It’s easy, versatile, and quick. You can throw in whatever veggies you have on hand and tweak the flavors to suit your fancy.

After cutting meat into chunks, drizzle with a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil. Set aside. Prepare all vegetables and have them ready. Mix ½ cup soy sauce with sugar. Stir together and set aside. Mix ¼ cup chicken broth with arrowroot. Stir together and set aside. Measure an additional ¼ cup chicken broth. Set aside. To begin stir fry, heat skillet or wok over high heat. When it’s hot, drizzle in 2 teaspoons peanut oil. Add meat to skillet and fry quickly, stirring around for 2 to 3 minutes. When brown and just cooked through, remove to a separate bowl. Add additional 1 tablespoon peanut oil to same skillet. Throw in onions and cook for 1 minute. Add red bell pepper and cook for 30 seconds. Add garlic and ginger. Stir. Add mushrooms and stir. Cook for 45 seconds. Add baby corn. Stir. Pour in ¼ cup chicken broth and soy sauce/sugar mixture. Drizzle in 1 teaspoon rice vinegar and ½ teaspoon sesame oil. Dump in cooked chicken. Stir together. Pour in chicken broth/arrowroot mixture. Stir together, then turn off heat. Sauce should be much thicker. At the very end, seconds before serving, stir in ½ cup (or up to 1 cup) roughly chopped cilantro. Serve over cooked rice. Variations: • You can use any following vegetables: broccoli, snow peas, zucchini, any color of bell pepper, any mushroom, water chestnuts, green onions, etc. • Add ½ cup cashew halves to make it even more yummy. • Eat with chopsticks if you want to feel really cool.

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whole White Mushrooms, Sliced (can Use Any Mushroom You Like)

10 whole White Mushrooms, Sliced (can Use Any Mushroom You Like)

whole Red (or Other Color) Bell Pepper, Cut Into Chunks

1 whole Red (or Other Color) Bell Pepper, Cut Into Chunks

1/2 c. Soy Sauce (plus Extra To Drizzle Over Meat)

whole Chicken Breasts (or Other Meat), Cut Into Pieces

3 whole Chicken Breasts (or Other Meat), Cut Into Pieces

I don’t think I’ve ever been more glad to see Monday in my life. I loved Christmas ’round these parts and had a wonderful time, but there’s something about the pace of the holidays that makes me want to take a four-month nap when it’s all over. And the food—it’s always so abundant and rich and fattening…and yummy. And often complicated, as my prime rib from Saturday night can attest. Note to self: make sure the inner core of your rib loin is completely thawed before you put it in the oven. Purple beef is not appealing, unless your guests are wolves.

Make stir fry tonight! It’s easy, versatile, quick, and has nothing to do with typical holiday fare. You can throw in whatever veggies you have on hand—that’s exactly what I did last night—and tweak the flavors to suit your fancy. I love following Christmas week with Asian food. Some people go on a cabbage diet; others do a total body cleanse. I eat stir fry.

Now’s the perfect time for me to tell you that I totally botched the “Cast of Characters” photo and won’t even show it to you because it’ll just confuse things. Let’s just say that when I was assembling the list of ingredients for the photo, my house was not a quiet, calm, peaceful, mellow place.

Not that it ever is.

But here are the ingredients I used:

3 chicken breasts, fat trimmed

1 medium onion

2 cloves fresh garlic

A small chunk of fresh ginger—more if you love ginger, which I do

1 red bell pepper

10 white mushrooms

1 small jar of baby corn

Peanut Oil

Soy Sauce

Sugar

Chicken Broth

Rice Vinegar

Sesame Oil (optional)

Arrowroot (see this PW recipe for an explanation of Arrowroot)

Cooked Rice

First, let’s get some rice going:

Start with 2 cups of long grain rice.





Rinse the rice well under cold water for about a minute, then place into a medium saucepan.





Pour 3 cups cold water over the rice.









Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Simmer uncovered for 10 to 12 minutes.





Most of the liquid will be absorbed.





Now just turn off the heat, cover the pot, and allow it to stand for at least ten minutes…or until your stir fry is done.





Next chop up an onion into large chunks. This is not the time to follow my instructions for a fine onion dice!





After that, smash two cloves of garlic and mince it really finely.

I realize my knife looks blue…but it isn’t. I do not own a blue knife. What’s happening is that I’ve been cooking more after dark, and am not an expert with my flash. So we might see some blue knives, some purple chicken, and some green red peppers…or worse. Please bear with me and continue to love me until Daylight Savings Time begins. Thank you for your cooperation. This is a recording.





