Delicious dinner

This is one of the best stir-fries I've made in a long time. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I found the recipe. It was in some sort of free online cookbook that had recipes for typical Americanized Chinese food. I wasn't sure about the marinade for the chicken, but it made it really tender and delicious. I tend to over-cook my chicken, and it gets tough, but that didn't happen with this recipe. I altered it slightly from the original - mainly, I made more sauce because I added some broccoli to it (the original recipe had no vegetables.) Also had to change a couple ingredients.

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Garlic Chicken

Serves 3-4 depending on how much chicken and vegetables you use (mine made 3 servings)

Ingredients:

For the stir-fry:

about a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used 14 oz)

1 egg white

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp sherry (I used cooking sherry)

4 green onions (I left these out because mine went bad)

1 tsp of minced ginger (use the fresh stuff, not the stuff from the bottle, for best results)

6-7 cloves of garlic (don't even think about using jarred for this!)

about 2-3 cups of vegetables of your choice (I used 200g broccoli, you could also add thinly sliced carrot, mushrooms, or snow peas - next time I will use a combination)

2 tbsp of canola oil (you could probably get away with using less, maybe 1 tbsp, if you have a really good non-stick skillet - or try using cooking spray, but the marinade tends to stick)

a couple tablespoons of water or vegetable broth

for the sauce:

2 tsp chile garlic sauce 

4 tsp sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

4 tsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp sherry

4 tbsp soy sauce

Directions

If you have the time, stick the chicken in the freezer for about an hour, until firm so that it is easy to slice thinly. Slice the chicken crosswise to make long, thin strips. In a small bowl, combine the egg white, 1 tbsp cornstarch and 1 tbsp sherry. Stir until the cornstarch is dissolved, then toss with the chicken. Let that sit for about a half hour while you prep the rest of the ingredients.

Mince garlic and ginger, and slice the green onions if using them. Prep your vegetables by slicing or chopping them into small pieces. Put the vegetables into a large, hot skillet with a couple tablespoons of water or broth, and allow to steam for a few minutes until tender-crisp. (You can also do this in the microwave, or stir-fry in oil, whatever you prefer.) Remove vegetables from pan and set aside. 

Combine the sauce ingredients and stir until cornstarch and sugar are dissolved.

Heat the oil in a wok or skillet and add the chicken. Don't worry too much if the chicken sticks a bit. Stir-fry until cooked through. Push chicken aside, and add the garlic, green onions, and ginger. Stir-fry for about a minute, but don't allow the garlic to brown. When fragrant, add about half of  the sauce to the pan (make sure to re-stir it first, as the cornstarch will settle). Stir and scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Add in the cooked vegetables and the rest of the sauce, and heat until sauce is thick. 

Serve over rice of your choice. I like to use Trader Joe's frozen organic brown rice that you can cook in the microwave. 

Nutritional Info (calculated with the ingredients I used, for 3 servings, not including rice):

Calories: 313

Carbs: 22 g

Fat: 12 g

Protein: 32 g

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Did a good workout today - burned 728 calories, per my heart rate monitor. It felt pretty awesome. 

I also put together a pretty good snack mix (albeit not as nutritious as I could've made it) thinking that I was going to go to a movie today (turns out we're going tomorrow instead).  For two servings, I combined two cups of air-popped popcorn, ½ oz peanuts (I would have used almonds but didn't have any), a serving (15g) of chocolate-covered coffee beans (I use Trader Joe's espresso pillows), ½ oz pumpkin seeds, and ½ oz of multigrain pita chips. Very awesome. I'd like to put some dried or dehydrated fruit in, too, but didn't have any.