Kitchen Antics - The Chilli & Garlic Chicken Stir Fry

There's a great many chicken stir fry recipes out there in this crazy world of ours. Some are more elaborate than others - in terms of taste as well as preparation and presentation. This particular recipe is quick to make, especially if you buy the chicken pre-cut from your butcher or the slightly scurvy meat bins in any good supermarket. It's easy enough to get home from the bar at about 7.00 via said stores and still have dinner on the table by 7.30.

What you'll need:

• 500g chicken - sliced thin
• 1/2 cup sweet chilli sauce
• 2 teaspoons coriander *paste*
• 1 Beastie Boys album - Check your head
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon kecap manis
• 2 bottles Amsterdam 'Mariner' beer - well chilled
• 1 carrot (maybe 150 grams - cut in thickish strips)
• 250 grams broccoli - in small pieces
• 150 grams snow peas - with the ends removed
• 150 grams baby corn - drain if canned; if fresh, use as is.
• 1 1/2 cups rice
• Sesame oil

If time is your enemy and you don't have time to waste by doing things in the wrong order, the prepare yourself by drinking one of the beers as out cut your vegetables, crank up the music, and organise your sauces.

Open the second beer and leave in a handy spot for taking quick slugs between each stage.

Add the rice to 3 cups of water in a large saucepan and put on a hotplate on the highest setting.

Heat about 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in your wok (I've been using this 40 cm diameter Raco bad boy with nifty results) and swirl it about.

Prepare your sauce at this point by combining the garlic, coriander and chilli sauce in a cup with a little water and stirring until it's even.

If your chicken is pre-sliced, ensure that all the pieces are separate by manually breaking them up prior to lobbing them into the heated oil. Keep the chicken moving to avoid burning and cook until it starts to brown.

The rice should have just started to boil (depending on the size of your hotplate). just as it starts to boil violently, stir a little and drop the hotplate to the lowest possible setting.

Remove the chicken from the wok altogether once the brown colour starts to appear into some kind of clean bowl. Wipe down the wok quickly with a wad of paper towel, as when you add a little more oil to the wok, it'll spit like an angry lisper.

Heat a little more sesame oil in the wok and drop in the carrot. Move these buggers around quickly, as they'll burn if you drop your guard. Keep stirring as you add the kecap manis to the carrot and cook for about another minute maximum before adding the remainder of your vegetables.

Stir well, as you don't want the vegetables to burn. You will know this stage of the cooking is complete when the baby corn starts to brown and the broccoli goes a deeper green.

Return the chicken to the wok with the vegetables and mix well for another minute before pouring the sauce all over the top, and continue mixing until you examine the rice to see if it's cooked. You will know this by the lack of water. Remove both items from their hotplates and serve the stir fried component upon the rice.

I timed this. It was 30 minutes from the minute I walked in the door and started cutting things up until it was in a fancy bowl in front of me all hot and steaming.

Published on Monday, 13 February 2006