I'm not opposed to bottled stir-fry sauce. It's how I make ours most often. But I was lazy and didn't want to go to the grocery store after work yesterday (I had already been to the Bangor Post Office, which is like a perpetual Wal-Mart check out line)...I just wanted to go home. So I found a recipe for sweet and sour sauce and we made some homemade stir-fry.
Please don't let the lack of a wok deter you in making this mighty, non-Asian dish.
Here we go:
2 chicken breasts, cut up into smallish chunks or slices
Olive oil
Red pepper flakes
1 bag stir-fry veggies (frozen)
1/2 c. vinegar
1/4 c. brown sugar
Pineapple chunks and their juices (I can't remember the size of the can I used...it was smallish, maybe 3 or 4 rings worth of pineapple? You could use fresh pineapple, but you'll want some pineapple juice for your sauce)
1 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbsp water
Prepared rice (we went instant, because why should this meal have any nutritional value?)
In a large frying pan (or a wok if you're going old-school traditional on me), swirl a bit of olive oil in the pan. Heat to med-medium high and add the chicken, cooking until browned on both sides. I gave a shake or two of red pepper flakes at this point. Totally optional if you don't have a fire-breathing dragon at home. Add the veggies. Cook until the veggies have started to heat through. If you don't want to be lazy, you could heat the sauce up in a separate saucepan and then add to the stir-fry. But let's just go my way, shall we? Add the can of pineapple and all its juices, vinegar, and brown sugar. Make your cornstarch slurry by mixing the cornstarch and water and add it to the stir-fry. Give everything a stir and cover, reduce heat, and cook until sauce is thickened and the veggies are heated through. I put the red pepper to it again, but don't feel like the heat is mandatory. You can just have a sweet stir-fry, and no one will judge you. I find that eating really hot food makes me eat less of it. More room for snacktreats later on in the night. Serve over rice. Or not, if you have pigeon stomach. On that note...
Take that, Oriental Jade! |
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