The Dewi Stir Fry Chicken

This is another post on a simple, tasty recipe that I know of. Hopefully, it will come in handy for all of you too.

Actually, I thought of this recipe when a friend of mine asked me about the fried chicken I posted last week. Then she mentioned that her mom's fried chicken recipe is somewhat different than mine. But the ingredients she mentioned, are actually my ingredients for stir fries. Go figure.

So, I decided to put it on here since it's very easy to make and tastes good too. Here we go.

First we need, chicken fillets. Or you can opt for chicken breasts, or chicken thighs, or a combination of both, OR strictly chicken thighs hehe, whatever you feel like putting on your hips. As they say, a moment on the lips, ten years on your hips.

Then we cut the chicken to two centimeters pieces.

And the spices and herbs that we use is pretty simple; garlic, soy sauce and brown sugar. When you've learnt how to cook with these three simple ingredients, you can basically use it to cook anything. It doesn't get any more practical than that.

If you're using chicken breasts, I would suggest you marinade the chicken with soy sauce and garlic for 15 minutes before we start cooking them, to let the aroma from the spices to permeate through the meat.

Normally for this recipe I would use either leeks, chives or garlic stalks (garlic scapes). However, the other day, I saw this very interesting veggie at the supermarket which I have not seen or used before.

Now, if you encounter a chance meeting like this, you have to go for it, try new things, who knows, it can be your next favorite thing in the world (or you can learn from your experience and know better to stay away from it, the same way with men). At least, that's what I always do (with veggies), and that's how I knew garlic stalks are edible in the first place, and they actually tastes good too.

Anyway, I have no idea what this veggie is called in english, but in chinese it's called qing long cai. It looks like this.

It was wrapped in plastic, so I couldn't freely touch and smell it, but I caught a whiff and it reminded me of scallions. So, I thought this can be perfect for my stir fry, or quite possibly for anything else. And turns out, I was right. I even mixed it in for my daughter's fried noodle this morning. Fried noodle? Morning? Well, we Indonesians love hearty breakfasts. And by hearty, I mean it has a more than probable chance to give you heart tremors. Our breakfast can easily pass off as your lunch or dinner.
We eat foods like fried rice, fried noodle, chicken porridge, chicken soup with rice (soto ayam), and other heavy meals in the morning.

'How do you stay awake in class/office?' Well, the water must be different in Indonesia, because most of us don't even know how to get through to lunch without a breakfast like that. Curious, but I'm ding dang proud of it!

Getting on with our chicken. First, let's heat up some vegetable oil with a splash of sesame oil to make it fragrant, then chuck in the garlic and the chicken.
I like to stir fry the garlic and the chicken together, as oppose to stir frying the garlic first and wait until it becomes fragrant THEN add in the chicken. In my mind, by having contact with raw garlic decreases the gaminess of the chicken and at the same time offset the strong taste of the garlic on the meat itself. Wow, what? Basically, it means it'll taste good.

This may not be the right cooking technique, but it's MY kitchen, and I've never heard of any complaints before :D. But, you can choose to do it how you want. My way is delicious too though *hopeful.

After the chicken is half way cooked, I add in the qing long cai and the brown sugar. Cook it a bit more until the chicken are properly cooked, then you can remove it from the heat. Done!

Towards the end of the cooking process, you can add in a little bit of sesame oil again to make it even more fragrant, but it's not mandatory as we have done so in the beginning.

This stir fry is really easy to make, and I'm sure you would agree as well after you've seen the video.

You can eat this dish with rice, but in the video, I tried it with rice noodle. This is because I just saw a Thai food video in which it was eaten with rice noodle (the food that is), and I thought it looked good. So, I gave it a try. I think it was yummy, definitely can be a delicious substitute for rice.

I hope this recipe can be one of your favorites too and your go to when you're busy and in need of something quick and yummy to make. Here's the complete recipe, but feel free to tinker it to your taste.
Have a tasty day!

Stir Fry Chicken:

600 grams of chicken fillet

2 cloves of garlic
4 1/2 table spoons of soy sauce
1 table spoonful of brown sugar

1 bouquet of qing long cai

2 table spoons of vegetable oil
1 table spoon of sesame oil