One of the great things about much Asian/Chinese cooking and stir-fry cooking in particular is that very little effort and time are required to whip up a really satisfying nutritious meal with a minimum of fuss and washing up to do. Here is a simple chicken stir-fry recipe that can be used as is or modified to your heart’s content.

Ingredients

• 18 Ounces of Boneless Skinless Chicken
• 8 Ounce Can of Bamboo Shoots
• 1½ Cups of Fresh Mushrooms
• 1 each of Large Onion, Medium Green Pepper and Medium Sweet Red Pepper
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• ¼ Cup of Chicken Broth
• 3 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce (I usually use Kikkoman)
• 1 Tablespoon each of Dry Sherry and Olive Oil (for cooking)
• 1 Teaspoon each of Grated Ginger Root, Cornstarch and Sesame Oil
• ¼ Teaspoon of Ground Black Pepper

Method

Prepare the Vegetables – Cut onion into wedges or rings, wash and dice the mushrooms and peppers and crush the garlic (using a garlic press is the easiest way to do this).

Marinate the Chicken – Cut chicken into ½ inch chunks and put into a medium large bowl. Stir in the soy sauce, sesame oil and dry sherry making sure that all of the chicken pieces have been coated by the sherry and soy sauce. Add the crushed garlic and stir it in well. Let this mixture stand to marinate for about one hour. When ready to commence cooking the chicken drain it while retaining the marinade.

Cooking:

1. Apply cooking spray or light coating of oil to a wok or large cast iron fry pan and then place it over a medium high heat to come up to temperature
2. Add onion to wok and stir-fry for 2 minutes
3. Add the diced peppers and continue stir-frying for another minute
4. Now add the mushrooms and continue stir-frying for another minute
5. Check the vegetables to see if they are crisp and tender. If not continue stir-frying until they become crisp but are still tender. Then transfer the vegetables from the wok to a suitably sized bowl and set to one side.
6. Now add a tablespoon of cooking oil to the wok followed by 1 teaspoon of grated ginger root and stir-fry for 15 seconds
7. Add in half of the chicken pieces and stir-fry until they are no longer pink (about 4 minutes). Once done take these chicken pieces out and put the rest of the uncooked chicken into the wok and stir-fry until these pieces are no longer pink either (another 4 minutes or so).
8. Once all of the chicken is done return the first batch of chicken and all of the vegetables to the wok. Add in the bamboo shoots. Stir-fry this mixture for another minute and then push all of the ingredients away from the center of the wok leaving a hole in the middle.
9. Now combine ¼ cup of chicken broth, the cornstarch, the pepper and the liquid in which you marinated the chicken then add this to the hole in the center of the other ingredients that are already in the wok
10. Once the liquid is up to temperature and has just barely begun to thicken stir all ingredients together and continue stir-frying until the sauce has thicken somewhat and then gently toss the solid ingredients in with the sauce to ensure that the sauce coats them all

Serving:

Serve on a bed of steamed rice or with egg noodles and additional stir-fry vegetables if you want to stay on the Asian meal theme. Otherwise whole new baby potatoes and mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, sweet corn or corn on the cob, broccoli etc.) do make a great accompaniment for this dish. Enjoy!