If you all didn’t know by now, Asian food is in one of my favorite categories of food. Prior to keto, grabbing take-out was the time of the week I looked forward to the most. From Sweet and Sour Chicken to Grilled Short Ribs, I’ve tried to recreate as many favorites as I can into keto friendly recipes that everyone can enjoy.
Kung Pao Chicken is traditionally a spicy stir fry made with chicken, peanuts, vegetables, and chili peppers. It normally calls for Sichuan peppercorns, but since they can be a bit expensive and for some hard to get – we replace that with the bird’s eye chili for heat. They’re available in most grocery stores and they pack a real punch!
It’s a relatively spicy dish, but the flavors sing and each note comes through perfectly. The green pepper, scallions, peanuts, and chili paste really come together for a great bite each and every time. If you’re not much of a fan of spicy, try cutting this down to 1 or 1 1/2 chili pepper. Definitely make sure you have room to serve these over some cauliflower fried rice (in bacon fat!) or over some zoodles.
Yields 3 servings of Keto Kung Pao Chicken
The Preparation
Chicken Stir-Fry:
- 7 1/2 ounces boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 medium green bell pepper
- 30 grams green onion
- 4 bird's eye chile pepper, deseeded
- 1/4 cup peanuts
Kung Pao Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce, or coconut aminos
- 2 teaspoons unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons chili-garlic paste, such as sambal oelek with garlic
- 1 tablespoon low-carb ketchup
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon maple extract
- 10 drops liquid stevia
The Execution
1. Debone chicken using kitchen shears. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Season with salt, pepper, and ground ginger.
2. Heat a pan over medium-high heat and once very hot, add chicken. Let chicken cook until browned (about 10 minutes). I advise using a splatter screen or covering the pan with paper towels as there will be grease splash-back.
3. Chop up and prep vegetables and chilis. Set aside.
4. Prepare sauce by combining all ingredients together and mixing well.
5. Once the chicken is browned, stir everything together and let cook for a few minutes more. Add vegetables and peanuts to the pan and allow to cook down (about 3-4 minutes).
6. Add sauce to the pan and let it boil down to reduce slightly. It should have almost a sticky texture once done.
7. Serve on top of your favorite side dish. For us, it’s fried cauliflower rice!
This makes a total of 3 servings of Keto Kung Pao Chicken. Each serving comes out to be 232 calories, 16.5g fats, 4.2g net carbs, and 16.6g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 7 1/2 ounce boneless, skinless chicken thighs | 304 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36.1 |
| — salt and pepper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 teaspoon ground ginger | 6 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 1 | 0.2 |
| 1/2 medium green bell pepper | 12 | 0.1 | 2.7 | 1 | 1.7 | 0.5 |
| 30 gram green onion | 10 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 0.5 |
| 4 bird's eye chile pepper | 2 | 0 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| 1/4 cup peanuts | 214 | 18.1 | 7.8 | 3.1 | 4.7 | 8.9 |
| 1 tablespoon soy sauce | 8 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 1.3 |
| 2 teaspoon unseasoned rice vinegar | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 tablespoon chili-garlic paste | 44 | 2.9 | 2.2 | 0.2 | 2 | 2.3 |
| 1 tablespoon low-carb ketchup | 9 | 0 | 0.9 | 0 | 0.9 | 0 |
| 2 teaspoon sesame oil | 80 | 9.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/2 teaspoon maple extract | 6 | 0 | 0.3 | 0 | 0.3 | 0 |
| 10 drop liquid stevia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 696 | 49.4 | 18.5 | 5.5 | 13 | 49.9 |
| Per Serving (/3) | 232 | 16.5 | 6.2 | 1.8 | 4.3 | 16.6 |
Keto Kung Pao Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken Stir-Fry:
- 7 ½ ounce boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ medium green bell pepper
- 30 gram green onion
- 4 bird's eye chile pepper deseeded
- ¼ cup peanuts
Kung Pao Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 2 teaspoon unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoon chili-garlic paste such as sambal oelek with garlic
- 1 tablespoon low-carb ketchup
- 2 teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon maple extract
- 10 drop liquid stevia
Instructions
- Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Season with salt, pepper, and ground ginger.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat and add the chicken once very hot. Let cook until browned (about 10 minutes). I advise using a splatter screen or covering the pan with paper towels, as there will be quite a lot of grease splatter.
- Chop up and prep the vegetables and chiles. Set aside.
- Prepare the sauce by combining all sauce ingredients and mixing well.
- Once the chicken is browned, stir it well and let cook for a few more minutes. Add the vegetables and peanuts to the pan and let the mixture cook down (about 3–4 minutes).
- Add the sauce to the pan, letting it boil down and reduce slightly. It should have a nearly sticky texture once done.
- Serve and enjoy!
Made this for dinner tonight with your cauliflower fried rice recipe and it was amazing!! My non-keto husband couldn’t believe there was no sugar and wants me to double the recipe next time to ensure leftovers. Adding to our regular rotation. Thank you for sharing the deliciousness!
