DIY Meals: Chicken Stir Fry

Dinner on a weeknight can feel like the worlds largest chore. With a little preparation it can be easier than you think.

This will serve four people so adapt it for a family or have left overs for lunch or dinner the following day.

Ingredients

1. Two carrots
2. Two onions
3. Two zucchinis
4. Garlic
5. 1 red capsicum
6. 200g mushrooms
7. 500grams chicken stir-fry pieces (this saves time)
8. Broccolini is a nice addition if you can
9. Your sauce of choice (more on that later)
10. 2 cups of Basmati rice

Making it happen

• Put the rice on first. We’re using a new rice cooker from Panasonic, it has extremely easy to use settings and essentially you add the two cups of rice and add water till it hits the 2 on the bowl. Other rice cookers may be similar. They start from $20 in stores but unless you only plan on using it once, buy a good one.
• The rice cooker we are using will take 40 minutes to make the rice to perfection. This is why we are doing it first.
• Get chopping. Cut up all the vegetables, chunk them, slice them, there is no real rules in stir-fry. Your ingredients list can change and that’s fine too, add or remove items as you see fit. Put all of these aside.
• Heat the pan on high heat and then throw the chicken in. You want to make sure the pan is hot so that when that chicken goes on it sizzles heavily, if the pan is cold you’ll basically start stewing the chicken, not good.

• Once the chicken is looking white all over add in all the vegetables you’ve previously cut up and stir and stir and stir and stir. Do not cover the pan. This will just make everything sweat and you’ll have a puddle in the pan.
• After a few minutes of stirring, add the sauce. We didn’t say which sauce you had to have but head to the international lane in your grocery store and grab a different flavour each time. We chose satay today however there are dozens to try. Stir all of this through.
• If all goes well, your rice will be ready, if it finishes earlier than the chicken and veggies then the rice cooker will switch to “Keep warm” mode so no problems.
• Grab a couple of bowls and serve up. Everything else can go into containers for the next dinner or lunch.