Classic Chinese stir-fry with chicken and vegetables make an easy weeknight meal.
Chicken in Spicy Garlic Sauce
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
This is a basic Chinese style stir-fry sauce, one I often see served at restaurants. The vegetables in those can vary a bit, but usually broccoli is always part of it. I like to use a variety of vegetables I have on hand in my produce bin, along with the additions of wood ear, hot peppers and water chestnuts.
You can also sub hearts of palm for water chestnuts, as I have discovered recently, and jicama also makes an interesting substitute.
This makes a great weeknight meal, and if you are really pressed for time, you could grab an assortment of veggies off the market’s salad bar, along with some boneless chicken already thawed. Rice cooks quickly in the rice cooker- I can get it done in about 15 minutes, but even on stove top it only takes twenty.
I serve mine with brown rice or cauliflower rice and lots of steaming jasmine tea. I hope you enjoy!
~Sue
Join me tomorrow when I post with #FishFridayFoodies with a recipe for Caribbean Bacalaitos which are an appetizer made from salted bacalau into crispy fried fritters also served with a curry aioli for a dip.
Chicken in Spicy Garlic Sauce
Ingredients:
- 1 pound boneless chicken breast, cut into chunks
- 18 ounces assorted stir-fry vegetables (I used a mixture broccoli, zucchini, carrots, celery, onion, bell pepper and green onion)
- 1/4 cup dry shredded wood ears, soaked in hot water to soften
- 5 ounce can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
- 2 tablespoons freshly chopped garlic
- 12 small dried hot red peppers
- nonstick spray
- 2 tablespoons water
Sauce:
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons sriracha sauce or hot chili sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger root
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Method:
- Mix sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
- Spray a large nonstick wok pan with nonstick spray, heat, and stirfry chicken until opaque; add peppers and garlic and continue to cook until lightly browned; turn out into a bowl or platter and keep warm.
- Spray pan again and add stir-fry vegetables (keeping green onions out until the end if using), soaked wood ear shreds, cooking until crisp-tender, adding the 2 tbsp water midway through to prevent sticking and hasten cooking.
- Stir in the water chestnuts and green onion (if using) and cook briefly until hot, then add sauce mix, stirring stir-fry until the sauce thickens up.
From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com
I’ve never seen this on an Asian menu here. I’ve noticed that different areas of the country have different things on their menus and that, of course, includes all cuisines. I love stir fries because once you prep the ingredients, it all comes together quickly.
This was a fail for me. The sauce had no flavor. The sriracha gave good heat but there was nothing else to it.
The other flavorings (2 tablespoons of garlic plus the dozen hot dried chiles–i.e. “spicy garlic”) are meant to be cooked into the food during the stir-fry, and combined with the sauce have adequate flavor. The sauce is not the vehicle for the spicy garlic flavor. It is meant to moisten and enhance, not be the flavor by itself.
Is there any chance you can direct me to where I can purchase those exact chopsticks? I found pink ones with sakura decoratoins, but not the lily (?) decorations like yours.
Sorry. I don’t recall.