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This recipe I normally cook in a wok because I enjoy wok cooking and because it has an Asian influence in terms of preparation and ingredients. However, there is no reason you can’t prepare this in a large frying pan.

The important thing with this recipe is to read it through and then have all the ingredients ready. Everything is chopped and sauces are mixed beforehand so that once you start cooking, you just add the ingredients as they are called for.

For the most part, ingredient quantities aren’t critical. If you don’t have enough of something, or you would like to have more of something feel free to adjust the recipe.

Chicken With Vegetables And Chow Mein Noodles

Ingredients:

2  chicken breasts, cubed
2  or 3  tblsp soy sauce
2  tsp sweet soy sauce
2  tblsp honey
1/4  cup rice wine (or dry sherry)
2  tsp sesame oil
1  clove garlic, crushed
a 2cm piece of fresh ginger
2  medium carrots
1/2  red capsicum (or pepper)
3  stalks celery
6 – 12  snow peas (depending on size, smaller snow peas are better)
2  shallots
2 cups chicken stock (best if real chicken stock otherwise use chicken stock cubes or powder)
2 tsp cornflour
1/4 cup water
1 pkt Chow Mein noodles
1 tsp chilli sauce
oil for frying (not canola)

Method:

1. Combine soy, sweet soy, honey, sherry, sesame oil, crushed garlic and grated ginger in a large bowl. This is the marinade.
2. Cube the chick into 1 cm pieces approx.  Put in to the bowl containing the marinade and mix. Cover and place in refrigerator while you prepare the other ingredients.
3. Chop the carrots, celery and capsicum into similar sized pieces. If the snowpeas are large you may want to cut them into 2 or 3 pieces.
4. Chop the shallots into 1/2 cm slices. (You can cut them into larger slices, I cut them smaller so they more easily blend in with the other vegetables and the kids are less likely to pick them out.)
5. In a measuring cup or jug mix the cornflour and cold water.
6. Heat the oil in a wok. (You can use a frying pan or large saucepan if you don’t have a wok.)
7. Cook the chicken in two batches – ie, cook half of the chicken for a minute or two, take it out and put in a warm dish, then cook the other half. Reserve the marinade – you will use this later. (The reason for cooking the chicken in two batches is so that you do not cool the wok down too much when you add the chicken. A hot wok is necessary to sear the chicken and seal in the juices. If you add too much chicken, the wok cools down too much, the chicken does not sear, the juices escape and you are left with dry chicken and a lot of moisture in the wok which boils the chicken rather than frying it.)
8. Put all the chicken back in the wok.
9. Add the chopped carrots, celery and capsicum (or pepper).
10. Stir fry for about 1 minute.
11. Add the reserved marinade to the wok.
12. Add the chicken stock to the wok and bring to the boil stirring all the while.
13. Add Chow Mein noodles to wok and cook till tender
14. Add combined cornflour and water to wok.
15. Add Chilli sauce.
16. Bring to boil again for about 1 minute stirring often then serve.

Serves: 3 or 4

Variations:

You could use pork or even prawns (shrimp) instead of chicken if you prefer. If using prawns you would cook them but then not add them to the wok at step 8 as they will overcook. Instead keep them out and add them in at step 16.

You don’t have to use the exact same ingredients as listed here. Use whatever you have in the house or whatever happens to be in season. For example, you could use broccoli, beans, cauliflower, asian greens such as bok choy, pak choi etc, baby corn, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots – whatever you happen to have to hand.

Adjust the amounts of soy, honey and chilli to suit your taste. The amounts given here are merely a starting point but if you like lots of chilli, for example, then add as much as you like.

Tips

As I mentioned at the beginning, you really need to have everything ready and chopped, combined etc so that you can just add them when required. The actual cooking time is fairly short but the preparation is the longest part.

Try and have a variety of colours in this dish. The vegetables listed in the ingredients are only a suggestion but they provide red, orange and green to make a colourful and interesting looking dish.

Serve it up as soon as it is cooked. If you leave it sit too long before serving, the vegetables will become soft and the green ones will start to lose their bright green colour whic h will diminish the appeal of the dish somewhat.