It took me a while, but I finally learnt that in order to make a good stir fry, you need to cook ingredients in batches. Too many ingredients in the pan or wok and the ingredients tend to sweat, which makes for a soggy dinner...
Some versions of this recipe use hoisin, but my preference is to use a good quality oyster sauce. If you don't have Shaoxing wine then a dry sherry is a good alternative, although Shaoxing certainly smells more pungent!
To create a more saucy version of the dish then you can add 75ml chicken stock and a further teaspoon of cornflour to the sauce. Finally, if you want to add a touch of sweetness then try adding 2 teaspoons of sugar or a tablespoon of honey to the sauce.
For the chicken marinade:
3 chicken breasts
1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine
¼ - ½ teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of cornflour
For the sauce:
3 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine
2-3 tablespoons of light soy
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
3 tablespoons of water
Good pinch of white pepper
For the stir fry:
2 tablespoons veg oil
1 large white onion
1 green pepper
2-4 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons of finely chopped ginger
90g roasted cashews
- Cut the chicken breasts into 2-3cm chunks.
- Place the chicken in a large bowl with the remaining marinade ingredients and stir well to combine.
- Mix together all of the sauce ingredients in a small jug or bowl.
- Peel the onion and cut it into bite-sized chunks.
- Cut the pepper in half and remove the seeds, then cut into bite-sized chunks.
- Peel the garlic cloves and slice thinly.
- Peel the ginger and finely dice.
- Heat the oil in a large sauté pan (or wok) over a medium heat.
- Once the oil is really hot, add ⅓ or ½ the chicken to the pan (depending on the size of the pan) and stir, keeping the chicken pieces moving until they have some colour and no pink meat is visible.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and repeat for the rest of the chicken, then set aside.
- Add the onion, pepper, garlic and ginger to the hot pan and stir, keeping the vegetables moving, until the edges colour and soften.
- Return the chicken to the pan along with the cashews.
- Reduce the heat, stir to combine the ingredients and then pour in the sauce. Stir again.
- Cook for a few minutes more until the chicken is just cooked through.
- Serve with jasmine rice.
