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Tonight we made this. It uses up a lot of bits left over from previous recipes.
"Bok Choy Chicken Stir-Fry"
Ingredients:
Sauce:
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Stir-fry:
several bok choy stalks, chopped, separated
1/2 sweet onion, sliced
1/2 orange bell pepper, chopped
1 can baby corn, drained
1 1/4 pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut in bite-sized strips
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 thumb of ginger, minced
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon mirin, 1 tablespoon honey, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stir until the cornstarch dissolves, then set aside.
Rinse bok choy. Separate the white stems from the green leaves. Chop the stems into bite-sized pieces; the leaves can be left a little larger as they'll shrink when cooked. Set aside.
Place 1/2 sweet onion flat side down and slice to make half-circles. These will break into crescents as they cook. Set aside.
Cut the orange bell pepper half into bite-sized pieces and set aside.
Open and drain the can of baby corn. Set aside.
Cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized strips and set aside.
Heat the wok.
Peel and mince 2 cloves of garlic. Mince 1 thumb of ginger. Put in a small bowl (make sure your wok spatula fits inside) and set aside.
Put 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil in the wok and swirl to coat. Add the minced garlic and ginger. Stir-fry briefly.
Add the onion slices. Stir-fry until they break into crescents and just start to get translucent -- they won't be anywhere near cooked yet.
Put in the bok choy stems and bell pepper. Stir-fry until they get tender.
Add the bok choy leaves and stir-fry until they start to wilt.
Dump in the drained baby corn and stir-fry briefly.
Put in the chicken strips. Stir-fry until they turn white.
Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables. It will pool in the bottom of the wok at first. Stir-fry until the sauce just starts to thicken.
Put the lid on the wok and allow it to steam for 2-3 minutes. Then take the lid off and stir-fry until the sauce is thick and glossy, coating the other ingredients.
Serve over rice, noodles, or another starch. This recipe makes about 3 servings.
Observations:
I wanted to try making a light sauce. This turned out well, with a light sweet-sour flavor.
Mirin is a Chinese cooking wine typically sweetened with corn syrup. The wine part adds savory notes, while the corn syrup makes it thicker and sweeter.
Honey is a natural sweetener, preferable to processed ones for its many benefits. Ideally, use a light honey such as clover rather than a dark honey such as buckwheat.
Bok choy is a Chinese vegetable that's kind of like a cross between cabbage and celery. It offers many benefits. It belongs to the mustard family along with cabbage, but it has bunched stalks like celery. I used the last core of a bunch. Often the stalks and leaves are separated because the stalks take longer to cook, although baby bok choy can be cooked whole. We really liked how it came out with a tender-crisp texture. Here are more bok choy recipe ideas.
Bell peppers come in a wide range of colors. For this recipe, choose an orange or red bell pepper to contrast with the green bok choy. It makes a very pretty picture.
Chicken thighs cook up moist and tender in a wok, less prone to drying than breast meat. However, 1 1/4 pounds is a lot of meat to cook in a wok. If you can find a 1 pound package, that would work better.
Overall, we like this recipe, although it's not as exciting as some others. It has a light, fresh flavor. It also uses up partial ingredients from other recipes.
accomplished
