My proudest kitchen moments are the ones where I am at my most resourceful. On Sunday, I opened my refrigerator to salvage two raw rooster breasts leftover from a rooster section we shot for food2.com. The easy choice would’ve been to roast them within the oven (I used to be going to write “bake them within the oven,” however doesn’t roasted rooster always sound better than baked rooster?), however in its place I particular to channel my inner Chinese cooking goddess. I flipped birth my replica of “The Breath of a Wok” by Grace Younger and regarded for recipes you are going to provide the option to stay with out concerns with rooster breasts. I chanced on one for Sweet & Bitter Chicken and, even when I didn’t have a wok or several of the ingredients, I proceeded anyway. Here’s my story.
It’s attention-grabbing because I had a dialog honest no longer too lengthy ago with my buddy Brendan, a barrista at Joe The Work of Espresso on Waverly, about The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. He mentioned it used to be his favourite book to cook from and I mentioned I the truth is preferred it, however I didn’t have the persistence for it. “I’m an immediate gratification roughly guy,” I outlined, “I mediate I’m better obedient to mercurial, spontaneous cooking.”
The roughly cooking I used to be talking about, it finally ends up, is Chinese cooking. All of it happens very mercurial and I like that.
You prep your stuff, you warmth up your wok (or in my case, your non-stick skillet) and when a drop of water sputters and spatters you stay your ingredient.
Love this sweet and sour rooster. The toughest section is the total prep (fleshy recipe below): first you minimize up your rooster breasts into one-jog pieces. You attach them in a bowl with 3 or 4 cloves of slivered garlic. Add soy sauce, rice wine (I didn’t have that), corn starch, sugar, salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, you combine together rooster broth (I didn’t have that so I extinct water), dusky soy sauce (I appropriate extinct typical soy sauce), sesame oil (didn’t have), rice vinegar (I extinct red wine vinegar), ketchup (I blended ketchup and Sriracha, which made it intelligent!), corn starch, sugar and salt. You minimize up your greens–which would perchance even encompass broccoli and a red bell pepper, however I didn’t have that both–so I appropriate chopped some scallions. Here’s my prep.
After that, it all happens so mercurial, it’d take twice as lengthy to inform Sweet and Bitter rooster out of your local take out. You warmth your pan (or your wok), you add vegetable oil, and add the total rooster.
You let it brown on every side, then take away it to a plate. Then you definately add your greens, cook these for 30 seconds. Then you definately accelerate within the sauce, swirl it all around, add lend a hand the rooster and cook two minutes. You’re achieved! Congratulations: you’ve made build-it-yourself Sweet and Bitter Chicken.
This isn’t as cloyingly sweet as the Sweet and Bitter rooster you’re extinct to. It’s got deep, sturdy flavor and, as soon as you sub Sriracha for among the ketchup, a chunk of intelligent. We the truth is preferred it and subbing ingredients right here and there, I didn’t need to exhaust 2 cents to plot it. So give it a whirl and indulge that section of you that enjoys immediate gratification, your inner Chinese cooking goddess.
Sweet and Bitter Chicken
from The Breath of a Wok by Grace Younger & Alan Richardson
12 oz skinless, boneless rooster breast, minimize into 1-jog cubes
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry
3 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/3 cup Selfmade Chicken Broth
2 teaspoons dusky soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 inexperienced bell pepper, minimize into 1-jog cubes
1 red bell pepper, minimize into 1-jog cubes
3 scallions, minimize into 2-jog piecs
1. In a medium bowl combine the rooster, garlic, 2 teaspoons of the soy sauce, the rice wine, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the cornstarch, the 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, and the pepper. Role apart. IN a small bowl combine the broth, dusky soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, ketchup, and the final 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Role the sauce apart.
2. Warmth a 14-jog flat-bottomed wok over excessive warmth till a bead of water vaporizes interior 1 to 2 seconds of contact. Swirl within the 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and carefully add the rooster, spreading it evenly within the wok. Cook undisturbed 1 minute, letting the rooster begin to brown. Then, using a metallic spatula, accelerate-fry 1 minute or till the rooster is browned on every side however no longer cooked thru. Transfer to a plate.
3. Swirl the final 2 teaspoons vegetable oil into the wok, add the peppers and scallions, and accelerate-fry 30 seconds. Dart the sauce and swirl into the wok. Return the rooster to the wok and accelerate-fry 1 to 2 minutes or till the rooster is appropriate cooked thru and the sauce has a puny thickened.
Serves 4.