybe just stick with zest of one.
Fabulous recipe! Better than the General Tso that I used to order from take-out!
Be prepared for the prep time though, it took me about 2 hours from start to finish but was totally worth it!
Jason, thanks. Just remember that 1 tbsp. cornstarch is going to be around 7.5g carbs – in the future I suggest investing in some xanthan gum, guar gum, or some type of high fiber thickener. The juice from an orange is going to be around 9g carbs. The orange zest is negligible, so I suggest in the future to use peel + orange extract, rather than the juice itself. That’ll take the dish to around 30g carbs, which is fine if you can split that up between your portions – I just wanted to try to give some lower carb alternatives.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! It does take a little while to prep, and I’ve come up with a much quicker way to make it, so I will be posting it one of these days 🙂
You’re absolutely right about the added carbs for the cornstarch and the orange juice and I will keep those options in mind in the future. We did use about 6lbs of chicken with this recipe, and since we eat smaller portions (the result was about 10 servings for us), it lessens the impact a bit.
Looking forward to the faster version! I was considering trying it again without “breading” the chicken chunks, and just searing them instead. It wouldn’t give the crispy fried feeling or suck up the sauce as much, but should still be tasty and be worth the time savings.
Keep it up!
Oh, for sure. In my head I was breaking it down and I realized it still wouldn’t be too many carbs (I mean if you compare it to a real Chinese takeout meal, it dwarfs in comparison). I just wanted to make sure you were aware 🙂
A little rundown on the faster method if you’re ever interested: Cubing the chicken, the breading it all at once – this way it’s a lot quicker. Then, frying it up and cooking it in a pan until cooked, rather than using an oven. We cook down the sauce into a glaze at the end and either pour over and toss to cover in a bowl. I did it one night a while back and it was still a while for all the prep, but it was considerably less total time due to the cooking method. Turned out just as good 🙂
Awesome recipe! I am new to Keto (one week) and thanks to you (and Cavemanketo) I have been able to do this. The hardest thing to do is pick what to eat as there are so many great recipes to choose from (a good problem to have). I have a request: When you list the ingredients, would it be possible to list them by weight/volume instead of my items? Like, for example, 3 pounds of chicken vs 7 or 8 small chicken breasts… Thanks again for you great contribution.
I’ve tried to start doing that in the newer recipes, Pierre – this one is a pretty old recipe. Though sometimes I forget to weigh my chicken since I have averages for my whole pack when I use it.
Thanks for the reply
Made this last night, added double the chili paste for extra spice. My husband didn’t even know it was low carb. Definitely will be making it again.
Glad to hear it – and glad your non-keto husband approved also!
You are AMAZING! I just made the fried rice and can’t wait to try this one!
This looks amazing, any idea if frying the chicken in a deep fryer would work?
Yep – you can definitely use a deep fryer. I usually only bring mine out during the hotter months because it can smell the house up pretty quick.
I only have liquid stevia (trader joe’s brand) on hand. Can I leave the erythritol out or can I substitute it for stevia. And if so, how much stevia?
Thanks!
I imagine you could, yes. I’d start with 10 drops, taste, and go from there. Sorry for the late reply here!
I just made this, but without the coating for the chicken, just the sauce on pan-cooked chicken to save calories. It was very good! I also added a little orange flavor extract to get a slight orange chickeny vibe. I highly recommend it!
I am making this and my sauce is looking done after only 20 minutes. I think if I leave it the whole hour it will be burnt. Has anyone else had this happen? I have my chicken on a baking pan and my oven set to 325.
can i just heat the sauce up to thicken it in microwave or stove top and just pour as a glaze? Also cant seem to find the chili paste can I omit that?
If you opt not to use the oven then just make sure your chicken is cooked all the way through. The sauce might not thicken up the same in the microwave…but cooking it down for a bit on the stove could also work well.
