I just started using Kitana and quickly fell in love. Probably use her more now then any other character, here's my experience so far.

I would start by learning this chain until you can do it in your sleep:

F+4, 1, QCF+1 (enchanced dash cancel)

this is your punisher right here....you catch someone spamming a teleport move ie a smoke or a mileena (roll or tele-kick) then bait it out and hit them with that chain....which you can follow up with anything you chose after that dash cancel...personally i prefer the following

F+4, 1, QCF+1 (en dash cancel), F+2, 1, B+2, QCF+1, QCF+1, dash, 2, QCF+1, dash, 2, QCF+2 (enhanced if you end up with corner advantage and have the extra meter to spare)...this right here is good for upwards of 50% and 20 hits if executed properly.

You can even style on this and do an extra F+4,1,QCF+1 cancel before you go into the F+2, 1 portion of the attack.....i would however advise against this because it's really only good for styling purposes as the damage scales back and you only get another 2 or 3% when it's all said and done, so it's basically a waste of meter.

Depending on your play style I would also say to shy away from building up meter with the goal of hammering an Xray in...because her Xray really isn't that crazy as far as damage is concerned, and you're better off killing a bar on that combo above for massive damage then coming right back with it again...you execute this twice in any given match and the round is over....point blank.

In getting away from punishing moves.....I try to avoid the Fan Lift as to not get to predictable, but you can certainly punish opens that like to cross up or jump in on you if you save this move for the 2nd or 3rd round and get a feel for your opponent's play style.

After the fan lift I usually just hit the opponent with a jump kick fan throw cancel (Jump Kick xx QCF+1) then dash in to continue the combo with a standing 2 xx QCF+1 or QCF+2

Another quality move for Kitana just in terms of specials is her QCF+2 move on wake up and in rush down situations. This move seems to have frame advantage over most of it's opposition, at least in my experience...so this can be a good tool to get out of the corner when trapped....and it does nice damage.....

Kitana's zoning tool is obviously her fan throw, but you can also close the gap quickly and safely with her QCB+1 move.....I forget what it's called but it's an anti-air and also covers half the screen so if you space it out correctly you can land opposite your opponent (who will typically try to punish you with an uppercut or some kind of special)....just far enough away to avoid the counter-attack and follow up with a punish (the F+2,1 is great after the QCB+1 zoning game).......

I'm sure there are some Kitana experts who can offer some better advice but these are the most effective techniques I've found in using Kitana so far. Hope this helped a little.