Ginger Chicken and Broccoli

evelyn/athens's Note:

Like most Chinese-inspired recipes, all the time is in the prep, but this stir-fry is especially easy as it takes full advantage of Broccoli Slaw, one of the ingredients for RSC #12. If you're like me, you like the florets, too, so I've added those as well. This is spicy, but not too, too hot, so you can always kick it up a notch and go to a 1/2 tsp of cayenne. Bon Appetit.

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

Stir-fry Sauce

• 1 1/4 cups chicken stock
• 7 tablespoons soya sauce
• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon sesame seed oil
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/3 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (add more if you like Hot Stuff! hotter)

For Stir-fry

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into thin strips
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 cups onions, roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 cups baby carrots, cut into matchstick julienne
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 3 cups broccoli slaw mix
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks, well-drained

To serve

• steamed rice

Directions:

1. To make sauce: Blend all sauce ingredients together in a mini processor (this incorporates the peanut butter better into the sauce).
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in skillet or wok until just smoking. Add chicken strips and stir-fry, moving chicken strips often, until cooked, about 4-5 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.
3. In same skillet, add remaining 2 tablespoons oil and, when hot, add onion and carrot juilienne and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic, broccoli slaw mix and broccoli florets and continue to stir-fry a further 2-3 minutes. Finally, add drained pineapple chunks, cooked chicken strips and sauce to skillet and stir-fry a further 2 minutes, or until sauce has thickened and has coated the mixture. Total stir-fry time for vegetables should be 10-12 minutes, depending on how crisp-tender you like your veg. (I like to cover my pan the last couple of minutes and allow the veg to steam a bit as we like our veg on the softer side).
4. Serve with steamed rice.
5. Note: The chicken will be easier to cut into thin strips if you use partially frozen chicken breasts. Allow to thaw completely before proceeding before proceeding with recipe.

Reviews

[threeovens]

Very good and very easy to make. I liked that the stir fry sauce ingredients complemented each other so well. I doubled the cayenne and cooked the veggies about half the recommended time because I like them crunchy.

[katie in the UP]

Spicy and good! We also used fresh ginger instead of powdered and kicked it up with a bit more of the cayenne. It didin't say...so we used crunchy peanut butter (it was what we had on hand). Loved the sauce! We used fresh pineapple and added it to the serving dish instead of stir frying it. Perfect! Thank you and good luck in the contest!!

[Brooke the Cook in WI]

Peanut butter makes this stir-fry sauce rich with a wonderful texture and peanutty aroma. I made half the sauce and felt everything was nicely coated. This amount of stir-fry would easily feed 6 - three of us had plenty of leftovers. I used extra cayenne as suggested and it had a nice kick to it. I also used fresh ginger, which complemented everything very well. I did end up adding a touch of water and steaming the veggies for three minutes at the end to soften the carrots. Served over steamed rice.