Looking for the best General Gau's (Tso's) Chicken

This is just about the only American Chinese dish I like if it's done right. It seldom is. It should be dark meat chicken with a very thin batter and just crisped up on the outside. How authentic is it? Apart from the rice, nothing traces back to China. Spring roll? Invented in NY City. Fortune cookie? San Francisco. The General Gau's (Tso's) chicken? Nope. There is no recorded connection to Tso Tsung-t'ang, nor is the dish known in Hunan, Tso's home province. However, American Chinese cuisine is recognized as a cuisine on its own.

Unless otherwise noted, lunch is served M-F. I was surprised by how many places served lunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

TLDR; If you don't care about white meat versus dark, Sichuan Gourmet in Burlington is the winner. Sichuan Garden in Woburn has excellent food, but I don't like the interior or the staff. Looking for a large serving? MuLan in Waltham is what you are looking for.

The ratings are for the whole experience, not just the dish. I started with a very complicated ratings system, which can be found at the end, and quickly abandoned it.

THE BEST

Sichuan Palace Chelmsford General Tso's Chicken (10.95). "Sautéed with broccoli in sweet and sour sauce and spicy douban sauce". Forgot to ask them to hold the broccoli. This was an excellent rendition of the dish (10 pieces). Extra spicy worked, but they know me here. The battered chicken wing arrived later and was excellent, as was their H&S soup. They are marinating their wings. Ask for extra sauce. BP for the wing. 9.2/10

The Very Good

Sichuan Garden II Woburn General Tso's Chicken (13.95). Excellent version. Big chunks of tender dark meat, lightly battered. Extra spicy didn't work. This is proper Chinese fried rice. No soy sauce was harmed in the cooking of the rice. The battered chicken wing is also excellent. One of the best H&S soups around. 9/10

MuLan Waltham General Tso's Chicken (12.95). I would never have ordered this here if it wasn't for doing this write-up. I would have missed something. To start with, the serving is ginormous! This is a regular serving platter. They did everything right. Dark meat just crisped up, and plenty of sauce. Skipped the extra spicy and asked for the chili oil. 2 BP for the serving size. 9/10 

Fusion Taste Stoneham Lunch daily. General Gau's Chicken (10.75) with brown rice and a chicken wing. Not wings, as the menu stated. Excellent H&S soup. They did nothing wrong, primarily dark meat and just lightly crisped up. Extra spicy worked. Plenty of sauce. They also marinated their wings, so it was extra tasty. I have to put them back in my lunch rotation. BP for big serving. Clever plate. 9/10

Jade in North Andover Serves from the lunch menu seven days a week. General Gao's Chicken (10.50). The all-dark meat was juicy and crisped up nicely, with a very thin batter. It was a very generous amount of chicken (14 medium pieces). The sauce was sweetish and appropriately gloppy, and it was a good amount. The chicken wing was crispy and juicy. 9/10

Mandarin Reading Lunch Daily. General Gau's Chicken (12.50). Tender dark meat with just a very thin batter crisped up nicely. A good amount of sauce that initially was a bit sweet with just a hint of heat. Now extra spicy works here, so I'm happy. The rice actually had some texture. The pink H&S soup is OK but loaded with mushrooms. 9/10

The Rest

Bamboo House Wakefield Lunch Tue-Sun General Gao's Chicken (9.50). They did everything right. Big chunks of dark meat that were really crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Extra spicy sort of worked. It was plenty of sauce that was VERY gloppy. It was a really big serving. H&S soup was good, and the eggroll was big enough for lunch on its own. Having my leftovers, I discovered that quite a few had just slivers of meat in them. 9.5/10 8.75/10

China Sky Winchester Lunch Mon-Sat. General Tso's Chicken (13.95). Extra spicy didn't work. The waitress disappeared, so no chili oil either. Big chunks of chicken with no batter apart from the outside. Hold the broccoli. This dish had peppers and flat beans, both cooked well. The brown rice was nutty and delightful. Stay away from the wonton soup. The pasta had dried out completely. This dish doesn't really come any better. 8.75/10

Taipei Tokyo Arlington. General Gau's Chicken (10.25). All dark meat, just crisped up with plenty of sauce. Enough chicken for lunch. I finished the chicken. Extra spicy sort of works. Good veggie fried rice. Excellent chicken wing. This was an incredibly good version. 2 BP for the chicken; it was that good. Deduction for small serving 8.75/10

