Hunan Chicken at Golden Star Restaurant in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
Hunan chicken at Golden Star Restaurant in Salinas, California is not a secret menu item but almost. Basically, Hunan chicken is breaded and deep-fried chicken tenders. Then, the deep-fried tenders are coated in honey-soy sauce, which tastes like a barbecue sauce to me.
The Hunan aspect of this dish comes in with the Sichuan hot peppercorn sauce. Chinese cookbook writer Fuchsia Dunlop describes Sichuan hot peppercorns as numbing. This affect is diminished somewhat by the sweet honey sauce the fat in the bread coating in the Hunan chicken at Golden Star.
If you want the Vitamin C in the Sichuan hot peppercorns and the antioxidants without the chile pepper sting Hunan chicken might be for you. It has a pretty high calorie content, so dieters beware. For me, it is a once awhile treat.
For super healthy Hunanese Chinese food, check out Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbook Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province. (Hunan is considered revolutionary, because Chairman Mao was born there.)
I have listed a link below to a recipe for Hunan chicken that is similar to what Golden Star offers by Nicki Borbishley:
https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/chinese-crispy-chicken-honey-garlic-sauce/
Barbecue lovers who would like to try something similar in Chinese food might enjoy the Hunan chicken at Golden Star Restaurant in Salinas, California.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
