Chicken & Young Ginger Stir Fry

 

This is a recipe from Land of Rice & Sea by Fuchsia Dunlop, which is a great cookbook if you want to try out dishes from China’s lower Yangtze region.

Ingredients

Chicken & Marinade

  • 1 chicken breast (or 250 g, ~1/2 lb, boneless, skinless thighs), cubed

  • 4 g (1 tsp) salt

  • 7 g (2 tsp) potato starch

  • 10 g (2 tsp) Shaoxing wine or rice wine vinegar

Stir Fry Sauce

  • 10 g (2 tsp) light soy sauce

  • 5 g (1 tsp) dark soy sauce

  • 5 g (1 tsp) sugar

  • 15 g (1 tbsp) water

    • Optional: extra starch slurry (spoonful of potato or cornstarch & water) - use as needed to thicken the sauce during cooking

Stir Fry Components

  • 10 g (2 tsp) neutral cooking oil

  • 4 knobs (about 60 g) ginger*, peeled and thinly sliced into coins

  • 1 bunch of green onions, rough chopped, separated into greens & whites

  • Marinated chicken

  • Stir fry sauce

*buy the smaller, organic ginger for this dish because it tends to be less fibrous than the larger bulk ginger.

Instructions

Marinate the chicken: In a bowl, combine together the cubes of chicken with the salt, starch, and Shaoxing wine. Massage everything together to tenderize the chicken a bit and make sure the marinade evenly coats every piece. Set aside until ready to use.

Make the sauce: Mix together all Stir Fry Sauce ingredients in a bowl until the sugar is dissolved.

  • Optional: in a separate bowl, make a small amount of cornstarch slurry in case you’ll want to thicken the sauce.

Sauté the aromatics: Set a wok or pan over ripping high heat and add about a 10 g drizzle of oil.

Toss in your ginger and the white onions sections and sauté for about 60 seconds or until nicely fragrant, signifying your cooking oil has been infused.

Cook the chicken: Add the marinated chicken cubes to the wok. Stir fry on high heat for at least 3-4 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Finish the stir fry: Pour in the sauce around the edges of the pan or wok. Because of the potato starch on the chicken marinade, this actually should begin to thicken as it heats up and comes to a simmer.

  • If it's too loose, add small amounts of a starch slurry at a time until it reaches the consistency you want.

Then, we are going to toss in the top green parts of the onions and let those cook for 30-60 seconds longer until barely wilted through.

Enjoy warm.

Notes & Variations

If you don’t have potato starch for the marinade, corn starch can be substituted.

 
Ethan Chlebowski