Sunday, November 4, 2012

Chicken and Broccoli Over A TON of Rice


Chicken and Broccoli: simple and delicious.
We're still no good at taking pictures of food.
Stir frying is the seminal collegiate cooking technique. All you do is throw vegetation and maybe some meat in a pan. Thing is, warm vegetables over rice, or warm vegetables soaked in soy sauce over rice, can get old. Bean and I decided to venture out into some uncharted territory.

In the Madison County Price Chopper, there is an aisle labeled 'MEXICAN.' In this aisle, there is a section called 'RICE.' In this section, there is very little rice, but there are lots of bottles and jars full of things like Szechuan sauce, Thai Chile paste, water chestnuts, and those weird little corns.

Inspired, we decided to attempt a version of Chicken and Broccoli.

 TRIUMPHS

1) It starts the way all of our best meals do: with some onions in a pan. Sorry we're not sorry, onions are good.
So simple!
Such a large onion:chicken ratio!
2) If you cut up chicken into little strips and throw them in with the onions, they cook quickly and become super tasty.


Nug as an old dude with a beard.

3) Broccoli. Here is a truth for you: I used to hate broccoli. When I ate at friends' houses, I would tell their parents I was allergic so I wouldn't have to eat it.

Now I just feel silly about that, because it's one of the world's greatest vegetables. Bring on the broc!


4) THE PURCHASE OF THE MONTH AWARD GOES TO ...

House of Tsang Szechuan Spicy Stir Fry Sauce
Our first stir fry ever tasted exactly like chicken soup because all we had was soy sauce, and somehow that just tasted like salt. We solved this problem by getting some of this stuff. It's spicy, tangy, and all around magical. And definitely won't remind anyone of soup. Thanks House of Tsang!

5) You just combine all of these things in a frying pan (add the sauce slowly and taste as you go -- that stuff's powerful) and you're pretty much done.

STRUGGS WITH NUGS

Rice. 

Rice is the only thing in this recipe that requires math. The key is to remember that one cup of dry rice does not equal one cup of cooked rice. In fact, one cup of dry rice equals three cups of cooked rice.

So if you were to, say, add one cup of rice for you, one for your buddy, and one for leftovers, you would be an idiot because you just made nine cups of rice. 

Do I look sorry here?
I was way sorrier by the end of the week.
MORAL OF THE STORY

Stir frying is easy, and if you buy a mysterious bottle of sauce it becomes way more exciting. Obviously we don't know how to make actual Chicken and Broccoli, but we did use those two ingredients in a dish that tastes good. Just be sure to read the directions on your rice, okay?

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