Korean Rice Bowls

Last Year's Post:  Healthy Baked Apples
Two Years Ago:   Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

Korean rice bowls with mixed vegetables are also called Bibimbap, which is fun to say  (BEE-beem-bop) but I figured most people wouldn't know what it meant, plus this recipe isn't completely authentic Bibimbap because I substituted hard-cooked eggs for the runny-egg-thing that manages to find its way onto everything these days.  If you like runny eggs, go for it.  (Some Bibimbap recipes actually use raw eggs that are mixed with the rest of the ingredients, ugh.)

The only unusual ingredient in the recipe is Gochujang hot pepper paste, which is a staple in Korean cooking.  You'll find it at your local Asian market.  It's pretty spicy so you only use a small amount, but it adds wonderful flavor and a little heat to the roasted squash.  If you can't find it or don't want to buy it just for this recipe, don't worry - just substitute harissa or sambal olelek or another hot sauce instead.  After all, it's just one component in the sauce for the squash, which in turn is just one part of the rice bowl.

The squash roasts along side the shiitake mushrooms for depth of flavor, then everything gets assembled on top of the rice.  Lime juice, soy sauce and more hot sauce are added at everyone's discretion so your own bowl can be as mild or hot as you like.  And very healthy!

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Korean Rice Bowls

Serves 4

1 teaspoon Gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) or sambal oelek, plus more for the table

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

2 teaspoons sesame seeds

2 cups peeled butternut squash, cut into bite-sized pieces

Sea salt

7 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps cut in half if large

2 tablespoons soy sauce plus more for the table

2 cups frozen edamame, cooked according to package directions

5 cups hot cooked white or brown rice

4 radishes, trimmed and sliced

2 cups Napa cabbage, thinly sliced

4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced

Black or white sesame seeds, for garnish

Lime wedges, for garnish
Thinly sliced green onions, for garnish

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Whisk Gochujang, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, and sesame seeds in a medium bowl.  Add squash and toss to coat.  Spread in a single layer on one half of a large rimmed baking sheet.  In a second bowl, mix the shiitake mushrooms, remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, and 2 tablespoons soy sauce.  Spread in a single layer on the other half of the baking sheet.  Roast for 15 minutes until the mushrooms are juicy and slightly shrunken, then remove them from the baking sheet and place it back in the oven until the squash is tender and browned on the edges, about 5 more minutes.  Sprinkle both with salt.

To serve, divide the rice between 4 bowls.  Top with squash, mushrooms, edamame, radishes, cabbage, and sliced egg.  Garnish with sesame seeds, lime wedges and green onions.  Serve, passing soy sauce and Gochujang (or sambal oelek) at the table.

Spring Vegetable Ramen

Last Year's Post:  Chicken with Shallots
Two Years Ago:   Pan-Seared Tuna with Capers and Red Wine Sauce

If you're looking for a light, healthy entree to counter-balance a heavy food episode or just want to cut down a little, give this recipe a try.  The broth is warming and fragrant with garlic, ginger and sesame, and the miso adds a deep umami flavor.  (You can usually find white miso - the mildest variety, near tofu at well-stocked supermarkets.  If you can't find it, the broth will be good anyway.)  The vegetables add nutrition and crunch,and the egg is great protein.  You could always add or substitute some shredded chicken for the egg if you want a more substantial meal.

I love the black sesame seeds for drama, but toasted white sesame seeds would work just as well.  And I couldn't resist adding the watermelon radish simply because I found one at the grocery store.  They're not all that easy to find but very pretty.  Funny story:  I thought the radish would stump the cashier for sure, but she just kept right on going and never missed a beat.  When I told her I thought it was going to stump her, she said "I've been a cashier for 25 years so I don't get stumped easily".  The woman in back of me said she'd never heard of a watermelon radish and the cashier told her it was also known as a shallot.  Not quite!  Shallots are mild onions, watermelon radishes are radishes.  Oh
well.

I've been reading a fair amount about how to hard-boil eggs lately because I've had trouble with the shells sticking and ripping up the whites.  Turns out the best tip is to boil the water first, then gently lower in the eggs.  Cook 6 minutes for soft-boiled (runny yolk) or 8 minutes for hard-boiled (hard yolk), then immediately place in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.  Works really well - the shells don't stick at all.

