• Category: Main Dishes
• Wednesday, 28 January 2009 08:05

This stir fry recipe has been in our family for years, about 11 years to be exact...We love chicken and stir fry meals are always a hit in our family. Come take a look...

I think zucchini always looks better than it tastes. It is so pretty and when it is done cooking it is very appealing, but when you taste it, there is something to be desired. Stir frying them brings out the best flavor and I can even get my kids to eat them...Sometimes... Take 2 zucchinis, cut in half and slice. Set a side the zucchini...

Cut the onion into wedge pieces and set those aside as well. In fact, whenever I make this recipe, I get all of the veggies and chicken cut in advance so that when it is dinner time cooking it takes no time at all. It also makes me feel like I have my own cooking show with everything set into their own individual bowls ready to add to the pan...

Chop the peeled garlic cloves as finely as humanly possible. This is as fine as I am able to get my garlic chopped. But we love garlic so if any one gets a large chunk on their plate, it's okay.

With fresh ginger, I just cut of the skin with a knife rather than peel with a peeler. Then I slice and dice away... Chop up about 1 teaspoon worth of ginger. Garlic and ginger are absolutely essential to this and any stir fry recipe. Don't leave it out...

Now everything, including the chicken is chopped up and ready to use. Stir fry means to cook on high heat. Sometimes I like to cut and chop as I go along, but with stir fry that is not a good idea. Now it is time to make the sauce...

In a small bowl add 4 tablespoons of soy sauce.

Then pour in 2 tablespoons of cooking sherry or any cooking wine you have on hand.

Squeeze 2 tablespoons of honey, add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 1/2 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice. Chinese Five Spice is very potent, be careful with this stuff. You don't want any more than this.

Whisk it all together and set it aside to add at the end of the story.

If you have a wok or a wok style pan, that is the best pan to use. If you are like me and had to give away your wok because there wasn't any room in your kitchen, get out a large frying pan. Set the pan on high heat and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil. When it is hot add the onion and stir fry immediately.

Keep stirring and after a few minutes add the garlic and ginger. Do not leave, stay at your post. If you leave, dinner will be ruined and everyone will glare at you while they have to eat this...

After the onion, garlic and ginger have been stir fried for about five minutes they should be nice and roasty looking. Remove them from the pan and get ready to cook the zucchini. Add more oil to the pan before adding the zucchini.

Add the zucchini to the pan and stir fry until bowl sides of the zucchini are browned, not burnt.

Continue to stir fry the zucchini until it has a yellow color and is slightly softened.

Remove the zucchini from the pan, pouring them right on top of the onion mixture that you already set aside.  Add more oil to the pan...

The trick with the chicken is to make sure that there is enough oil in the pan and to stir the chicken and keep stirring. A real wok or non-stick pan is a better tool for this part. My chicken always sticks to this pan. Oh well, what can you do? Continue stir frying until there is no more pink showing on the chicken.

Push the chicken to sides of the pan, give the sauce a quick stir and pour into the center of the pan. As soon as the sauce hits the pan it will thicken, so stir the chicken into it right away.

Throw the cooked veggies back into the pan and stir all around. Sometimes the liquid evaporates too quickly, so I add more soy sauce to loosen it all up. Once the whole thing has been fully mixed together, take the pan off the heat.

Mmm, that looks so good and smells even better. Earlier I cooked the jasmine rice so that it would be ready for this delicious chicken stir fry.

I love my rice paddle. It makes serving rice fun, anything to add more fun to the kitchen...

Scoop on top of the rice the chicken stir fry you just made and get ready to dig in. We had this for dinner last night and I even gave some to Katie. She ate the chicken right up, but when I had her try the zucchini, her face told it all. I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but when I got the camera, the memory card wasn't in it. By the time I got the card in the camera and took her picture, she was over the shock of the zucchini in her mouth. I think it is safe to say that zucchini is part of her world now...I hope you give this recipe a try and let me know how it turned out. Or if you have any tips those are great to share too.