Does kung pao chicken use starch or raw flour?

Kung pao chicken can use starch, but in fact, raw flour is better than starch. Raw flour can lock the moisture of chicken, and the fried diced chicken is tender and delicious. In hotels, raw flour, hemp and meat or thickening agent are generally used.

The difference between starch and raw flour

Raw powder (white powder), also known as bean powder and water chestnut powder, is made from broad beans or water chestnut. Raw flour has a wide range of uses and can be used as a seasoning for cooking, bean jelly and pancake stalls. Mainly used for sizing and snagging when processing meat raw materials.

In Chinese food, it refers to starch, which is used for thickening and sizing when cooking. There are many kinds, such as sweet potato starch, water bean powder used in Sichuan cuisine and corn starch. Raw flour is starch, which can have many kinds, generally referring to corn starch.

What are the types of starch?

Thickening powder

Also known as dough powder, it is a polysaccharide polymer concentrated by multiple glucose molecules. Cooking starch mainly includes mung bean starch, potato starch, wheat starch, water chestnut starch, lotus root starch, corn starch and so on. Starch is insoluble in water, and when heated to 60℃ with water, it is gelatinized into colloidal solution. Thickening is to use this characteristic of starch.

Mung bean starch

Mung bean starch is the best starch and seldom used. It is made by soaking mung beans in water, grinding and precipitating. Features: enough viscosity, small water absorption, white and shiny color.

potato starch

At present, potato starch is widely used in families. It is made by grinding, washing and precipitating potatoes. The characteristics are: enough viscosity, fine texture, white color, luster better than mung bean starch, but poor water absorption.

wheat starch

Wheat starch is precipitated from wheat bran after washing gluten, or made from flour. The characteristics are: white color, but poor luster, not as good as potato powder, easy to precipitate after thickening.

sweet potato starch

Sweet potato starch is characterized by strong water absorption, but poor viscosity and dark red and black color. It is made of fresh potatoes through grinding, scrubbing and precipitation.

In addition, there are corn starch, water chestnut starch, lotus root starch and water chestnut starch.