Chicken & Bell Pepper stir fry

In the early days of my marriage, when we were in Bangalore less the joint-family, stir fries where the staple. We had stir-fries every-day for dinner. I had a kitchen all to myself (glorious times those) and all I did were stir fries those first few weeks (dumb me). But Stir-fries are the easiest, quickest and sometimes the healthiest options too. We’d have stir-fried vegetables, stir-fried sprouts.. This stir-fried chicken is quick and yummy. This stir-fried chicken was perfect for my little ones. They loved it. Each picture shows you a dynamically changing bowl of stir-fried chicken. Because my kids kept nibbling on the chicken while I tried to click these pictures.

There are innumerable ways you can vary this stir fry but just make sure that you adhere to the basic principle of stir-fries. Always stir fry at high heat, while constantly moving the food around. You want your food to cook but you also want to retain the freshness and crunch. So the order in which you add vegetables is important. Capsicum/Bell peppers cook very fast and therefore you add them towards the end. If you were to add carrots or baby corn, you’d have to add them earlier or leave them to cook a little longer. If you want to add mushrooms, cook them separately till all the water evaporates and they’re nicely browned and then combine them towards the end. And don’t ever overcook chicken, it gets stringy and tasteless.

I served this stir-fried chicken along with Thai red curry and steamed rice. My kids ate the stir fried chicken as is. You could also serve these alongside Mexican rice, sandwich them between two layers of toast slathered with some mayonnaise or roll them up in a tortilla along with your favourite sauces. Another great way to serve these to kids is to give them little toothpicks to pick out the chicken. My kids recently went crazy using their toothpicks at a restaurant. Try it.

Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Serves: 3

Ingredients

Chicken Breasts – 2 cut into bite sized pieces
Capsicum/Bell peppers – ½ cup chopped into bite sized pieces
Garlic – 4 pods minced
Ginger – 1 inch piece minced
Oil – 3 tbsp
Soy sauce – 1 tsp
Black pepper powder – 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method

1.      Wash and clean chicken. Pat dry and chop into bite sized pieces.

2.      Heat up a pan, add oil and when nearly smoking hot, drop in the chicken pieces and fry on high heat constantly tossing them about. Move them around with a spatula if you can’t toss the pan. The chicken will turn white and then start browning. When the chicken is lightly browned, remove on to a plate.

3.      To the same pan, add the minced garlic and ginger. Stir around till the garlic starts to brown. Immediately add the bell peppers, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Mix well. Cook on high for a minute till the bell peppers are cooked but still crunchy. Add the chicken back to the pan and toss well. Cook for another 2 minutes for the flavours to blend. Switch off. Serve hot.

Notes:

1.      To make a vegetable stir-fry try using baby corn, carrots, beans, potatoes cut into thin wedges, sweet potato or mushrooms.

2.      You can play around with the seasoning as well. Try adding a dash of barbecue sauce (available in Nilgiris) towards the end for a glossy look and a nice flavourful punch.