Easy General Tso's Chicken

Yeah, it's not a terribly authentic dish to begin with. I mean, who WAS General Tso??? And why did he want fried chicken in a hot sweet and sour sauce? No matter. I had a package of those pre-cooked little popcorn chicken bites in my fridge that I really either needed to DO something with or pitch. I got to thinking about what else I had on hand, since I am a poor cashier supervisor this week. I actually like the challenge of living off the larder sometimes.

Anyhow, I decided to saute some onions, garlic and hot pepper flakes in a little vegetable oil, then toss in the popcorn chicken bites to heat them. My sauce was a mixture of apricot jam, soy sauce, a few drops of sesame oil, some rice wine vinegar and chicken broth. Which thickens quite nicely all by itself without the use of any cornstarch, which prevents it from becoming that gloppy gelatinous stuff of most local Chinese restaurants.

The rice had cooked while I was throwing this all together, so it was a pretty easy dinner to just throw together after a day at work. I'd even do this with those little Morningstar Farms fake chicken nuggets because it would work just as well.