This one tastes just like takeout! I didn’t have any birds eye chilis, so I used chili garlic paste instead. Turned out great. This will be my go-to Chinese food craving recipe.
Thanks for this. One thing to note is that chili isn’t a suitable substitute for sichuan peppercorn. The two actually are meant to go together. It’s pretty easy to find too — http://www.amazon.com/Spice…
Hi Craig,
I made this last night and omg had such a ball! It was superb in taste. Even better than the restaurant one coz I know they deep fry the chicken but this was just sautéed till golden brown. Also I coated the chicken with 1 tbsp. coconut flour so it really felt like it was fried. I didn’t have all the sauce ingredients at home so used soy sauce, Chilli paste and 1 tbsp. sunflower seed butter. The sauce was outta this world!! Thank you so much for providing such gourmet meal ideas..even on a weeknight we could party 🙂
Hello Craig, I am wanting to make this recipe, where do I get red birds eye chilli’s and the chilli garlic paste, I can’t seem to find either. Also, how do I make the fried cauliflower rice?
Hey Yolanda. There’s a recipe for the fried cauliflower rice on the website. You can use the search bar in the sidebar of the site to find the recipe 🙂
As far as the birds eye chili goes, they’re the little small red chili peppers that you can find in most product sections of grocery store. Sometimes they’re just called chili peppers. For the chili garlic paste, I use a brand called Sambal Olek which is usually available in the Asian isle.
Hi Craig. Is it possible to replace the bird’s eye chili with crushed red peppers? Just curious.
I don’t see why not!
Best thing ever!!! Thank you so much for all your work!!! Made the chicken and the rice and will be prepping it for quick meals by freezing the sauce and pre-prepping the chicken. You are the best!!
I’m glad you enjoy it!
I make this at least once a month if not more. My family loves it. I have to reduce the spices for the littles, but my husband said it’s better than take-out. 🙂
OMG! It was so good! Who can have thought that it was “diet”? For us, because I have young children, I low down a bite the fire on that recipe. I didn’t put hot peppers with the vegetables, and put just half a tablespoon of chili garlic paste. My younger still fond that a little spicy, but the rest of the family enjoyed it. Better than any restaurant! I served it to the family on rice vermicelli, because I am the only one on low carb, and I’ve made zucchini “pasta” for me. It’s my second week on keto, and everything I’ve try from that site was perfect. Thank you very, very much!
This is one of my all-time favourite dishes! It’s seen my through the beginning of my keto journey, and over a year later, it’s still my go-to comfort food. I serve over whatever veggie I am in the mood for. Tonight it’s shredded cabbage sauteed in a bit of sesame oil. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you so much for your kind words Donna!
Ooh, I like the idea of serving over sautéed shredded cabbage! Made this with riced cauliflower along with white rice for the carb eaters in the house but will definitely try that for the leftovers. Thanks!
Awesome! Thanks!
I made this, but with 5 chicken thighs and I only got 4 1/2 cup servings? How big are the servings to get 3 servings with only two chicken thighs?
I’m thinking that the chicken thighs and vegetables that Craig originally used might have been larger than yours. We’ll be converting all of the recipes, like this older one, to have weights available for all the ingredients so that they will be more accurate in the future. Sorry about this. 🙁
This was amazing. thanks.
Another winner!!! It was amazing. I didn’t have maple extract so used no sugar maple syrup and cut out the stevia. Served it with cauli rice. So quick and delicious!!! Thanks!!
I just found this recipe a week ago, and WOW, it is fabulous! I loved it. I made it the first time, and I had my hubby make it the second time so we can share in the cooking. I have to say, it’s my absolutely hands down Favourite Keto dish! Thanks so much!
Awesome! I’m glad you loved it. Thanks for the great feedback, Baxter!
Any Kung pao recipe not including sizhuan peppercorns should cause the author to reconsider careers. The recipe should have peppercorns AND dried red chili’s.
These are Americanized versions of takeout food. If you want authentic kung pao with actual Sichuan peppercorns and dried red chilis, go for it. I make food that my audience typically likes, and the vast majority of them wouldn’t be bothered to try it if I had chosen to use them.
I HATE dichuan peppercorns. Any foodie that considers that to be any kind of heat should be lobotomized. Thank god it can be added by taste. Hate that ridiculous pretentious garbage.
Personally I like szechuan peppercorns in some dishes and some not – but that’s always a personal preference thing as you say. You can always leave it out, which is the beauty of cooking 😊
I really wish you guys would put the weight for the meat. When trying to make for many people it is really hard. You said you were going to do that for the old recipes but that was a few years ago and still NO.
It’s about 8 ounces of meat (without the skin). I make this with boneless/skinless thighs as well and it works fine.
As far as weights go, we have them all in the meal planning app. We were planning to integrate that with the website but it was a task that was not able to be done, unfortunately.
THANK YOU