Spring Vegetable Ramen

Serves 4

4 eggs

1 bunch slender asparagus, trimmed

6 ounces sugar snap peas, trimmed

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, divided

1 bunch green onions, sliced, white and green parts separated

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

2 cups water

2 cups chicken broth

3 tablespoons white miso

1 ½ tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced

2 (3 ounce) packages ramen noodle soup, seasoning packets discarded

Black or white sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)

Sliced watermelon radish, for garnish (optional)

Hard-cook the eggs:  fill a saucepan with enough water to cover the eggs and bring to a boil, then gently lower the eggs into the water.  Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 8 minutes.  Remove the eggs and immediately place in a bowl filled with ice water to stop the cooking process.  When completely cool, remove and pat dry.  Shell the eggs and cut in half.

Cut the tips off the asparagus, then cut the spears into 1” lengths.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the asparagus spears.  Let boil for 1 minute, then add the asparagus tips and the sugar snap peas.  Boil an additional 30 seconds, then remove all with a slotted spoon and place in an ice water bath (save the water and keep it hot).  When cool, remove the vegetables from the water and pat dry.  Slice the sugar snap peas diagonally into 3-4 pieces each.  Set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat.  Add green onion whites, garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add water, chicken broth, miso, soy sauce and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, bring to a rolling simmer.  Add the mushrooms and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the ramen noodles in the boiling water left from cooking the vegetables.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes until soft.  Drain.

To serve, divide the ramen noodles between wide shallow bowls.  Ladle in the broth mixture and mushrooms, then top with asparagus and sugar snap peas.  Garnish each bowl with 2 eggs halves, sesame seeds and watermelon radish slices.  Top with green onion tops and serve.

Sesame Salmon en Papillote

Last Year's Post:  Eggplant and Rice Parmigiana
Two Years Ago:   Lobster and Shrimp Gratin

Cooking something "en papillote" (pronounced en pa-pee-oh) is French for cooking "in parchment" - basically cooking in a paper pouch to seal in moisture.  It's a great way to cook delicate fish because it seals in the moisture so the fish doesn't dry out, and at the same time it becomes infused with the flavors of the sauce.  I've previously posted recipes for swordfish en papillote (with an Italian twist) and sea bass en papillote (with a Mediterranean theme) so I thought this Asian salmon would be a good complement.   

It's not only flavorful, it's a very healthy dinner as well.  I modified a recipe that I found online to include spinach for nutrition and color, mushrooms for flavor, and sesame seeds for crunch and because they look great.  A mix of white and black seeds is especially attractive - you can find black sesame seeds at Asian markets and at Penzeys - but all white seeds would work also.  Tip: you can usually find a large container of toasted white sesame seeds in the Asian section of your grocery store for much less than a small bottle in the spice aisle.

The recipe is really easy once you get the parchment paper technique down.  Basically you just take a big piece of paper, fold it in half, and cut it in a folded semi-circle with one end slightly more pointy than the other.  Open it up, pile the ingredients on one side of the fold, and close the other side over the top.  Then you start make tight little overlapping folds to ensure the packet is sealed.  Or, you could just use aluminum foil and crimp the edges which is easier, but not as traditional or pretty.  If you plan to serve the packets at the table, parchment is definitely the way to go.

Sometime I remove the contents from the packets before serving, depending on my mood and the contents of the packet.  If there's going to be a lot of cutting involved it tends to be easier to take them out of the paper although it's less dramatic and fun.   Either way, it's a fast, easy and delicious meal that's very healthy.

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Sesame Salmon en Papillote

Serves 4

For the sauce:

Zest of ½ orange

1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

1 teaspoon peeled minced fresh ginger

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

1 teaspoon honey

10-12 leaves baby spinach per packet, about ½ bag of baby spinach

1 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

7 ounces shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed and thinly sliced

4 (6 ounce) salmon fillets, skinned

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup toasted white or black sesame seeds, or a mix

1/3 cup green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

Parchment paper (or aluminum foil)

Preheat oven to 425d.

Combine all sauce ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until blended; set aside.

