General Tso’s Pork – Slender Kitchen

This healthy General Tso’s Pork couldn’t be easier to make and comes together quicker than you can call for takeout. Plus it’s a healthier version that doesn’t involve the deep fryer, but don’t worry, it’s still nice and crispy.

I love making Asian take-out dishes healthier at home.  Sesame chicken, beef and broccoli, and General Tso’s chicken are some of my favorites.  My typical routine is to master the recipe using the traditional protein and then start to play around. Today’s version substitutes out pork tenderloin for the chicken and it is delish, plus it is perfect for those nights when you are sick of eating chicken. I don’t know about you but we eat a lot fo chicken and can always use a break.

The key to making the pork in this dish nice and crispy is using cornstarch. Cornstarch coats the pork and creates a light crunchy exterior that gets brown in just a little bit of oil. It eliminates the need for lots of thick breading or tons of oil.

When it comes to the sauce for this General Tso’s pork, you want something that’s both sweet and spicy. Like many Asian sauces, it starts with soy sauce and then has a combination of sesame oil, rice vinegar, honey or brown sugar, and hot sauce. I used Sriracha since we always have it in our fridge, but you could use any Asian style hot sauce or even red pepper flakes. We like things spicy, so this sauce uses a good amount of Sriracha. You may want to start with less if you don’t love things really spicy. You can always add more.

Tips for Making this Healthier General Tso’s Pork

• This  sauce is definitely on the spicy side so you may want to use less Sriracha if you don’t love tons of spice. Remember it is always easy to add more but not so easy to remove it.
• Feel free to use almost any vegetable in this dish. Cauliflower, green beans, snap peas, bok choy, and cabbage all work really well. You can also use an Asian vegetable stir-fry mix to include more of a variety.
• For a lower carb version, substutute in Stevia for the brown sugar. You can also leave it out completely but you will lose the sweetness.
• If you don’t eat pork, you can always use chicken instead. Chicken breasts or chicken thighs will work.

Looking for more healthy Asian recipes?

This recipe was originally shared in 2014 but has been updated with new photos and recipe tips!