Make Your Own Takeout: Chinese Stirfry

Okay, I admit it!  The only reason I even attempted to learn how to make Chinese food is because I live in a town without any good Chinese restaurants (in my humble opinion, if you enjoy them I'm very happy for you).  So in a Chinese craving desperation, I have attempted to make stirfry several times, and I almost have the perfect recipe!  So I thought I'd share.  Even if you enjoy your local Chinese fare, making your own is much healthier for your body and your pocket book!

A stirfry is basically done in three parts:  cooking the veggies, cooking the protein, and combining the two with the sauce.  I like a spicy chicken stirfry, so that is what I have been perfecting.  This can easily be done with any other protein, and you can modify the sauce to make it less spicy.  It is an easy, quick meal perfect for those nights when you don't want to cook a complicated dinner, and since it is done in one skillet (or wok if you have one), clean up is a breeze.

What you need:

3 to 4 chicken breasts

1 red bell pepper
mushrooms
garlic
oil
bamboo shoots
soy sauce
cornstarch
Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce (available at Wal-Mart in Asian foods section)
dried red pepper if you like extra spicy
brown rice
salt and pepper

First, chop up your bell pepper and mushrooms.  Put some oil in your heated skillet (I use about 2 tablespoons since I cook in stainless steel).  Traditionally Chinese foods are cooked in peanut or sesame oil, but I use olive oil and it tastes just as good (vegetable oil would work also).  Dump the chopped veggies in the skillet with some drained bamboo shoots, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Cook these on medium until tender.  Of course, you can take substitute any veggies you like. 

While you veggies cook, chop up your chicken breast into bite size pieces and season with salt and pepper.  Transfer your veggies onto a plate, add more oil, and cook your chicken until it is no longer pink.

As your chicken cooks, you can mix up the sauce.  I recently discovered Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce.  It has a wonderful flavor to it.  As a bonus, the ingredients to the sauce are sugar, water, picked red chilli, vinegar, garlic, salt, and xanthan gum (which is a food thickener made from sugar and is allowed in organic products, so it's not some weird chemical). I was very happy about that.  Use as much chilli sauce as you would like (it's just a bit spicy), and add soy sauce until you get the flavor you are looking for.  If you like you food extra spicy, add some dried red pepper flakes.  Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of cornstarch and mix well.  The more cornstarch you add, the thicker your sauce will be, but adding to much will take away from the flavor of your sauce (I actually only added one teaspoon this time, and I should have added two, my sauce was a bit runny).  If you don't like spicy at all, substitutue the Chinese sauce of your choice, there are many selections in the Asian foods section at the market.

Add the veggies and sauce to the chicken and mix well.  Cook on medium for about five minutes until sauce thickens and the stirfry is heated through.  Serve with brown rice.  You can also add these homemade egg rolls my friend Christina recommends.  I had some frozen potstickers so I added a couple of those instead, but I plan on trying out the egg rolls next time.  This meal is sooo good, I don't miss my favorite Chinese restaurants at all!