I'm not sure that I fully understand all this holiday entails, but I do know that I want to help my half Chinese children to embrace parts of their culture where I can. So we're starting small and celebrating Chinese New Year today. They'll be getting red envelopes with "lucky" coins inside. Lucky...because they're chocolate! And I'm cooking a nice Chinese dinner for us.
While it's not the traditional New Years dinner, I think they'll get the idea. And I'm pretty excited about it.
I was playing around on Pinterest last week. Yes...I've finally figured it out...sort of. One of my friends had "pinned" a recipe for chicken lo mein. And it rang a bell in my head. I know how to do this! I can make it my own way! So I did. And now I'm going to share it with you. It's super simple...much more so than you'd think.
My ingredients for chicken lo mein are 2 chicken breasts, 4 medium carrots, 1 broccoli head, 1/4 large sweet onion, snow peas, 1 can of water chestnuts, 1 cup of bean sprouts, 1/2 cup of chicken stock, 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon of sweet chili sauce, 1 teaspoon of ginger, 2 teaspoons of garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and 1 package of low-carb spaghetti noodles.
Before any other prep work begins, start a pot of water to boil, adding 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the water. As soon as the water is boiling, add the noodles and cook them until they're soft.
Now we need to prep our foods. Because I use just one cutting board for everything, I start with my veggies and finish with the chicken. So you'll need to chop the carrots pretty small since we're stir-frying. And if you're like me, you like them a little better cooked. I put each of the chopped vegetables on their own paper plate. Makes for easier clean-up. Once I've done the carrots, onions, and broccoli I rinse the cutting board and start chopping the chicken. I've mentioned it before, but it can stand to be said again...it's much easier to chop the chicken if it's still a little on the frozen side. You'll want to do either very small strips, or small cubes. I prefer the cubes because it's easier and looks pretty.
Once my chopping is complete I put about a tablespoon of vegetable oil in the wok (if you don't have a wok, just use a large skillet) and turn it on high heat. As soon as the oil is good and hot, add the chicken. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper onto the chicken and then give it a good stir. Cook the chicken, stirring often, until it starts to turn a little golden around the edges. You don't want to make it crispy, but you want to make sure it's thoroughly cooked.
While my chicken is cooking, I get my sauce going. In a small bowl add the 1/2 cup of chicken stock, 4 tablesppons of soy sauce, 2 tablesppons of oyster sauce, 1 tablesppon of sweet chili sauce, 2 teaspoons of garlic, and 1 teaspoon of ginger. You can use soy sauce from the grocery store. All of these ingredients can be bought there. But don't be afraid of shopping at your local Chinese market. MOST of the labels are written in English also so you'll know what you're getting. I use sauces bought from the Hong Kong Market in South Houston. My garlic and ginger are from a jar. It's just too difficult to keep these things fresh when I don't use them every day. The flavor may be a little less robust, but they're still tasty!
Whisk all of the sauce ingredients together, then open the can of water chestnuts and pour them into the sauce. Water chestnuts don't have much of a flavor on their own, so they'll pick up these combined tastes and add a little crunch!
Remove the chicken from the wok and set it aside. Put a second tablespoon of vegetable oil into the already hot wok and the add the carrots and onions. Stir-fry these until the onions are translucent. Next add the broccoli and snow peas. These you'll just stir for about 2 to 3 minutes. You don't want them to wilt, and with just a little cooking the green color in them becomes very vibrant.
Keeping the heat the same, push the veggies over to one side of the wok then add the chicken back in and the cooked pasta. Pour the sauce over the entire pan and then slowly stir all the ingredients back together. This shouldn't need to cook for more than about 5 minutes or so. Just until everything is warmed through. Just before taking up your amazing dish, add the bean sprouts.
You've now made the better than take-out chicken lo-mein! My kids love anything with noodles, and because I use low-carb pasta (Dreamfields is the brand) it's relatively healthy.
Grab some chopsticks...and eat up
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