Last night, we made chicken stirfry for dinner. I started with a sauce for another dish from a cookbook and then modified it from there. I changed it significantly enough to feel comfortable posting it here.
Ingredients:
1 red onion, cut in eighths
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 red or yellow bell pepper sliced
broccoli or cauliflower--1/2 pound (or a mixture of the two)
3 green onions, sliced
1 1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced thin (1/8" thick strips across breast)
Sauce:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbsp. mirin (asian cooking wine)
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. cilantro leaves
1/2 or 1 Tbsp. crystallized ginger (to taste for your family), minced or chopped (depending on what your blender needs you to do so that it will get mixed in)
3 gloves of garlic, minced (1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic)
Thickener:
1 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 1/2-2 tsp. water
First, make the sauce and set it aside. To make the sauce, put all ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth. I use my Vitamix.
Microwave broccoli and cauliflower for 3 minutes in a bowl with a little water (2-3 Tbsp.) My microwave is the smallest one made, so if you have a powerful one, only microwave for 2 minutes. You want the broccoli/cauliflower to start cooking through and be softened, but not entirely cooked.
Add some canola oil and sesame oil to wok. Stir Fry chicken until cooked through. Set aside.
Stir fry red onion, mushrooms, red or yellow bell pepper.
Add chicken back in with broccoli and cauliflower. Mix well. Then, add sauce. Add cornstarch/ water mixture and let it thicken up.
Serve over rice. We get calrose rice--it's a medium grain white rice that can be found in the asian section of most grocery stores. They also have medium grain brown rice if you prefer brown. I get it at Wegman's or Walmart. It's a little more expensive than long grain white rice, but my family and I like it much better. It's not as sticky as short grain rice (which is used in sushi rice) and not as dry as long grain.
I am a fan of rice cookers. It is one of the appliances that I've owned since I graduated high school. I thought it was the oddest gift at the time, but one of my dad's friends gave me an inexpensive rice cooker for high school graduation. It served me well for about 7 or 8 years until my mom gave me a bigger one she had found at a garage sale. My current rice cooker has a broken handle on the side, but still functions well. I've often been tempted to spend the money on a zojirushi or a newer model, but I've realized that I should use this one until it stops working. The blessing of a rice cooker is that I don't have to watch the rice while I'm making the stir fry.
As for making the stir fry, the best order for preparation is:
1a) start the rice (it will stay warm in the rice cooker on the warm setting after it's done)
1b) make the sauce
2) slice the chicken and set aside
3) prepare all the vegetables
4) cook the chicken
5) cook the vegetables
6) add the sauce
7) Eat! :)
I hope it turns out well. I'm afraid I'm not a cookbook writer and this recipe is of my own making so please let me know if any of my directions aren't clear.
Serves: 6 (3 adults, 3 children)
Serve with 3 cups cooked rice.
No comments:
Post a Comment