Saturday, June 18, 2011

Vietnamese chicken stir fry



For some random reason I decided to have a go at some Vietnamese style cooking. Starting off nice and easy I made this chicken stir fry. Actually this is the second time I made it, having made it last week too, and this week incorporated some of the suggestions of my food critic family.

Ingredients

Lemon grass. (Sliced lengthways then finely chopped, about 2 tbsp)
Garlic (2-3 bulbs chopped and crushed)
Fish sauce (2 tbsp)
Chilli sauce (1 or 2 tsps)
Bean shoots (2 handfulls)
Chicken breasts (2 large ones, no skins)
Cilantro (small handful, chopped)
Snow peas
Carrots



What you do

Although I didn't do it due to lack of time, you're supposed to combine the lemon grass, chilli and fish sauce with the chicken and marinate it in the fridge for an hour.

Also due to lack of time I cooked the carrots by slicing them and sticking them in the microwave for 3 minutes, so I could throw them in with the snow peas and not have to wait for them to cook through.

Then fry the chicken for a few minutes until all white then put it on a plate, fry the onions, garlic and lemongrass. Once they're soft add the chicken. Once that lot is cooked through and you're a few minutes from done, throw the snow peas and carrots in. Finally throw in the bean shoots and cook for a couple of minutes.

I served it on steamed rice as you can see.

Family reaction

With just a tsp of chilli this is not too spicy for kids or adults afraid of spice. It's quite a dry dish so I added a little chicken stock. It's filled with tastes. The lemongrass in particular makes the dish very fragrant. Last week I made this with yellow and red peppers instead of carrots, and they had a flavour that did not compliment the dish.

In general the family liked this meal a lot. I'm looking forward to trying something more advanced.