Cut 4 large (approximately 16” by 12”) sheets of parchment paper.  (If you don’t have parchment paper, foil works just as well but definitely transfer the contents out of the foil before serving.) Fold each sheet in half. Place the fold on the bottom edge nearest you. Starting at the right side, cut a large semi-circle with the fold as the spine and one end more pointed then the other.  Open the paper and place ¼ of the spinach leaves, red bell pepper and shiitake mushrooms in a pile on one side, near the fold.  Moisten with one tablespoon of the sauce.  Place a salmon fillet on top; season with black pepper and additional tablespoon of marinade.  Sprinkle the top of the salmon with sesame seeds.

Fold the other half of the paper over the fish. Starting at the flatter end of the semicircle (not the pointy end), fold 1-2 inches of the edge inwards. Work your way around the circle making a series of tight, overlapping folds to enclose the fish. When you reach the pointy edge, fold the last pleat several times and wrap it under the pouch.  Repeat with the other three packets.

Place the packets on a baking sheet and bake for 11-12 minutes, depending on thickness.

Transfer the packets to plates and cut open.  Garnish with green onions prior to serving.  Alternatively, transfer the package contents to a plate and garnish prior to serving.  Serve any remaining sauce on the side.

Chicken Pho

Last Year's Post: Eggs in Tomato Sauce with Smoked Mozzarella
Two Years Ago:  Balsamic Vinegar Chicken with Almond Peppers

Pho is very popular, but it's always been somewhat of a mystery to me - what is it, exactly, and how do you pronounce it?  Turns out the "what is it" part is a little easier to explain than the "how do you pronounce it" part.  Basically, pho is a hearty Vietnamese soup that typically contains either chicken or beef, noodles, and vegetables.  I think of it much like the Mongolian hot pots that were so popular a decade or two ago, where you put a bunch of ingredients in a big bowl and then pour hot stock over the whole thing.

As for how to pronounce it,it looks like you should pronounce it "foe" but the correct pronunciation is actually "fuh".  Click here to hear it pronounced. (Isn't technology great?)

Although this is a recipe for chicken pho and therefore technically for chicken soup, it's a long way from any chicken soup you grew up with.  First, there's the chicken - boneless skinless thighs that are roasted in a dark and flavorful sauce of honey, mirin, soy sauce, fish sauce, and minced jalapenos, then thin sliced before adding to the soup.  The vegetables - shiitake mushrooms, leeks, and kale - add addition flavor, texture, color and nutrition.  The noodles aren't ordinary egg noodles, they're rice noodles, and the broth is boosted by the addition of lime juice and ginger.  The soup is finished with fresh cilantro sprigs and a few additional slices of jalapeno just to make sure you're awake.  A note about the jalapenos - I really wanted to use a red jalapeno for the garnish on the top to make it even prettier, but for some mysterious reason not one single store in my area had them.  If you can find them, it would be a great addition - colorful food always looks best - but it's a very beautiful soup with the green jalapenos anyway.

The resulting soup is complex in its flavors and textures while remaining true to the genre in terms of its wholesome goodness and comforting, healing properties.  Yes, it's some work, but so is homemade "regular" chicken noodle soup, and this version is ever so much more interesting.  Any college students you know will think you're very cool, because they eat it all the time.  AND you know how to pronounce it.

You start by making the sauce and roasting the chicken.  The sauce calls for dark soy sauce rather than regular soy sauce, which is darker, thicker and more intense in flavor.  You can find it at your local Asian market but regular soy sauce will work almost as well (the sauce won't be quite as thick).

Then you saute the mushrooms and leeks while slicing some kale, heating the broth, and softening the noodles. I used Tuscan kale, which I find to be less tough and bitter than curly kale.

After that it's pretty much just assembly.  I wanted a very chicken-y tasting broth so I added a little chicken base to the chicken broth when I was heating it, but you can leave it out if you prefer.  It gave the broth a nice dark color also.  I was really happy with the results.

printable recipe

Chicken Pho

Serves 4

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 jalapenos, divided

4 boneless skinless chicken thighs

3 ounces shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed and sliced

1 leek, white part only, sliced lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise

1 tablespoon olive oil

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

6 coin-sized slices of fresh ginger

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 teaspoons chicken base or chicken bouillon cubes (optional)

2 cups shredded Tuscan kale (ribs removed first)

6 ounces rice noodles

Cilantro leaves, for garnish

Preheat oven to 400d.

In a medium bowl, combine the soy sauce, honey, mirin, and fish sauce.  Mince one of the jalapenos and add it to the sauce.  Add the chicken thighs, turning to coat, then place them on a small aluminum foil-lined roasting pan.  Pour the remaining sauce over the chicken. Roast the chicken, turning over in the sauce several times, for 30 minutes.  Remove and cool before slicing thinly.  Set aside.

Heat a skillet over medium heat, then add the olive oil and mushrooms.  Sauté for 2 minutes, then add the leek and turn the heat to medium low.  Sprinkle with salt and sauté for 5-7 minutes until tender.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan add the chicken broth, chicken base (if using), ginger and lime juice.  As it approaches a boil add the kale and let cook for 2-3 minutes.  Remove the kale with a slotted spoon to a small bowl; set aside.  Remove the ginger with the slotted spoon and discard.  Keep the broth hot; season with salt to taste.

At the same time that the broth is heating, bring a bowl of water to a boil and add the rice noodles, letting them soak according to package directions (typically 8-10 minutes).  Drain.

Stem and with a small knife remove the seeds from the remaining jalapeno, then thinly slice into rings.

To assemble, place the chicken, mushrooms, leeks, kale, and noodles in wide shallow bowls.  Carefully pour the hot broth over all and garnish with cilantro leaves and jalapeno rings.  Serve immediately.

Miso-Glazed Scallops with Quinoa and Grilled Pineapple

Last Year's Post: Smashed Potatoes
Two Years Ago:  Shrimp, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad

Time for a confession - I totally stole the concept for this recipe from the Waldorf-Astoria Spa at The Boulders Resort in Scottsdale.  Not the recipe, mind you, but the concept.  I was checking out spas for an upcoming girls' weekend (tough duty) and was cruising by the spa restaurant, so I stopped to read the menu.  One of entrees was miso-glazed scallops with quinoa, pineapple, tomatillo salsa and prickly pear glaze.  I wasn't too sure about tomatillo salsa with miso scallops but liked the concept.

So here we are.  I pulled together components of several miso-based scallop recipes and added a few ingredients of my own to the quinoa.  I say this just in case Waldorf-Astoria employs a word-recognition internet-search service that will immediately flag this post because I would hate to get a cease-and-desist letter in the mail, although I'm sure it would be properly monogrammed on heavy cream paper with a nice gilt edge.

There are a few ingredients that you might not be familiar with:  white miso paste, mirin, and quinoa (keen-wah).

Miso is a paste made from fermented soybeans and is a common seasoning in Japanese cuisine.  It comes in different varieties (white, red, mixed) and is typically savory and salty.  You'll find it in upscale grocers or Asian markets, usually in a tub or plastic bag that needs to be refrigerated after opening.  Mirin is a sweet cooking rice seasoning and can be found in the Asian foods section of most grocers.  Quinoa is a grain that comes in different colors - usually white or red - and can be found in upscale grocers or natural food stores.  I like red quinoa in this recipe because of the color, but if you can't find it the white variety will taste the same.

(If you prefer, you could use shrimp instead of scallops, and if you don't feel like buying miso you could use any soy sauce-based vinaigrette.  It won't taste the same, but it'll still be good.)

The miso glaze adds great flavor to the scallops while the quinoa adds nuttiness and the grilled pineapple brings sweetness and juiciness to the party - it's really a great combination.  When you consider that this is also a spa dish and therefore healthy and low calorie, you have to admit those Waldorf people know what they're doing.

printable recipe

Miso-Glazed Scallops with Quinoa and Grilled Pineapple

Serves 4

4 (1/2” thick) pineapple slices, outer skin removed

Canola oil, for brushing

3 tablespoons white miso paste

2 tablespoons mirin

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

1 teaspoon minced garlic

12 medium sea scallops

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 cup uncooked quinoa (red preferred)

3.5 ounce fresh shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, stems removed and sliced

1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted

3 green onions, white and green parts sliced

Preheat a grill or grill pan to high heat.  Brush the pineapple slices with canola oil and grill for about 3 minutes per side until nice grill marks appear.  Remove and set aside.

