Japanese Stir-Fry

The first thing I learned about Japanese cooking is that all the sauces were some combination of shoyu, rice vinegar, sugar, and mirin. This is a quick and easy meal that I made up. Shoyu is a Japanese soy sauce. It gives a much richer flavor than regular soy sauce, and tastes less salty. Mirin is Japanese cooking wine, made of rice wine. If you can't find any, just omit it, it will still taste wonderful.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 4  boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
• 1  green bell pepper, diced
• 1  small  white onion, diced
• 4  carrots, cut in matchsticks
• 1  red bell pepper, diced
• 1  large broccoli, cut bite size
• 1⁄4 cup  sesame oil
• 1⁄3 cup  shoyu
• 1⁄4 cup rice vinegar
• 2  tablespoons mirin
• 1  tablespoon sugar
• 2  teaspoons ginger
• 3  garlic cloves, minced

Directions

1. Cut all of the meat and veggies, so they are ready to cook. I find that cutting the chicken while it is still half frozen makes it much easier!
2. Start your rice in a rice cooker or on the stove. The cooking time for the dinner is equivalent to the cooking time for rice.
3. Using a wok or large frying pan, heat sesame oil over medium-high. Add in the garlic. When the oil starts to sizzle, add in the shoyu, vinegar, mirin, sugar, and ginger. Mix well.
4. Add chicken. Cook until there is no pink at all. Chicken will have a rich brown color from the sauce.
5. Add in the veggies and cook until the rice is done.
6. If I am cooking for people who do not like crunchy veggies, I will steam all the veggies together in a separate pot while the chicken is cooking, then add the steamed veggies in with the chicken once it is cooked.
7. Serve over rice.