How to Make Aldi General Tso Chicken with Gold Bag Chicken

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Looking for a delicious and easy meal to make tonight? Why not try our Aldi General Tso Chicken recipe! This dish is flavorful and simple to prepare. Plus, it only requires a few ingredients that you can find at your local grocery store. All you need is a Gold Bag Chicken from Aldi and a few basic seasonings.

In just a few minutes, you’ll have a tasty dinner that the whole family will love. This will soon be your family’s favorite fake out take out spicy Chinese takeout quick meal.

Aldi General Tso Chicken Description

What exactly is General Tso Chicken? The original popular Chinese food recipe was invented by renowned chef Peng Chang Kuei in Taiwan in the 1960s, who named it General Tso’s Chicken as an homage to his Hunanese heritage and their beloved general Zuo Zongtang.

This general is a legend to the Hunan people and celebrated for how he kept the balance in the Chinese culture.

This is a balanced paradox of flavors and textures – a crispy coated chicken that is tender on the inside. A delicate sauce that has a hint of sweetness and also brings the heat.

It usually uses dark meat like chicken thighs, but we are doing a “cheat” on this to make it an easy, and fast version of this restaurant classic.

Aldi General Tso’s Sauce

Traditionally, the spicy sauce uses a large variety of items from Hoisin sauce to rice vinegar and even chili sauce. Add a handful of red chili peppers and some red tomato paste? You are almost there.

We simplified it for the speed of the recipe, as well as the cost of the ingredients. We even use red pepper flakes instead of the whole dried chili pepper thing – which we normally just picked out before we ate.

Aldi General Tso Chicken and Broccoli Recipe

Yes, you can make a simple change to this recipe. I find that adding vegetables usually helps stretch the meal to feed more hungry bellies, but also drops the cost of the meal effectively.

I like to steam a bag of broccoli and then fold it into the sauce at the same time I am coating the chicken.

How do you cook Aldi Gold Bag Chicken?

First of all, these are fully cooked so you really only need to heat them up. The instructions allow for both oven and microwave heating, with the microwave being the faster of the two options.

To bake, you first preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put a silicone baking mat or piece of parchment paper on your baking sheet and then place the tenders on a single layer on a baking sheet, then cook for 4 minutes, turn, and cook for 4-6 minutes longer until heated through. I find that if I don’t layer the baking sheet first that the chicken tends to stick to the baking sheet.

As for the microwave, the more you do at a time, the longer it will take to cook them.

• 3 tenders cook 40-50 seconds
• 6 tenders cook 1 minute to 1 minute 10 seconds
• 9 tenders cook 1 minute 30 seconds to 1 minute 40 seconds
• 12 tenders cook 1 minute 40 seconds to 1 minute 50 seconds

I like this option if I just want to heat a few up to dip in honey mustard as an appetizer or something.

Can you make this in the Instant Pot?

While a lot of recipes translate over to the Instant Pot well, I really don’t feel that this is one of them. The breaded chicken would be too soggy.

How do you store leftover General Tso’s Chicken?

We wrap it up in plastic wrap or in an airtight container and store it in the fridge. It will keep for a few days, but I like to eat it all within 24 hours if possible. We usually eat this over rice or with noodles, so we use those leftovers as well!

How do you reheat leftover General Tso Chicken?

We put it in the microwave on medium power for about a minute and a half, stirring halfway through. If it’s not hot enough when we take it out, we’ll put it back in for another 15-30 seconds. We’ve never had any complaints!

Do I have to use Gold Bag Chicken for this recipe?

In a pinch, you could totally use the red bag chicken nuggets, but I love the smooth batter on each piece of chicken in the gold bag – I just think it makes for a more polished look on your finished dish – kind of turning it from a homemade meal into a restaurant-worthy classic.

Let us look at what you need:

We have our basic ingredients covered here for you to understand why we picked some of what we did. YOu should be able to easily find them at your local grocery stores.

Aldi Gold Bag Honey Breast Tenders – a fast and easy way to make a crispy chicken dish – these are precooked and really only needed to be heated through to get this dish on the table faster. This can be found in the freezer section of Aldi.

Soy Sauce – a little salt, a lot of flavor

Red Pepper Flakes – these bring a bit of heat and a beautiful color to the dish

Rice wine vinegar – a component of a traditional General Tso sauce that adds sourness to the sweet

Chili sauce – a spicy condiment that has a little spice but a lot of flavor

Cornstarch – helps make the sauce thick and clings to the chicken better than just water alone would.

Chicken broth – a flavorful liquid to add a depth of flavor to the sauce

Steamed or Instant Rice – a classic side to a stir-fry dish that is perfect to not only help stretch the meal further but counter the heat of the sauce. It is the reason I have a rice cooker. I prefer this over brown rice.

Aldi General Tso Chicken Easy Recipe

We streamlined the list of ingredients, the cooking process, and the cost of the ingredients to make our version of this and yet still have a delicious budget-friendly version that is drool-worthy.

General Tso Chicken Simple List Of Ingredients

• 1 bag Aldi Gold Bag Honey Breast Tenders 26-ounce package
• 6 tablespoons soy sauce
• 6 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chili sauce
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1-2 tablespoons corn starch
• Prepared rice for serving
• Parsley and red pepper flakes for garnish, even sesame seeds if you wish.

How to Make Aldi General Tso Chicken

Bake the crispy chicken strips per package directions. The cook time will depend on if you pop it in the oven, use your air fryer basket, or even try the microwave.

In a saucepan over medium-high heat whisk together the sauce ingredients and bring them to a light simmer until it is a nice caramel color.

Cook until the sauce thickensToss in baked chicken pieces until they are well coated. I find it works best to use a slotted spoon to take them out of the sauce as you plate it up.

Serve over rice, garnish with parsley and red pepper flakes, and enjoy your satisfying meal!
If you try our Aldi experiment and simple way to make our General Tso’s sauce, I would love to hear if it was good enough to keep you out of your local Chinese restaurants or not.

Check out our other Gold Bag Chicken recipes

• KFC Chicken Bowl Fake Out
• Honey Lemon Chicken
• General TSO Chicken
• Aldi Orange Chicken

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Print off our recipe here: