from Dave’s Flickr

I just discovered the joy of marinating meat. This first attempt is inspired by the motherland, although the real Chinese would never cook chicken this way. Same goes for the Thai-style stir-fry, which is Thai only in style.

Be assured, though, that both came out tasty.

Ginger-soy baked chicken

Put a few chicken thighs in a ziplock bag or tupperware, with soy sauce, rice vinegar (black or white) finely chopped ginger and garlic. Optional ingredients include spiciness (cayenne powder or chili flakes), sesame-ness (sesame oil or toasted seeds), and sweetness (sugar, honey, or maple syrup). Leave in fridge for a day/overnight. If you start with frozen chicken, leave at room temperature for a day to combine thawing and marinating.

When you get home from work, take the chicken out of the marinade and pop into a 400°F oven on a baking pan. Baste every 10 minutes or so by putting some of the marinade on top of the chicken. The chicken is done after ~30min or if your meat thermometer / eyes tell you so.

Thai-style stir-fry

You can put any vegetables you want in here. I chose kale, carrots, water chestnuts, and fresh baby corn. Chop into cookable pieces–strips for kale, thin slices for carrots and chestnuts, break corn in half. Pre-cook vegetables by blanching* (carrots, corn) or sautéing with some water or stock (kale). Water chestnuts don’t need to be pre-cooked.

What makes this Thai is the sauce. Start this by cooking some diced onions, minced garlic+ginger, and coarsely chopped lemongrass in vegetable oil. When onions are soft, add a few dashes of sherry and let reduce briefly. Then add stock+coconut milk, spiciness (chili flakes or chopped fresh chilis), and sweetness (sugar or honey). Cook until thick, then take off heat.

Now combine vegetables and sauce in a big wok and stir-fry on high heat for a few minutes.

*Blanching means quickly boiling in lightly salted water so the vegetables don’t get soggy. Bring water to boil, toss in vegetables, turn off heat, wait a minute, and pour into colander to stop cooking.

Sauce (for chicken)

When you take the chicken out of the baking pan, skim off most of the oil with a spoon, put the pan on a burner, and pour in some stock+sherry. Scrape up the gunk on the bottom, mix it up, and reduce. Spoon some of this over the chicken.

Combined

Serve chicken and stir-fry on steamed white rice. Keep a bit of the sauce on the side and add to the rice if you get bored of the plain rice flavor.