Stir-Fry Veggies
January 8th, 2007
Okay, folks, I’ve got some new posts brewing in my brain, but before I write them for you, I’m going to follow up on my promise from last week to bring you a couple more leaner, lighter recipes…
So for today we will be making Stir-Fried Veggies, with or without chicken added.
Being raised a meat-and-potatoes type of gal in farm country, I have a hard time thinking a meal is complete without some meat, so I usually have chicken with my stir-fry. Beef almost always turns out tough for me if I fry it, so I’ll stick with the chicken.
When doing stir-fry, first choose your vegetables. In a big family like ours, it doesn’t matter much which veggies we have, some of the kids will be picking out some of the veggies. I think only one of the children will eat all of them. So, I just choose what I have on hand or feel like making. Some of my favorites are:
Broccoli
Carrots
Celery
Water Chestnuts
Baby Corn
Bamboo Shoots
Red Pepper
Onion
mushrooms
You will also need:
Chicken breast
cooking oil or better yet, light olive oil
Stir-fry sauce purchased at your grocery
Kikkoman makes great stir-fry sauces that are readily available in most groceries. Check out their website — be sure to go to the right section for your part of the world.
You’re gonna want to pick three or so different vegetables. Next you have to think about how long each needs to cook to get to that perfect, tender-yet-still-somewhat-crisp stage in the frying pan or wok. (Heaven help me, one of these days I will own a wok, but for now it’s the frying pan.)
Broccoli — 10 minutes
Carrots — cut on a diagonal, about 7-10 minutes
Celery — also cut on a diagonal, about 5-7 minutes
Water Chestnuts — these I buy canned, so they require no cooking time
Baby Corn — also canned, no cooking time
Bamboo Shoots — also canned, no cooking time
Red Pepper — cut into strips, less than 5 minutes
Onion — sliced, also less than 5 minutes
mushrooms — these are quickest of all, about 3 minutes
Whatever you choose, decide what goes in first, and when to add each of the other vegetables.
If you are putting chicken in your stir-fry, do the chicken first. Cut one or two chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks. (A little goes a long way with stir-fry.) Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and sprinkle some salt and pepper on it. About the same time, start some rice if you are having it — rice takes 20 minutes.
Turn your cooktop onto medium, and heat a couple of Tablespoons of olive oil in your biggest skillet, wait until it’s nice and hot and then add the chicken.
Fry and stir the chicken for a few minutes, until it is nicely browned. Cut into the largest chunk and check for pink in the middle. How long you cook it depends on how big the pieces are, but it shouldn’t take long at all.
Next, remove the chicken, put it in a bowl or set it on a plate and set it aside. Now add some more oil to your skillet, scrape it to loosen the bits of browned chicken, and start adding your vegetables, starting with the ones that take the longest to cook.
When you are done with that, pour about 1/2 cup of your favorite store-bought stir-fry sauce right onto those vegetables, add the chicken and heat through.
Ta-Da! You’re done. Dinner is served!
Entry Filed under: Food As Medicine, Recipes, Supper, chicken
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