Normally, stir-fry cooking takes just a few minutes to cook, but FOREVER to chop all the fresh vegetables that go into it! The reason why I like this particular stir-fry chicken recipe is that there are only two ingredients that need cutting; the chicken and scallions (green onions).

The only ingredient that may be new to you in this recipe is mirin. It’s a sweet rice cooking wine found on the grocery store shelf, most likely in the international section.

This particular stir fry recipe actually has very few ingredients. Consequently the flavor is very mild. Eventually as you learn to cook, you will start adding more interesting and intense flavors to your stir frys.

One big thing you need to know about stir-fry is that you need to get absolutely all your ingredients ready in advance. Don’t even think of turning on the stove until all the steps are ready to go. You definitely need to start cooking the rice right now! Otherwise it won’t be ready when the chicken is all cooked!

Get the ingredients out and measured for the sauce.

The sauce needs to simmer (in a separate small pan) for 3-4 minutes while the chicken is cooking. (Simmer means to cook gently on low heat; tiny bubbles will just break the surface and a waft of steam will also linger over the surface of the sauce.)

So in a small pan mix:

4 teaspoons of sugar

6 Tablespoons of water with

9 Tablespoons of mirin and

4 ½ Tablespoons of soy sauce

Bring all this to a simmer.

Wash and cut the scallions into 1 inch pieces and set them aside.

Cut up 1 pound of chicken into bite sizes

Put ½ cup of flour in a zip lock bag and then add the bite size pieces of chicken.

Give the bag a good shake to be sure all the chicken pieces are coated with the flour.

Then shake the chicken out in a mesh colander.

Or you could just pick up each piece with your fingers and set it on a plate. You definitely need to throw away the left over flour. Once it has been exposed to raw chicken you can’t re-use it.

Now the chicken is ready for frying. Add 4 Tablespoons of oil (vegetable, corn or peanut) to a wok or large fry pan and heat it up on medium high heat. Then add the chicken.

Quickly brown the chicken in the oil. Keep stirring and moving the chicken around the pan until it is cooked through. That should take about 3-4 minutes.

Pour the simmering sauce over the chicken

and cook it all together until the sauce thickens.

That will take about another 3-4 minutes.

Add the cut scallions and let it continue cooking for another 30 seconds.

Serve the chicken on top of cooked rice.

Enjoy!

Source: Carry-Out Cuisine by Phyllis Meras

P.S.: Looking for more chicken and rice recipes? Check out Chicken Salad with Wild Rice.

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