General Tso's chicken is named after one of the most successful military commanders in Chinese history. However, the overall connection between them is actually pretty flimsy.

The dish was invented by a Hunanese chef named Peng Chang-kuei, who fled to Taiwan when Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party took control in 1949.

In Taipei, Peng purportedly invented General Tso's Chicken for a state dinner with Admiral Arthur Radford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, in 1955.

General Tso's Chicken is named after Zuo Zongtang, also known as Tso Tsung-t'ang. Peng chose the name because he came from the same town in Hunan as General Zuo.

However, his original recipe wasn't like the General Tso's chicken we're familiar with now. The change occurred after a chef named Tsung Ting Wang took a trip to Taipei.

Inspired by the General Tso's chicken he sampled at Peng's restaurant, Wang returned to the States and recreated it, but made it sweeter and deep-fried to suit American tastes.