Mrs. Wolves wanted stir fry tonight, and she didn't want just any stir fry. She gave me a recipe that turned out to be really good, but a little complicated. Normally, when I think of stir fry, I think of throwing a bunch of random shit in a wok, mixing it up and boom, dinner. Yeah, not this time. So here we go.
You start, of course, with about two pounds of chicken breasts or tenderloins. White meat, people, and I'm not being prejudiced here.
Chop that stuff up into cubes, whatever size you like the chicken chunks in your stir fry, put the chunks is a bowl, dribble some soy sauce and some sesame oil on them and set that stuff aside.
Now, gather your other ingredients. you will need sesame oil, soy sauce (you know this already, or else you have not been paying attention), sugar, chicken broth, arrowroot (yeah, I know, it's expensive and you never fucking use it, but just go get some, OK? It's in the spice aisle.), peanut oil, an onion, a bell pepper (red, green, I don't care), two cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of ginger (my recipe called for fresh, minced ginger -- I used ground ginger from my spice rack), about 10 whole white mushrooms, a can of baby corn (which you will cut into smaller pieces), and rice vinegar. My recipe called for 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro, as well, but this seemed like a lot of work. Do you have any idea how much fresh cilantro it takes to make a half-cup of chopped cilantro? Anyway, let your conscience be your guide. Mine tasted great with no fresh chopped cilantro. So here's the team picture of ingredaments:
I did not take pictures of the next two steps, because they didn't seem very photogenic. Nonetheless, you should now mix 1/4 cup of soy sauce with 3 tablespoons of sugar and set that mixture aside. You also need to mix 1/4 cup of chicken broth with 2 rounded teaspoons of arrowroot. Set that mixture aside, too. You will need to stir both of these up before you use them, so keep that in mind.
OK, time to heat up your wok. If you aren't using a wok, what the fuck is wrong with you? We're making Chinese food, for God's sake. Use a wok. Or some other kind of pan. Whatever. Heat it up on high. Once the pan is hot (it better be a wok, asshole) slop some peanut oil into the pan (it still better be a wok, asshole).
Now, toss in the chicken that you chopped up and put stuff on earlier.
Cook until the chicken is browned and just cooked through -- just a few minutes.
Put that stuff in a bowl and set it aside.
Now it's time to prepare your vegetables. Gather up your onion, peppers, mushrooms and mini-corn.
Chop up the onions, peppers and mushrooms, cut the mini corn into smaller pieces.
Put a little peanut oil in the now-empty wok (seriously, you're not using some other kind of pan, are you?). Once heated, throw those chopped onions into the wok, and cook those for a couple minutes.
As you can see from the picture two shots up, I put my slice mushrooms, cut on mini-corn and green peppers cut into squares all in one bowl. The recipe says you should not do that. According to the recipe, you should add each ingredament separately: after the onions, throw in the peppers for a little bit, add the mushrooms, then a minute later throw in the mini corn. I threw it all in at once and it seemed to work. So sue me. Add the two cloves of mince garlic and 2 tablespoons of ginger (fresh minced or ground from the spice jar, I don't care).
Now, put the soy sauce/sugar mixture in, and add 1/4 cup of chicken broth. You also should add a teaspoon of rice vinegar and a 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil. That's what the recipe says. Seriously, I don't actually measure that shit. Up to you.
Oh yeah -- time to dump in that chicken you cooked earlier.
Stir that shit up, get it moving, get it hot, pour in the chicken broth/arrowroot mixture. Stir it up.
One that mixture is stirred in, let the whole thing rock for a minute, then turn off the heat and let things thicken. The recipe at this point says you should stir in that chopped cilantro. I didn't. Seemed OK to me. Naturally, you will be serving this over rice. I am not going to tell you how to make rice. If I have to do that, I probably need to swing by and wipe the drool off your chin periodically. These are things that are not happening. Make your own damn rice however you make it, and serve this stuff over it. knowing as you do so that my rice is better (some day, I might tell you how to make rice, but today is not that day).
This recipe is flexible. You can add broccoli, snow peas, zucchini, water chestnuts, green onions, whatever -- pretty much any vegetable you want. It tastes great no matter what veggies you put in. Bon appetit.
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