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Easy Mongolian Chicken (no pork, no dairy, no oyster sauce)

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Easy Mongolian Chicken is a delicious Chinese-American style dish of tender strips of chicken breast in a flavorful, savory-sweet sauce.

This budget-friendly chicken dinner is a simple recipe that brings homemade takeout from your stove to your table in less time than it normally takes for delivery!

And it’s pork-free, dairy-free, and made without oyster sauce, so it’s kosher too!

budget-friendly and easy Mongolian Chicken without pork, dairy, or shellfish in a clear glass plate on a dark wood table.

Mongolian chicken is a delicious Chinese-American style dish!

It’s a quick and simple homemade chicken dinner that normally takes less time than ordering or takeout delivery and you save on the tips!

And this homemade has the benefit of being made without pork, dairy, or even any oyster sauce (no shellfish)!

It’s great plain, but if you have it over rice, it’ll be even more filling!

Also, chicken has health benefits!

A little about Chinese-American Food

Chinese-American cuisine is a style of Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. These dishes significantly differ from traditional Chinese dishes because Chinese-American dishes were adapted to suit American tastes.

Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in large numbers in the mid-19th century in order to escape the economic difficulties in China, hoping to find work during the California Gold Rush and on the Central Pacific Railroad.

They mostly settled together in ghettos, individually known as Chinatown, and—since there were laws preventing them from owning their own land—they opened their own businesses, such as laundry services and restaurants.

Initially, the family-owned businesses catered to miners and railroad workers, and restaurants were set up in places where Chinese food was unknown. Food was based on the requests of the customers, and recipes were created to suit American tastes using whatever ingredients were available.

One major difference between traditional Chinese cuisine and Chinese-American cuisine is in the use of vegetables. Chinese-American recipes will use raw or uncooked ingredients and those not native to China. Traditional Chinese cuisine, on the other hand, rarely contains raw or uncooked ingredients and often uses Asian leaf vegetables.

While the new dishes were not traditional Chinese, these restaurants were responsible for the development of the ever-popular Chinese-American cuisine.

The little history of kosher Chinese-American Food

It is well known that Jews (especially those with ties to New York) love Chinese food.

Jews as a group were probably first introduced to Chinese food in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where immigrants of various cultures settled in their own neighborhoods in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

By the early 1900s, approximately one million Jews from Eastern Europe and half a million Italians from Southern Italy shared the Lower East Side of Manhattan with only approximately 7,000 Cantonese Chinese, most of whom had moved from California after the gold rush.

Due to anti-Chinese laws and acts, which prevented them from competing with whites, many Chinese opened restaurants, first in California to serve the miners and then again when they moved to New York.

Many Jews who immigrated from Eastern Europe lived with the Chinese immigrants in the Lower East Side and those who no longer kept the laws of kashrut (at least out of the house) would often go to the Chinese restaurants, which were open on Sundays.

But the Jews who still kept kosher had to wait for decades until Sol Bernstein, a creative deli owner, decided to create kosher Chinese dishes.

Using Cantonese Chinese recipes and substituting kosher veal, beef, and chicken livers for pork, he began selling the first kosher Chinese food in his deli (Schmulka Bernstein’s, named after his father).

Sol continued to sell deli while he incorporated Chinese foods into the menu and did very well. The restaurant continued to prosper until he died in 1992, when it was sold.

If you love Chinese-American food, but keep kosher or otherwise don’t eat pork or shellfish and don’t have a suitable restaurant or takeout place near you, or if you just don’t want to pay the high prices they charge, then you should totally try these other homemade kosher Chinese-American recipes!

Yield: 4 servings

Easy Kosher Mongolian Chicken (No Pork, No Dairy, No Oyster Sauce)

Kosher Mongolian chicken in a clear bowl on a dark wood table.

Easy and delicious Chinese-American chicken dish made without pork, dairy, or shellfish.

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

Chicken

  • 1 pound kosher chicken breast
  • 1/2 cup flour or corn starch
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt
  • 2 green onions, sliced into 1 inch pieces
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper (optional)
  • Oil for frying

Sauce

  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon granulated garlic or 1/2 teaspoon powdered garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
  • 1 teaspoon chicken consume powder
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper flakes (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil or cooking oil

Instructions

  1. Slice chicken breast into strips of approximately 1 inch x 1.5 inch strips, 1/4 inch thick (they do not have to be exact).
  2. Mix together flour or corn flower, salt, and pepper (optional)
  3. Place chicken pieces in mixture and coat very well.
  4. Pour oil into a frying pan just to cover the bottom and heat on medium heat.
  5. Fry coated chicken pieces on medium heat until they have browned and are crispy. Do not crowd the pan - fry in batches if necessary. Set aside prepared pieces.
  6. In a separate frying pan, mix soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, chicken consume powder, water, oil, and chili peppers flakes (optional),
  7. Cook on a medium heat just until the mixture becomes a thick sauce (approximately a minute or so). If it is too watery, add a little flour or corn starch to thicken.
  8. Turn off heat.
  9. Add chicken pieces and cut green onions.
  10. Toss or gentle stir until evenly coated.

Notes

To ensure this dish is kosher, make sure that not only the chicken is kosher but that there is no question about any of the other ingredients as well.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 408Total Fat: 16gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 118mgSodium: 1697mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 44g

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