hello! hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to foods from TV and Film with a shot at a garlic snow pea chicken stir fry inspired by this classic scene from Dude Where’s My Car. Those that have followed along with this channel will likely know that a “garlic chicken” stir fry is an incredibly broad and vague term for a stir fry because, as you might guess, garlic and chicken are in A LOT of stir fries. This of course means that we have ample room for interpretation today, since the only requirements are that our stir fry must have garlic…and chicken. So! Today I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to explore a wonderful vegetable that’s super commonly found in chinese stir fries but somehow we have not yet used much, which is the snow pea.
For those unfamiliar, a snow pea is a flat, podded pea with thin and crispy walls. They have a crunchy, fibrous texture to them, not unlike its relative, the snap pea, but with a thinner and more delicate shell, making it excellent for high heat flash cooking and stir frying. To pair with this wonderfully delicate veggie, we’ll be doing our dish with an acid forward, bright sauce element highlighting our rice vinegar and shaoxing wine, which should complement our snow peas nicely. Then finally (since it is in the name after all), I thought this would also be an appropriate time to jam as much garlic into this dish as we possibly can, with a crispy garlic flake finish to our stir fry as well. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
8oz snow peas
1 chicken breast
12 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
1/2 medium white onion
corn starch slurry (2 tbsp corn starch + water)
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (marinade)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp corn starch
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
2 tbsp shaoxing wine
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp doubanjiang
2 tbsp chile crisp oil
PREP
CRUSH and mince 4 cloves of garlic, set aside
SLICE 8 remaining cloves of garlic, set aside separately
MINCE ginger, set aside
LARGE DICE the onion, set aside
DICE the chicken, then combine with all marinade ingredients and let marinate for 30 minutes
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the chicken to the wok, then spread evenly across the wok and sear for 2 1/2 minutes undisturbed before tossing for an additional minute
REMOVE the chicken and deglaze with the sauce mixture plus 1/4 cup water, then let reduce for 1-2 minutes
REMOVE the sauce mixture, then reheat the wok, add an additional 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the crushed garlic and ginger, then bloom until fragrant for 15 seconds
ADD the onion and saute for 1 minute
ADD the snow pea and saute for 2-3 minutes
ADD the chicken and sauce mixture back to the wok and toss to combine
ADD the corn starch slurry, then toss until the sauce becomes thickened
REMOVE the stir fry from the wok, wipe down, and reheat the wok over medium low heat
ADD an additional 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the garlic chips to the wok and let simmer for 5-10 minutes until lightly golden and 80% cooked through
SERVE over rice with garlic chips as garnish