<P> General Tso's chicken (pronounced (tswò)) is a sweet deep - fried chicken dish that is served in North American Chinese restaurants (it is also seen with other variants, such as General Tse's chicken). The dish is named after Zuo Zongtang (also romanized Tso Tsung - t'ang), a Qing dynasty statesman and military leader, although there is no recorded connection to him nor is the dish known in Hunan, Zuo's home province . </P> <P> The dish has been associated with Zuo Zongtang (Tso Tsung - t'ang) (1812--1885), a Qing dynasty statesman and military leader from Hunan Province . Zuo himself could not have eaten the dish as it is today and the dish is found neither in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, nor in Xiangyin County, where Zuo was born . Moreover, Zuo's descendants, who are still living in Xiangyin County, when interviewed, say that they have never heard of such a dish . </P> <P> There are several stories concerning the origin of the dish . Eileen Yin - Fei Lo states in her book The Chinese Kitchen that the dish originates from a simple Hunan chicken dish and that the reference to "Zongtang" was not a reference to Zuo Zongtang's given name, but rather a reference to the homonym "zongtang", meaning "ancestral meeting hall". Consistent with this interpretation, the dish name is sometimes (but considerably less commonly) found in Chinese as "Zuo ancestral hall chicken" (Chung tong gai is a transliteration of "ancestral meeting hall chicken" from Cantonese; Zuǒ Zōngtáng jī is the standard name of General Tso's chicken as transliterated from Mandarin). </P> <P> The dish or its variants are known by a number of names, including Governor Tso's chicken, General Tao's Chicken, General Gao's / Gau's chicken, General Mao's chicken, General Tsao's chicken, General Tong's chicken, General Tang's chicken, General Cho's chicken, General Chai's chicken, General Joe's Chicken, T.S.O. Chicken, General Ching's chicken, General Jong's Chicken, House Chicken, or simply General's Chicken . </P>

What is general tso's chicken in chinese