Spicy diced chicken with peanuts（simplified Chinese:宫保鸡丁pinyin: gōng bǎo jī dīng）is one of the most famous Chinese dishes and a perennial foreigner favorite is Kung Pao Chicken (gongbao jiding). This dish first became popular in Sichuan and its legendary origin is a good example of the willingness of Chinese chefs to improvise. However, this tendency sometimes leads to unfortunate dishes like a concoction currently popular in Beijing known as 'deep fried ice-cream on toast'. Gongbaojiding is one of the good ones though.
History
Ding Baozhen served under the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) Emperor Xianfeng as the governor of Shandong province. One day he arrived home with a group of friends, but his cook hadn't prepared for guests, and had but a meager chicken breast and some vegetables in the kitchen. The cook diced the chicken into tiny bits, and fried it up with cucumber, peanuts, dried red peppers, sugar, onion, garlic, bits of ginger - sundry ingredients that had been lying around the bottom of the cupboard.
Ding Baozhen and his guests really enjoyed the improvised meal, so much so that it became a regular item on the menu. Eventually, Ding Baozhen was promoted to Governor General of Sichuan province. His cook w ent with him to Sichuan where he began experimenting with the local produce, including hot broad bean sauce and Sichuan chili peppers. Soon the humble chicken dish was all the rage in the province. The people honored Ding Baozhen by naming the dish after his official name, Gongbao. (His surname 'Ding' has nothing to with the "ding" in gongbaojiding which simply means cube or piece.) The moral of this story is that if you work hard at your craft, like Ding Baozhen's chef, one day a dish will be named after your boss.
* 鸡胸肉 jī xiōng ròu： chicken breast
* 花生米 huā shēng mǐ: peanut
* 花椒 huājiāo: pricklyash
* 醋 cù: vinegar
* 干红辣椒 gān hóng làjiāo: dry red chill
* 糖 táng: sugar
