Monday, August 06, 2007

Wanted: Sou chef to assist with recipe

America's Test Kitchen has so many good idea but I have a problem with their remakes of recipes. They have more steps than the plans to build a nuclear reactor and that produces way too many dirty dishes--the recipe, not the reactor. Sure, it only takes them a fraction of the time because they have some intern filling little bowls with a half teaspoon of this and a 1/4 cup of that and before you know it you've a sink full.

Now on to this delicious dish, Stir-fry Chicken with Bok Choy. Again, it isn't so much the recipe as the way to prepare. The whole idea is to protect the delicate chicken from the hot oil of stir-frying. Their take on this was to "velvet" the chicken and stir-fry but not in the true sense of the Chinese tradition. I've done a velvet before which includes dipping chicken in egg whites then in simmering broth. Way too much work, this is easier.

Coat the raw chicken breast pieces in a mixture of one each tablespoon of sesame oil and cornstarch before browning a single layer in a hot pan, then turning to brown the other side. It did save time and use less oil.

The rest of the recipe was your typical stir-fry of the vegetables, then add meat, then add a final sauce which was quite tasty.

Stir-Fry Sauce
1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 tablespoon oyster sauce (I omitted this due to allergies)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Stir until everything is coated and slightly thickened, about a minute.

I've made this twice, once following the recipe and other changing the veggies which is fine as long as you keep the proportions.






2 comments:

wheresmymind said...

I find that I have tons of dirtay dishes hanging around whenever I'm done with a CI recipe

maltese parakeet said...

i'm glad i moved out of the house before this whole food blogging thing got started. otherwise, i have an idea who the sous chef would be! ;)