Gourmet Garden Beverly. Lunch daily. General Gau's Chicken (11.95). Tender dark meat with just a very thin batter on the outside, crisped up nicely. Brown rice. Ordered it extra spicy, and when it arrived, I go, "they just added the unopened chilis to make it look spicy", but the sauce was actually spicy. This was a very good version. The H&S soup was terrible. Very bland, neither hot nor sour. 8.5/10

Lilac Blossom Nashua Lunch Mon-Sat. General Tso's Chicken ($15.95). Ouch! This is such a nice place, with impeccably dressed waiters and a very elegant interior BP. Excellent H&S soup. Big pieces of dark meat with a very thin batter. The outside looked like it had been crispy, but it was all gone. Extra spicy didn't work. The sauce was sparse. The veggie fried rice was very good and light. It was a very small portion, especially for the price. 8.5/10

Lotus Blossom Sudbury. Lunch Mon-Sat. General Gau's Chicken (13.95). Excellent rendition of the dish. Extra spicy gave me one (1) whole chili pepper unopened. Generous serving that was cooked perfectly. Plenty of sauce. The veg fried rice here was like pork fried rice without the pork. Icky. The H&S soup was just hot but lacked the sour part. Bland. 8/10

Sichuan Gourmet Burlington General Tso's Chicken (10.95). Much to my surprise, it was white meat. She said that the customers asked for it. The first time they tried it with white meat, Chef said we can't serve this. Now the white meat is tender and juicy, and it was really good. No batter at all, apart from the outside. Also, a very generous lunch portion. Their H&S soup is excellent. 8/10

Tung's Taste in Middleton. General Tsao’s Chicken ($10.45).  Extra spicy worked, and I got some crispy peppers added instead of the broccoli and mushrooms. The tender dark meat chicken was very good, with just a light coating on the outside to crisp it up. Eating my leftovers, it turns out that quite a few had thick batter wrapped around small pieces of chicken. Plenty of sauce. They are still serving their excellent special white rice. The H&S sour soup has improved. 9/10 7.5/10

Beijing Chinese Dining Lexington General Gau's Chicken (11.50). This was a strange one, most of the pieces were dark chicken with a thin batter. About half were just batter with a few slivers of chicken, like Kyoto. A small amount of sauce, extra spicy, didn't work. The spring roll was surprisingly good. The fried rice was proper Chinese fried rice and was excellent. BP for that. 7/10

Karma Andover General Gao's Chicken ($16) in a Bento box. The H&S soup was tasty but only hot, and it was very thin. The Spring Roll was actually pleasant. The chicken was crispy, very crispy, and as a result, the interior was overcooked and very dry. Extra spicy worked, and it was plenty of sauce. The winner was the Spicy Tuna Maki. Normally when you order any spicy maki, you get the leftover scraped-off tuna, but here it was a solid piece of tune. Of course, the spicy part didn't make it. 4/10

All Seasons Table Malden Lunch daily. General Gau's Chicken (13.95 Ouch!). "The most famous Chinese dish. Lightly-breaded fried chicken with spices, mixed garlic and cooked in a hot ginger sauce". The egg-fried rice was good, and extra spicy worked. Dark meat, but it was fried so hard that I was worried about my teeth. The battered chicken wing was good. Wing, not Wings, as stated on the menu! 4/10

Kyoto Tewksbury  General Gao's Chicken (11.95). Good-

sized serving and extra spicy worked. The outside was nicely crisped up. While eating them, there was no texture on the inside. The reason can be seen below. 

Inside there was a dense batter with slivers of chicken. Some dark meat can be seen in the top one, but the one below is just batter. 1/10

Rating System (Too complicated).
Dark Meat (DM) +1 Thin Batter (TB) +1 Outside crispness (OC) -2 - +1 Plenty of Sauce (PS) +1 Extra Spicy (ES) +1 Brown Rice (N/C) (BR) +1 Veg Fried Rice (VFR) +1 Appetizer/Soup (AS) Each +1 Linen Tablecloth/Napkins (LTN) +1 Plastic over tablecloth doesn't qualify Bonus Point (BP) +1 Chopsticks (CS) +1 Fork & Knife (FK) -1 Trying to seat me in a dark corner (DC) -2 

                                                                 Fails

Szechuan's Dumpling Arlington. White meat 
Bernard's Chestnut Hill Lunch Daily. White meat
Karma Burlington White meat.
Epic failure at Taipei Gourmet. Now closed
Less epic at Peppercorn House, but still a fail.
Meet Us, White Meat.
Lavender Sudbury Skipped. They read my emails but never responded.

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    - Jane Goodall