Next, it’s time to mince some fresh ginger: I’m in a hurry, so I just slice off the hard skin…





Then I cut the ginger into thin matchsticks, and slice in the other direction to mince it. I use about three parts ginger to one part garlic, but if you’re averse to ginger you can cut back the quantity.





Cut up a red bell pepper into large chunks.

Now, slice up the mushrooms into thick slices. And if you want to be exactly like me, do NOT remember to take a photo while you’re slicing the mushrooms.





Slice up the baby corn. I don’t know who invented baby corn, but I think they should win an award for ingenuity. Or something.





So now you have your veggies ready to go. And it’s important to have EVERYTHING ready to go before you start the stir fry, because things need to move very quickly.

We’ll cover that more later.





Now, on a separate cutting board and with a separate knife…





Cut the chicken into small chunks.





Now, just drizzle a little soy sauce on the chicken to start things off with a little flavor.





I also add a couple of drizzles of sesame oil, because I love sesame oil.





Give the meat a little toss with your fingers. And yes, those are my fingers. Those are not the hooky claws of a demon, despite how they appear.

Rosemary’s Baby, anyone?

Next, we need to prepare two little concoctions:





Add 1/2 cup of soy sauce to a small dish.





Stir in 3 tablespoons (yes, 3 tablespoons) sugar to the soy sauce and stir together. It’ll seem a little syrupy. But syrupy is good.





In one little dish, combine 1/4 cup chicken broth with 2 rounded teaspoons arrowroot.





Stir it together. This will act as a thickener at the end, and will give the stir fry a nice consistency.

**Also have an additional 1/4 cup chicken broth ready to go. You’ll be glad you had all of this at the ready.

Now, we’re ready to stir fry! But first, let me explain a few things to you.

**The key to stir frying is to begin with an incredibly hot skillet or wok, which means you’ll either need to open windows or have a good ventilation on your stove.

**Stir fry needs to happen really quickly with a very hot pan, which will result in the meat and vegetables having a nice sear/color/flavor to them.

**The vegetables should be cooked but not soggy—you want them all to be somewhat firm and “fresh”.

**Cook vegetables in order of how much time they need to cook—add the harder/thicker veggies first, working your way down to the more flimsy ones.

**Have your plates and utensils ready to go so you can serve it up immediately.

**My name is Herman.





Heat your skillet or wok over high heat. When it’s hot, drizzle in some peanut oil. Peanut oil has a high smoking point, which makes it perfect for stir fry.





Swirl the oil around in the pan, then add the chicken in a single layer. Wait several seconds before you stir it around so it’ll get nice and seared.





Now stir it around a bit. You can see how hot the pan is, because there are already brown spots on the bottom. That’s a very good thing.









The meat should cook within two to three minutes.





When it’s cooked, remove it to a separate bowl and set aside.





Keep the pan over high heat and drizzle in a little more peanut oil.





Begin by throwing in the onions. Don’t be afraid of the junk in the bottom of the pan.





Stir the onions around for approximately a minute. They’ll get brown in no time flat.





Throw in the red peppers and stir them around for about thirty seconds, then throw in the garlic and ginger.

Are you starting to get the idea that there’s really no method to this madness? I just throw. And hope it turns out okay.





The mushrooms go next, and yes…the bottom of my pan is a mess. This wouldn’t happen if I had a wok, but I just can’t be bothered with buying any more kitchen equipment.

Plus, I like the brown stuff.





Next comes the baby corn, which requires basically no cooking.





Now, with the heat still on high, pour in 1/4 cup chicken broth.





Next, pour in the soy sauce/sugar mixture…





And just for kicks, pour in about a teaspoon rice vinegar.





And one last drizzle of sesame oil.





Now add in the chicken…





…And give it a good stir.





Finally, dump in the chicken broth/arrowroot mixture…





As you stir, the arrowroot will almost instantly thicken the stir fry and give it a lovely gloss.





Finally, at the VERY end—literally seconds before serving—throw in some fresh cilantro. You don’t want to do this early because the cilantro will wilt very quickly.





To serve, heap up some cooked rice—which should be just perfect by now—in a bowl.





Spoon a nice helping of stir fry over the top, making sure to get some yummy juice on the rice.





Top it all off with some more cilantro.

**If you hate cilantro, you can use fresh basil.





And serve it with chopsticks, unless you have four children, which makes it impossible to keep chopsticks in the house. In that case, a fork works well.

And one more thing: Have a fabulous Monday After Christmas!

Love,

P-Widdy-Dub-Diddy