For this dish of our
experiment, lets move away from the Southwestern US over to Asia. The keys to this dish are high heat, stir fry ingredients individually and the sauce. You don't need a wok to do stir fry (I don't have one) any high sided large sauté pan will do. If you don't have fish sauce, get out and get some right now, without it this will not taste nearly as good as it should.
Ingredients
- 3-5 chicken thighs, boneless and skinless, salted and peppered
- 3-4 small zucchini, cut into strips
- 4-5 medium carrots, cut into strips
- 1/2 onion
- 1 clove garlic, slivered
- 1 inch of ginger root, slivered
- Peanut oil (or other high heat oil)
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 4 splashes fish sauce
- 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- ~1 cup water or vegetable stock
- corn starch
Steps
Get everything cut up and into separate bowls before starting, as once you start, you don't have time to prep anything in the middle. Stir fry the carrots, then remove from pan and set aside. Stir fry the zucchini, then remove from pan and set aside. Stir fry the chicken thighs, letting them brown and cook through, then remove from pan and set aside. Now comes the fun part. Add the onion, garlic ginger and some pepper, before that starts to burn (and it will happen quick) but not until it has had time to actually cook and release its flavor, add soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar and honey. Add water to get the volume of sauce right. Stir to mix. Add cornstarch mixed with cold water and stir to thicken. Add back in all the other ingredients, stir to coat and then add the sesame oil last.
Serve over rice, maybe with a garnish of sesame seeds.
Variations
This dish would lend itself well to different cuts of chicken. Chicken breast cut into 1/2 inch wide pieces across the grain would work, the high heat and quick cooking along with the rich sauce should help keep it from getting dry and tough. You can spice this up with the addition of some smaller peppers (Thai chiles or szechwan peppers would be perfect for this.) You could quadruple the garlic, and turn down the heat at the step where you add it to make it a more garlicky dish, just cook the onions, garlic and ginger slowly, then turn up the heat and add the liquids.