Web page "How-To"
Hello and welcome to my "how to" webpage. The purpose of this page is to introduce a fun and easy dinner time alternative for the cook more accustomed to less creative meals because of either time restraints, or lack of general cooking know-how. This short guide will take the reader through each of the basic steps from ingredient prep to finished and delicious product.
How-to make a Stir-Fry
The goal: Create a tasty, filling, and healthy dinner or lunch dish with simple store bought ingredients. Estimated cooking time: about 20-30 minutes.
Ingredients Equipment chicken breast range onion cutting board bell peppers sharp cutting knife snow peas frying pan w/lid broccoli medium sized pot ginger grater soy sauce stir fry sauce oyster sauce rice cooking oil water
Cooking directions
*Note: click on the thumbnails of the pictures to see them in full size
1. Prepare the rice by adding one part rice to two parts of water in a pot. Put the pot on the range, turn the heat to HIGH and leave it so it will boil.
2. Prep the chicken and the vegetables by cutting them into bite sized pieces. If you're not used to cutting meat, this can be a little tricky. Simply use your imagination to picture a grid being placed on the chicken breast and cut along the lines. Take your time when cutting, and use a sharp knife. Dull blades may cause you to apply too much pressure and increase the risk of you cutting yourself.
*NOTE* Be sure to use a different cutting board and knife or to wash the cutting board and knife you're using if you cut the chicken first, as uncooked chicken has a great deal of bacteria on it which can easily spread.
3. Put the frying pan on the range, add approx 1 tablespoon of oil into it, and turn the heat to MED-HIGH. You want the pan to be hot and the oil to become thin and coat the pan before you put the chicken into it.
4. In order to prepare the ginger, first cut off it's skin, then grate it until you have enough to form a heaping teaspoon. This can be a difficult step as well if you're not used to using a grater. To avoid skinning off your skin along with the ginger, be sure to hold it with your fingertips only, and apply just enough pressure for the ginger to grate properly.
5. Now that all the ingredients are prepared, first put the chicken into the hot pan.
*NOTE* Putting anything into a pan with hot oil could cause the oil to splatter, so if you don't feel comfortable dropping the chicken into the frying pan, use a spatula or a fork to carefully place it in.
6. Once the chicken is in the pan, use a spatula to move the chicken around until it's no longer sticking. Next, add the onion and the ginger, followed by some soy sauce. Don't worry too much about the amount of soy sauce to add, just be sure that there's enough to lightly coat all the pieces of chicken.
7. Using the spatula again, push, mix, and stir everything in the frying pan to get it all covered in soy sauce. Repeat this procedure a few times over the next 5 minutes.
9. When the chicken is about 70% cooked (so there's just a little bit of pink left in a piece of chicken when it's cut in half), add the bell peppers and broccoli to the pan, then add approx. 1/4 cup of water. Cover the frying pan with the lid. By doing this, you will be steam-cooking the vegetables.
10. After a minute or two remove the lid and add the oyster sauce and stir fry sauce to the pan. How much you add of each is up to you. The general rule is to add enough so all the vegetables and chicken can be coated. Once again, mix everything up in the pan and coat the ingredients in the sauce. Don't worry if the sauce that's formed looks too watery. As it boils, it will reduce and become thicker.
8. By this time, or close to now, the water and rice should be boiling. Turn off the heat, but leave the pot on the range. By the time the rest of the stir fry is finished, enough water will have evaporated and the rice will be fully cooked.
11. After another minute, add the snow peas to the pan. Snow peas take a very short time to cook because they're so thin, and it's best to keep them as crisp as possible.
12. As before, mix all the ingredients together using a spatula. The hot sauce will be all that's needed to cook the snow peas you just added. Do this for a couple minutes, and you should be left with something that looks a lot like the picture below!
13. Spoon some rice onto a plate and place the stir fry mix on top of it. Then sit back and enjoy the delicious meal you just made!