I made this as written before (doubling the sauce) and it was delicious!! Last night, I made it again but was lazy on the prep. I took bone in skin on chicken thighs. Seasoned them and browned them whole in olive oil in an oven safe skillet. I like crispy skin, so I browned on medium high heat skin side down for 10 minutes (till skin is browned and crispy) and browned other side only 3 minutes. (I had 6 thighs) Tripled the sauce, poured over chicken thighs and baked for 45 minutes at 325. Flipping occasionally. So super delicious! Thighs were very flavorful and tender. This sauce is very versatile and I recommend experimenting with it. I get a lot of recipes from this site but this one is currently my favorite! Thanks so much! The sauce is quite a few ingredients, so I actually make A LOT of the sauce and freeze it in serving size. Freezes very well and great to have on hand to make a quick stir fry, etc!
Excellent recipe! There are a couple things I learned. Put the breading in a Ziploc bag, throw in a few chicken pieces at a time and shake it like shake n’ bake. It coats a lot better. I made the mistake of putting all the chicken in the bowl at once and stirring. It still tasted good, but didn’t coat very well. This breading mixture also work very well in an air fryer with olive oil as the binder. It will come out crispy like fried chicken. (although it may change the nutrition facts a little bit).
I feel like this is a life hack level tip!
Oh so happy to see a comment about using an Air Fryer….that is what I am most interested in obtaining.
What can I substitute the almond flour for? Serious nut allergy!!!
If you are also allergic to coconut flour (this would be easiest switch) I would try doing all pork rind, or subbing in grated Parmesan for the almond flour. The breading might not stick as well but it should still be delicious anyway!
Most of,your net . carb counts are fail. Hoisin has 9 net per teaspoon
I’m not sure what hoisin you’re using but different brands have different nurtition information. Remember we are using 1 teaspoon and not 1 tablespoon (most hoisin has 7g per tablespoon).
Some of the ingredients are missing from the calorie/carb/fat breakdown (xanthan gum, erythritol, and rice vinegar), and the nutrition information listed with the olive oil is incorrect (I suspect the information listed is for one tablespoon, not two, as the recipe calls for). Including those three ingredients, and including the second tablespoon of olive oil, by my count, that makes each serving (assuming the recipe yields 3 servings) 555 cals, 32 g fat, 58 g protein, and 11 net carbs (total carb: 21 g; fiber, 10 g; sugars, 9 g). Just thoughts I’d share! Thanks.
The macros for the 3 ingredients you listed are negligable so I chose to leave them out. Xanthan gum should only be about 1 calorie and the rice vinegar is generally calorie free. Erythritol is not processed by the human body. As far as the oil, not all of it is absorbed so I chose to list the macros of only 1 tbsp since about half was left after frying the chicken. Sorry for any confusion!
Despite how I love this recipe I would say that it’s actually more at Atkins than it is keto the protein is quite high and the fats aren’t high enough It is low carb tho.
Brandon – it’s definitely more of a treat meal or something that fits in with intermittent fasting, but you can easily pair it with a fatty fried cauliflower rice to up the fats in the dish as well (without adding too much protein). I’m really glad you like it!
For red chili’s, in the Mexican spice section
there is dehydrated chilies. The abbor or japon chili is hot. Fry a hand full in a tsp. oil &1 crushed garlic till soften, blend in a blender with oil to form a paste. Dilute with tomatoes and sauce as desired.
Reading through your recipe instruction, I can’t help but think after frying the chicken pieces for a while and then baking them for 1 hour in the oven will over cook and dry the meat out! Please assure me this is NOT the case, as I would love to try this recipe. Chicken in bite size pieces takes only about 4 minutes to cook through. Thanks for your reply
I do tend to agree with you. I made this recipe many years ago and while it was very good to me at the time, I do think there could be improvement and warrants a re-write of the recipe. If I were making it now, I’d do something similar as I do with the ‘Stovetop’ method in the sweet and sour chicken here: https://www.ruled.me/low-ca…