#notastirfry

Ingredients: 

300 gr chicken breast

1 courgette

2 medium carrots

1 red pepper

1 orange pepper

2 red chilies

½ head of white cabbage

150 gr white button mushrooms

100 gr brown chestnut mushrooms

100 gr sugar snap peas

300 gr bean sprouts

120 gr rice

Fish sauce (1 tsp for marinade and 1 tbsp for sauce)

Soy sauce (1 tsp for marinade and 1 tbsp for sauce)

Sumac (½ teaspoon)

Chinese Five Spice (3 tsp)

Sweet Chilli Sauce (1 tbsp)

Hot Sauce (to taste)

 How to: 

1: Cut the chicken into strips, about 4 cm long and ½ cm thick.

Put in a bowl with 1 teaspoon each of fish and soy sauce, ½ teaspoon each of sumac and five spice. The addition of the sumac gives a bit of a citrus lift to the chicken, and compliments the five spice brilliantly.

2: Prep your vegetables. The idea here is to make everything roughly the same size, so they will cook at the same, or similar rates. I do keep them in three bowls though, one with the courgette and the cabbage, one with the peppers, carrot and chilies, and one with the mushrooms and bean sprouts.

Turn this...

...into this.

3: Prep done, time to get the chicken in. As we are being healthy I use a few sprays of flora cooking spray and a half a tablespoon of stir frying oil. I like the Sainsbury’s with ginger, it brings a nice flavor to the dish. I’m sure that some people will prefer to add ginger to their stir fry but I only like a little and never get through it if I keep it in the house.

4: Get the wok nice and hot. In goes the chicken, stirring to make sure it cooks evenly.

5: First of the veg gets added, in this case the peppers, carrots and chilies. A quick fry, then stick a lid on the wok. Not normal for a stir fry, but it allows the carrots and the peppers to cook down in the steam, making them slightly more cooked through, and adding a nice bit of sweetness to the dish.

Before the lid goes on.

6: After about three to five minutes, add the courgette and the cabbage, and stir well for another three to five minutes. Then in go the mushrooms and the sprouts, along with another tablespoon of fish sauce and soy sauce, and another two teaspoons of the five spice mix. Cook this all off, stirring well, for another three to five minutes, or until all the veg looks cooked.

Coming together nicely.

7: At this stage, I add in a tablespoon each of sweet chili sauce, and of hot sauce. My personal preference here is the Ribman’s Holy F***, buy some here. It’s really spicy, but also quite smokey, with scotch bonnet peppers and naga jolokia chilis and comes very highly recommended, we’re currently putting it in pasta sauce, in beef chili and to be honest I’d almost scrape a little on toast. What you are doing is basically turning the juice in the bottom of your wok into a quick spicy broth, so take your own lead on the heat you want to add. Give it a minute to fully integrate, then add salt and pepper to taste, and you are ready to go.

You can just see the rice poking through the broth in the middle.

8: Serve as soon as possible, you want to retain some crunch in the veg. A small portion of sticky rice is the current accompaniment of choice in our house, but you could serve on noodles, or just eat on its own.