It’s the middle of the week. If you are like me, you are on the verge of retiring your crockpot for the season after abusing it all fall and winter. You have little to no inspiration for what to make for dinner anymore. You need something fast that is healthy that your entire family will eat. The answer? STIR FRY.
No, you do not need a wok. No, you do not need an open flame or a hibachi grill.
Yes, you need to probably buy a few ingredients from the Asian section of the market.
Here’s the best part. You can tweak this recipe to include whatever vegetables you want; whether that’s one or six, it does not matter. You can also use whatever protein you want. For today’s recipe I used chicken.
March Recipe: Basic Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 large egg white
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- dash water
- few dashes Sriracha
- few dashes soy sauce
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1-2 cups sliced celery slice on diagonal to get fancy
- 2 big handfuls broccoli cut into bite size florets
- 1 cup sliced carrots
- 1 sweet bell pepper sliced thin
- 3- inch piece of fresh ginger peeled and thinly slivered lengthwise or a tsp of ginger paste
- 3 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 4 scallions cut in 3-inch lengths
- 2 cloves garlic
Instructions
- Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and place in a container.
- Combine egg white, dash of water, cornstarch, 1 teaspoon coarse salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper and whisk together until smooth. Add to chicken strips, and toss to coat. Place in refrigerator.
- Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until it is opaque, about five minutes. Transfer cooked chicken to a plate.
- Add additional oil if needed to pan. Add veggies and cook about five minutes, until crisp tender.
- Stir seasoned rice wine vinegar and sesame oil in with vegetables. Add cooked chicken; toss, until combined and heated through, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Serve with jasmine rice or Asian noodles.
Here’s the step by step for this easy dinner:
Check your pantry and see if you have the following before we begin:
Fresh Ginger paste, Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar, Sesame Oil and Garlic. (I use my favorite Dorot crushed garlic cubes.)
Soy Sauce and Sriracha: a marriage made in heaven.
In a small bowl, combine an egg white, a dash of water, a tablespoon of cornstarch, a few dashes of Sriracha and a few dashes of soy sauce. Whisk together. This is going to be a marinade.
Cut up four boneless skinless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. I do this with meat shears rather than a knife. Place in a large bowl. Pour this marinade over the chicken and refrigerate for up to an hour.
While the chicken is marinating, chop up your veggies of choice. The original recipe in Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food called for just celery, and that makes for a great stir fry. (This recipe does not have to be complex to have a lot of flavor.) However, I take this opportunity to load up the veggies that my family will eat. Here is my version with peppers, broccoli, celery, green onion and garlic. Be sure to cut these into bite-sized pieces as well.
Heat about two tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large, deep pan. (I used my trusty Dutch oven). Cook the chicken until it is opaque and browned. It does not have to be cooked all the way through. Remove it from the pan and place it on another plate.
After you have removed the chicken, add all your vegetables. Cook these down until they are tender.
After cooking for a few minutes, add rice vinegar and sesame oil. Using a wooden spatula to incorporate these liquids, be sure to scrape up all the browned bits on the bottom of the pan from the chicken.
Scrape all this up after adding the rice wine vinegar to create a great sauce.
After the vegetables are cooked, return the chicken to the pan. Here I always add more “love” with additional dashes of soy sauce and Sriracha. Adjust this taste to your liking, whether it be adding more heat, salt or even more seasoned rice vinegar.
Serve with jasmine rice or Asian noodles.
Enjoy this easy dish!
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