Toast the dry quinoa in a dry pan for a few minutes to develop a toasty flavor, then combine with 2 cups of water in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover.  Simmer for 15 minutes. 

While the quinoa cooks, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium skillet and sauté the shiitakes for a few minutes until beginning to brown.  Set aside. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the miso, mirin, vinegar, 2 tablespoons canola oil, ginger and garlic.  Rinse and pat dry the scallops, then add to the marinade and turn to coat.  Let marinate for 5 minutes (scallops will begin to break down if left in any longer).  Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the scallops and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side depending on thickness.

Combine the quinoa, shiitakes, almonds, and half the green onions; season to taste with salt and pepper.  To serve, place one pineapple ring on each plate; top with quinoa mixture, 3 scallops, and remaining green onions.

Wild Mushroom and Gruyere Quiche

Last Year's Post:  Wild Mushroom & Wild Rice Chicken Soup
Two Years Ago:   Turnovers

Quiche is very versatile in terms of working well for brunch, lunch or dinner.  The only issue with quiche is getting it out of the dish neatly, even after it rests for a while. (And those of you who know me know I am ALL about neatness.) I have two suggestions for how to get around that issue.  The first is to make individual little quiches, which was my solution for years.  It does, however, require a little more work and some specialized pans that are available in gourmet kitchen stores.

Although I called that a solution, it's really more an avoidance of the original problem.  There is basically only one solution for neatly cutting a whole quiche - make it in advance and refrigerate it, then cut and reheat. If you've ever wondered how restaurants serve such nice neat slices, that's their secret. (The same thing works for pies and lasagna.)

Here's the difference between cutting a slice after the quiche rests for 30 minutes out of the oven (top) and the next day (bottom).

If you don't care whether your slices are perfect or you can't wait because your wild mushroom quiche smells that good or you really like the gooey cheesiness of it all, by all means dig in.  If you're having company for brunch and want it to look really pretty, make it in advance.  The other bonus is that you won't have to worry about any extra liquid in the dish.

OK, so enough about technique.  I chose this particular quiche because I really like the starring role the wild mushrooms play with nutty Gruyere cheese as the perfect complement.  They're left in chunks and browned until they're deeply flavorful and earthy, and there's lots of them.  I used oyster mushrooms, creminis, and shiitakes but you can use all of one or two types if you want.

After cleaning and trimming the stems, cut them into chunks and saute (the mushrooms shrink quite a bit as they lose their liquid). Sauteing until browned is the secret to great flavor.

The mushrooms have such deeply earthy flavor that the quiche makes a very satisfying dinner paired with a fresh green salad and crusty bread.  One other note - the recipe calls for a 9" deep dish pie pan, but a regular 9" pan will also work as long as your crust didn't slip down the side when it was first baked.  Just make sure the pan isn't full to the very top of the crust before baking or it may leak a bit as it bakes and puffs.

printable recipe

Wild Mushroom and Gruyere Quiche

Serves 6-8

 Note:  For the most perfect slices, bake the quiche a day in advance and refrigerate.  Cut slices and reheat.

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter

2/3 cups chopped shallot (about 3 medium)

12 to 14 ounces assorted wild mushrooms (such as shiitake, oyster, cremini)

1 homemade or refrigerated pie crust

3 large eggs

2/3 cup half and half

1/3 cup milk

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

1 ½ cups (packed) coarsely grated Gruyere cheese (about 5 ounces), divided

Wipe mushrooms with a clean damp cloth to remove dirt.  Remove shiitake stems completely and slice the ends off the stems of other mushrooms.  Cut mushrooms in half or quarters depending on their size and shape to create pieces of ½ - ¾” in size. 

Melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat.  Add shallots; sauté until beginning to soften, about 2 minutes.  Add mushrooms; sprinkle with salt and pepper and sauté until mushrooms have released their liquid, are tender and beginning to brown, about 9-10 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 450d.  Press the pie crust firmly onto the bottom and sides of a 9” deep-dish glass pie plate.  Bake until light golden brown, pressing on sides of crust with back of spoon if crust begins to slide down sides of dish, about 12-13 minutes.  Remove to cool slightly.  Reduce oven temperature to 325d.

