General Tso’s shrimp is one of my favorite items to order at a Chinese restaurant. What is not to love about crispy shrimp coated in a garlicky, sweet and tangy sauce? However, this is one dish I never get delivered because it gets too soggy.
This recipe is based on our General Tso’s chicken version that we spent many months mastering to get just right. It comes together surprisingly quickly once you have all the ingredients in order.
As for the shrimp, you can use frozen or fresh. If you can find and afford it, wild caught shrimp is the best option due to its sweeter taste and more firm bite.
Check out our General Tso’s Chicken here!
Crispy General Tso’s Shrimp
Description
Shrimp coated in a light and crispy batter with a spicy, sweet and tangy sauce.
Ingredients
Shrimp
General Tso's Sauce
Instructions
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Prepare the sauce
In a small bowl mix together the sauce, adding the cornstarch at the end. Set aside until ready to use.
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Bread the shrimp
Mix to combine the cornstarch and flour. Toss in the shrimp to coat them.
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Fry the shrimp
In a fry pan add vegetable, canola or peanut oil and bring to 325 F. Fry a few pieces of shrimp at a time, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Depending on the size of your shrimp this may take a minute or 2 per side.
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Cook the sauce
In a wok set over high heat add the sauce. It is ready once it thickens up, around 60 seconds.
If adding peppers, dd to the wok before adding the sauce and char for a couple seconds. -
Combine the shrimp and sauce
Add the cooked shrimp to the wok with the sauce. Toss to coat and cook for a minute. Serve over your favorite rice!
I’ve made this and it’s superb
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is a very nice recipe. It came out on the salty side, but adjustments can be made (but see below). Also, the amount of dredging mix is high, leaving quite a bit left over that just gets tossed.
One note: The ingredients list for the sauce doesn’t mention corn starch, but the first step in the instructions clearly indicates corn starch going in. This omission should be remedied.
Thickening the sauce without corn starch is a fruitless endeavor, and we boiled the sauce for some time before realizing that there was no corn starch thickener in the initial ingredients. Conveniently, we had a lot of flour/corn starch mixture handy to throw in and get the sauce to thicken up. This in fact might be why the final result was on the salty side.
Thank you for the feedback, it is much appreciated! I have updated the ingredient list to include the corn starch for the sauce and reduced the dredging to save on waste.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe!