Stir-fry chicken made interesting

Like most people, I often resort to stir-fry when I am feeling uncreative. However, I always try and find a way to make it more interesting than just vegetables, chicken and soy sauce. There are lots of little tricks to spice things up, such as a dash of rice wine, fresh garlic or even some roasted cashew nuts, as I did here.

This recipe was inspired by one of the only cookbooks I have, which is called ‘Chinese food made easy’ by Ching-He Huang (find it here) This recipe was a mix between her chicken chow mein and the chicken and cashew nut stir-fry, plus a couple additions of my own! My boyfriend bought diced skinless chicken thighs for this dish, which taste absolutely phenomenal. If possible, do try and use this sort of meat rather than chicken breast!

Serves 2 (or lunch and dinner for myself!)

•  350g diced skinless chicken thigh
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp 5 spice powder
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tsp chilli oil
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1 red pepper, de-seeded and sliced
• 5 mushrooms, sliced
• 2-3 whole spring onions, chopped
• 1-2 handfuls of cashews, roasted
• 1.5 tbsp lime juice
• Black pepper, soy sauce and sriracha to taste

In a bowl, mix the chicken with the flour, 5 spice powder and soy sauce. Heat the sesame oil, chilli oil and vegetable oil, add the chopped ginger and garlic, and then the chicken. Fry the chicken for about 5 minutes until it is almost completely cooked. The trick with bigger pieces of chicken (as I had) is not stir it for the first minute or so in order to let it brown, and then stir rapidly for a few minutes. Then add the pepper and mushrooms and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the spring onions and roasted cashews, lime juice, black pepper, soy sauce and sriracha and stir for another couple of minutes.

Best served with sticky rice. Enjoy!