Whisk eggs, half and half, milk, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper and thyme in a large bowl to blen.  Stir in 1 cup of grated Gruyere.  Place the sautéed mushrooms in the pie crust and pour the filling over the mushrooms.  Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup cheese over the top.

Bake until the quiche is puffed, golden brown, and just set in the center, about 45 minutes.  Cool 30 minutes before serving.

Chicken Chow Mein

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It might sound dorky but I've loved chicken chow mein since I was a little kid.  It was the first "exotic" food we ever had as take-out.  I liked the little white boxes with metal handles but what really sold me was the transluscent paper bag of crunchy noodles.  Chow mein is not chow mein without the crunchy noodles.  I now realize that most takeout chow mein is green goo with little bits of diced meat on the top so I was happy to find a healthy and updated version a few years ago.  In this recipe, the flavors are vibrant and the overall texture is very crunchy from crisp-tender celery, onions, and water chestnuts. Did I mention the shiitake mushrooms? Gourmet chow mein, indeed.

It might seem odd to post a chow mein recipe during the holidays but you can't eat cookies and fruitcake every day for the next month, right?  Do your body a favor and give it something healthy to eat every once in a while.  Six ounces of chicken for four servings doesn't sound like much, but chow mein has lots of vegetables too.  I think you'll be surprised at really how much chicken there is per serving when you're done - much more than in the takeout versions. 

If you haven't made many stir fries from scratch you might not be familiar with oyster sauce and dark sesame oil.  Both are readily available in the Asian section of your grocery store and give the sauce wonderful flavor so don't be tempted to leave them out.  Just be aware that sesame oil comes in two varieties - regular which is pale in color like other oils, and toasted which is dark in color.  The flavors are completely different.  The toasted variety may or may not say "toasted" on the label, so the most reliable way to know is simply to look at the color.

Left to right in the photo above you see oyster sauce, regular sesame oil, and toasted sesame oil.  Oyster sauce is very thick and dark with a mild flavor that I can't describe, you just have to try it. (But it doesn't taste like oysters.)  Regular sesame oil also has a mild flavor and is so pale it almost looks clear in the little glass bowl above.  Toasted sesame oil is much stronger with a rich nutty aroma and flavor, and it's always used sparingly in recipes for that reason.  If  I come across a recipe that specifies sesame oil but not the specific variety, I make a decision regarding which they intended based on the amount called for - toasted sesame oil is rarely specified in amounts greater than a teaspoon or two.  If you're intimidated by the unfamiliar ingredients, don't be.  They come together in a very tasty sauce and you would never guess the specific ingredients.

Like all stir fries, once you start cooking everything goes fast and you can't stop, so prep all your ingredients in advance.  The whole recipe takes maybe a half hour to prepare from start to finish with most of the time spent slicing ingredients, so this could be a great weeknight meal.

* * click here for a printable recipe version * *

Chicken Chow Mein

serves 4

Note: prep all ingredients in advance – cooking goes really fast once you start.

½ cup low-sodium chicken broth
3 T. oyster sauce
1 T. dark soy sauce, plus more for the table
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, about 6 ounces, cut into thin 2” long strips
1 teaspoon dark (toasted) Asian sesame oil
2 T. peanut oil
1 heaping tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 scallions, white and green minced, divided
salt
black pepper
½ medium yellow onion, thin sliced
2 stalks of celery, thin sliced on the diagonal
10 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps thin sliced
1/3 cup thin sliced canned water chestnuts
6 ounce bag of chow mein (rice) noodles
6 ounces fresh bean sprouts


Whisk together the chicken broth, oyster sauce, soy sauce, cornstarch, and sugar in a small bowl and set aside. Season the chicken with the dark sesame oil, salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat a large skillet or wok over high heat. Heat the two tablespoons of peanut oil until hot, then add the ginger, garlic and one minced scallion and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and stir fry until lightly browned, about 90 seconds. Add the onion, celery and mushrooms and stir fry until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Add the water chestnuts and spread the ingredients to the outside of the pan to make a well in the center. Pour the chicken broth mixture into the well, bring to a boil, and stir to coat all ingredients. Remove from the heat and season generously with black pepper.

Place approximately one cup of chow mein noodles on each plate, then top with the chow mein mixture, bean sprouts, and remaining green onions.  Serve with additional soy sauce, if desired.