By Flavor & The Menu
February 16, 2021

For many, this dish defines Americanized Chinese cuisine. Its flavor system has a lot to offer with its craveable combination of crispy, sticky, battered and fried chicken coated in a sweet-hot-savory-sour sauce typically highlighted with garlic, chiles, orange zest, sugar, chicken broth, vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Datassential reports that General Tso’s sauce does particularly well with Millennials, and overall, 81 percent of consumers who try it, love it. That’s a call for flavor play, and restaurants across the country are responding enthusiastically. Here are just a few examples of creative interpretations:

• General Jane’s Honey-Fried Chicken
 with red chiles, sesame seeds and cilantro
  —Au Cheval, Chicago
• Spicy General Tso’s Baby Back Ribs
  —Mission Chinese, Brooklyn, N.Y.
• General Tso’s Cauliflower: Tempura-battered cauliflower tossed in General Tso’s sauce, topped with peanuts, sesame seeds and micro cilantro
  —Little Barn, Westport, Conn.
• General Tso’s Cutlet Sandwich with Calabrian pepper spread, flash-fried broccoli, smothered with Nice Day’s General Tso’s sauce
  —Cutlets Sandwich Co., New York