If you’re like me you go in spurts with what you like to cook. In the summer I eat lots of salads. More recently it was soup, especially since the temps have gotten really cold, even for GA. Yesterday I was very hungry for stir-fry. So I thought I’d share with the way I make stir-fry.
First get the marinade ready. It is better to season the chicken several hours ahead of time for the meat to be more flavorful but since I picked up the meat on my way home from work, I didn’t have time to do that.
I put a little olive oil and a little veggie oil into a bowl. Then I minced some garlic. I know I’ve said it before but I feel the need to remind you that I love (!) fresh garlic. So I added 2 cloves to the oil.
There is my beloved mincer in the background.
Since my stir-fry is usually down the Asian line, I add fresh ginger. You can find that in the produce aisles, kind of a knobby brown root.
I cut away the brown exterior.
I use my handy-dandy Pampered Chef chopper to mince it to bits. This is probably the equivalent of 1 tablespoon. You can use ground ginger but I think the fresh is much better.
I added some salt and a pepper blend season salt to it yet. If you want to be bad, add a little Accent. Back before we knew MSG was wicked, we liberally added it to our stir-fry.
Now that the marinade is ready, I cut the chicken tenders into small pieces.
Mix it all together and set it to the side.
If raw meat makes you squeamish, ignore this picture.
Now it’s time to start on the veggies. These are the veggies I chose to use.
Yup. That is one lonely jalapeno in there. I don’t usually add that but decided it would be good add a little kick to it. I rarely buy fresh mushrooms since they have so little food value for as much as they cost. But we love them so I decided to splurge a little.
Next get the skillet going. We have this nice big iron skillet that is well seasoned so it requires little oil for frying. I added a little veggie oil and then some sesame seed oil. This oil is quite strongly flavored so I use it very sparingly, maybe a teaspoon or two.
Cut up the crunchiest veggies first since they take the longest to cook. As you can tell here, I’m not exactly a celery lover but it does add a nice flavor. I’m not like my dad who likes his Thanksgiving dressing made with half of it being celery.
Set aside until oil is ready. Next get busy on the onions and cauliflower. It is Very Important to keep the whites sperate from the colors. Not really.
Pampered Chef said their egg slicer could be used for mushrooms and they were right. These sliced in nice even slices beautifully, something they wouldn’t be if I cut them with a knife.
By now the oil should be ready so throw them into the oil and add some salt. “Some salt” would be a relative term but I’ll say this much, you can always add more later but you can’t take it back out. Yeah, I know. Me and my “recipes.” The word recipe must be a relative term as well!!
Cook ’em on the high side of medium, nice and sizzly.
Next get started on the yellow squash. Don’t know if you fine folks north of the mason dixon line have access to these babies or not. I found some really nice small ones at our locally-owned and growned veggie and fruit store.
The broccoli gets chopped up too. Hmmmmm. I’m beginning to see a pattern here. And if you’re like me, you work space may begin to look a little like this. Sloppy cooker indeed!
So take a swig of sweet tea, honey, and wipe off that sweat from your brow; we’re about finished.
Oh, I forgot to tell you, stir the frying veggies every minute or so. It’s called Stir Frying. Get it? Stir-fry? Ha ha! *clears throat*
Sorry about that. I briefly forgot I had an audience.
The carrots and celery should be partially cooked by now so throw in the chicken, stirring it frequently.
I briefly interrupt the cooking session to bring you this important product. These frozen egg rolls are a delicious addition to the stir-fry supper. If I was having egg rolls for a number of people, I would make them from scratch. But for a few people these work great. Plus they’re cheaper than carry-out egg rolls. I would feel kind of badly about heating the oven to 425 for only a few egg rolls but since it’s so cold, I can count that as heat for the house as well.
Get them going in the oven already!
When the chicken is half-pink, half-white, add the “whites” to the mix. Add a little more salt.
Trying to do the Pioneer Woman action stirring shot. It’s harder than it looks. Guess I need a tripod.
Add the squash and mushroom. Yes, keep stirring it! If you didn’t want to keep stirring you should have made hot dogs instead.
Add the finely chopped jalapeno.
After a few minutes add the broccoli. By this time I have it on high to finish it by steam/frying.
That little chef sitting my stove looks quite pleased with himself. Can’t help but think he was hoping for something Italian, though.
The finished product. The veggies should all have a slight crunch to them.
Serve them on a bed of rice or noodles. We love rice at our house. I think we could it once a day. Add soy sauce if you wish, or more seasonings if it’s not spicy enough for you.
Over and out.
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