To be honest this recipe isn’t a true stir fry. It is really really hard to get a true stir fry at home. Most people don’t have a pan/wok large enough and a stove hot enough to do a true stir fry. Chinese restaurants have huge woks over “volcanos” that can blast five to ten times as much heat as the hottest home range. This extreme heat combined with oil allows ingredients to fry so fast that they don’t release their water content. This is why even cheap Chinese take-out stir fry is better than most of us can do at home.
If you have a powerful gas stove, you might be able to get passable results by cooking in very small batches and reheating your wok each time. That might be worth the time and effort if I am making a stir fry for a special occasion or trying to impress someone, but for day to day cooking I don’t have that much time.
So this recipe takes the flavors of a stir fry and makes due with what is simple to do at home. It is really more of a saute/steam combination than a stir fry, but I can do it every night without pulling my hair out.
Recipe Notes:
This recipe can be done with any kind of vegetable, but okra is particularly forgiving because when cooked it is a little goopy instead of being watery.
You can use fresh (cut into 3/4” pieces) or frozen (right out of the freezer) okra.
The simplest way to prepare the grated ginger is to peel whole fresh ginger root with the edge of a spoon and then freeze it. Frozen ginger is very easy to grate with a cheese/box grater or a microplane.
The dish can be served by itself, over rice, or even over quinoa.
Ingredients:
1 pound okra (cut into 3/4” pieces
4oz boneless chicken cut into bite sized pieces
3 cloves garlic
1” ginger root
3 Thai chilis or 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 tablespoon coconut aminos or soy sauce
Approximately 1/4 teaspoon salt
Approximately 1/8 teaspoon pepper
Instructions:
If using fresh okra, wash 1 pound of okra. Cut off the top of each pod and discard. Cut the pod into approximately 3/4” long pieces. Set aside.
Peel and mince 3 cloves of garlic. The mince does not need to be uniform.
Mince or grate 1” of peeled ginger root. This can be done on the same cutting board as the garlic.
Wash 3 Thai chilis. Cut off and discard the tops. Slice in half lengthwise. This can also be done on the same cutting board as the garlic and ginger.
Heat a large pan over medium high heat
Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan and swirl to coat the bottom
Add the garlic, ginger, and Thai chilis (one swipe of the knife if they are all on the same cutting board) to the oil and immediately stir for 10-15 seconds.
Add the okra and stir immediately to coat the okra with the now flavored oil and to keep the garlic from burning.
Add salt and pepper
Cook, stirring every minute or so, until almost done. For fresh okra, the okra should just start to get tender. For frozen okra, until the middles of the large pieces feel hot. For both, the sticky mucilaginous strands from the okra should start to stick to the bottom of the pan.
Add 1-2 tablespoons of coconut aminos (or soy sauce) and stir to get uniform color throughout the okra.
Add the 4oz of chicken and stir constantly until the chicken had cooked through. Usually this will only take a minute or two.
If you want to avoid spicy surprises, pick the six Thai chili halves out of the dish. This is of course optional.
Serving:
At this point there will probably be a layer of brown stuck to the bottom of the pan. You then have two serving options.
You can serve the dish immediately by dishing out the okra and chicken while leaving the brown on the bottom of the pan. Just add water to the pan when it is empty and the brown goo will clean up easily.
Or you can take the pan off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes. The moisture from the okra will seep into the brown goo on the bottom and free it up a little. Then stir the dish around a little bit to incorporate some of the goo into the dish. It will have a stronger deeper flavor.
Additional Notes:
Like I said above, okra is particularly forgiving because of the goo, but you can use other vegetables instead.
The basics of the recipe are the garlic, ginger, Thai chilis, and oil. This combination allows you to coat the vegetables with an aromatic and flavorful base. From there you can change the vegetable, the protein, and even the sauce. Just cook the vegetables to almost done then add in the sauce and bite sized protein.
Other vegetables tend to give off a bunch of liquid during cooking. The liquid will be flavorful and you can eat it as it is. For those who are not corn sensitive, you have the option to thicken the liquid into a sauce with an cornstarch slurry.
Cornstarch Slurry: In a small bowl mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch (I recommend using a brand that is organic and non-GMO) with 1 tablespoon cold water. The cornstarch should just barely dissolve into the water. If it doesn’t fully dissolve add a touch more water.
When the slurry is ready tip the pan towards you to have the liquid gather at one edge, and the add a little of the slurry to the liquid and stir. You will notice the liquid in the pan will thicken. Add enough slurry to tighten the sauce to just slightly thinner than you would like it to be, and then put the pan back on the burner and stir the sauce into the vegetables. While stirring, the additional heat should thicken the sauce a little more. You are then ready to serve.
If you find you would like the dish to have more sauce, you can add a little chicken stock to the vegetables while they are cooking. This additional liquid can be thickened with the slurry to make a vegetable dish with a glistening sauce.