Chicken with Garlic and Vegetables
Enough for 2 - 4 people
2 chicken breasts, skinless - to be sliced long & thin
and then halved in length - irregularly
Rapeseed oil - small amount for frying
6 garlic cloves, crushed - 3 first, 3 for later
5cm ginger, chopped
Spring onions, 1 bunch - chopped
1 pinch chilli flakes
Veg
Use 3 other garlic cloves - crushed
1/2 carrot, sliced randomly but thin
1 small chilli, pierced - * REMOVE later *
Red pepper/s - sliced
Sweet cabbage, small handful sliced
* Spinach, large handful - added last *
Sauce
2 tbsp cornflour
300ml hot chicken stock
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sambal oelek (optional)
1 large tsp chilli & garlic paste
1 tbsp lime juice
1 capful shaosing wine - to taste
Pomegranate sauce - small amount to taste
Prepare the chicken and vegetables. In a small bowl, make the sauce - mix the cornflour with a little cold water, before adding the soy sauce, sambal oelek, chilli and garlic paste, lime juice, shaosing wine, hot stock and brown sugar. Mix well.
In a wok, stir fry the chicken very quickly until it is just cooked - no need to brown it. Set aside in a bowl.
Using the same wok, stir fry half the crushed garlic, ginger and chopped spring onions with the chilli in oil for 2 minutes. Add the carrots, sliced peppers, small chilli and sweet cabbage and stir fry for a further 2 minutes. Return the chicken to the wok and pour the sauce on top. Stir well and cook for about 5-6 minutes until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the sauce has thickened. About a minute before the end, throw in the spinach leaves and stir in to the sauce.
You may need to adjust the sauce - maybe some more lime juice, or pomegranate sauce.
REMEMBER to remove the whole chilli - first time I cooked this meal, I forgot about the chilli and Charlie inadvertently drew the short straw and ate the chilli. It took him some time to recover! And for the next day or so, he kept on asking me, suspiciously, “Is there chilli in this?” at dinner time.