Epicure Recipe Card #3: Wok-fried Chicken with Asparagus & Shiitake

I know, I know… I can already hear you saying, “Another stir-fry recipe?!” Well I can’t help that the recipe cards seem to feature heavily in this area but it also does suit the times when I’m not terribly motivated with planning. So please forgive me and I can assure you that there are many other things to come. But you can’t deny the ease of these for mid-week dinners, can you? Which is exactly the reason why I choose them.

For this week’s selected recipe card, I pared it down a little again and cut back on the variety of ingredients used. I served it alongside bowls of plain egg noodles in broth although, of course, you can serve it with rice.

Wok-fried Chicken with Asparagus & Shiitake (serves 2)

(adapted from The Age – Epicure 50 Best Recipe Cards, recipe by Jill Dupleix)

Ingredients:

·         1 skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced

·         1 quantity of My All-purpose Cantonese Marinade

·         6 dried shiitake, soaked in cold water overnight

·         ½ tsp sugar

·         1 bunch asparagus, woody stems removed and cut into lengths

·         1 tbs cooking oil

·         finely shredded ginger (optional)

·         1 tbs oyster sauce

Method:

1. Toss chicken with the marinade and set aside 20-30 minutes.
2. In the meantime, remove stalks from shiitake and slice the caps to about 5mm thick. Toss sliced caps with the sugar and set aside. (This helps to remove a ‘fishy/bitter’ flavour that the Chinese describe.)
3. When ready to cook, heat the oil in a wok or saucepan to almost smoking on high heat. Add ginger, if using, for around 10 seconds before adding the chicken. Stir-fry until most pieces are cooked to medium-well before removing chicken from pan and setting aside.
4. Add shiitake slices to the hot pan and toss until starting to brown before adding the asparagus. Stir-fry asparagus until bright green and cover with a lid for a minute before checking how cooked they are. If they’re too crunchy for your liking then cover for another minute before checking again.
5. Return chicken to pan along with oyster sauce and stir-fry the whole lot until cooked through.

happy cooking!