It might be obvious but one tip I can give to all enthusiastic cooks out there is to always read a new recipe at least a day or two before actually making it.
Take yesterday for example. Usually I prepare my own version of Moussaka but got curious how other versions differ, so I decided to follow a recipe for a change. I knew the dish needed baking and glanced at the bottom of the recipe and realised it needed two and a half hours in the oven. That meant I had to start early, which at the time meant 5 o'clock.
Over an hour’s chopping and slicing later, I got all the meat’s ingredients simmering in a pan. What’s that?! The meat needs simmering for two hours. Right there I realised we were not going to have Moussaka that night. Problem was the rest of our meat/protein is in frozen storage and nothing could be thawed at the last minute, unless we wanted to compromise the quality. There is nothing more demotivating that busting your gut in the kitchen only to realise that you won’t even get to eat the end result soon. We ended up having takeaways.
Fortunately, there are no nasty surprises with this stir-fry. You will get food on the table the day you prepare it and it will take less than an hour!
If you want to try a similar type of Asian dishes, try this shrimp in oyster sauce or this bami goreng recipe. Spice it up with some sambal oelek chilli paste.
Print📖 Recipe
Chicken & Sugar Snap Pea Stir-Fry
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
marinade
- 2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
- 1.25ml (¼ tsp) sugar
- 10ml (2 tsp) light soy sauce
- 5ml (1 tsp) shaoxing wine or medium-dry sherry
- 8 turns of the peppermill
- 5ml (1 tsp) corn flour
- 1 egg white
- 15ml (1 tbsp) peanut oil
ingredients
- 325g (12 oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast fillet, cut crossways into thin slivers
- 75ml (5 tbsp) peanut oil
- 175g (6 oz) sugar snap peas, trimmed
- 2 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
- 4 large spring onions, finely sliced
- 15ml (1 tbsp) shaoxing wine or medium-dry sherry
- 5ml (1 tsp) corn flour dissolved in 60ml (4 tbsp) chicken stock
- 15ml (1 tbsp) sesame oil
Instructions
- Put the chicken in a bowl, add the marinade ingredients and stir until coated. Leave for 15-20 minutes.
- Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and add 15ml (1 tbsp) of the oil. Blanch the sugar snap peas for 1 minute after the water returns to the boil. Drain in a colander, refresh with cold water and leave to drain.
- Heat a wok over high heat until smoke rises. Add the remaining oil and swirl it around. Add the garlic and spring onions and stir to mix. Add the marinated chicken and turns and toss, using a wok spatula, for 30-40 seconds or until the chicken is pale all over. Splash in wine or sherry, stirring as it sizzles; reduce the heat.
- Stir in the corn flour in the stock and add to the wok, stirring as it thickens. When the chicken is cooked, add the sugar snap peas and stir until everything is hot. Transfer to a serving dish, drizzle with sesame oil, serve hot. Serve with egg noodles or boiled white rice.
Notes
- If you can’t find sugar snap peas, use mangetout instead – they need blanching for only 20 seconds.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 179
- Sugar: 1.5 g
- Sodium: 238 mg
- Fat: 5.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 7 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 27 g
Renil M. George
Love all your chicken recipes.
michelle
Thank youuuuu 🙂 Really glad to hear it. More to come 🙂
tigerfish
How I agree! Better to have no-fail stir-fries in less than 30 minutes.
So, will you be making that half-a-day Moussaka again? :O