Great Chinese Stir Fry

This stir fry recipe takes more prep time than cook time, and is well worth it. You can add or substitute ingredients depending what you have on hand. The sauce is pungent, and in my opinion is highly dependent on the brand Oyster sauce used. My local store stopped carrying “House of Tsang” brand so I tested many, many brands, and came to the conclusion I ‘d better find it online and order it if I wanted to continue to make stir fry with this unbelievable sauce.  The techniques and ingredients are base on two recipes from Cooks Illustrated.

Great Chinese Stir Fry

1 lb. flank steak, sirloin tips or boneless chicken, cut into very small bite size pieces
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1-1/2 Tbsp dry sherry
4 Tbsp chicken broth
6 Tbsp oyster sauce
1-1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tsp sesame oil
2 Tsp cornstarch
6 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 piece (2″ or so) fresh ginger, minced
4 Tbsp canola or peanut oil
1 lb, broccoli florets
1/3 c. water
1 red pepper, sliced into bite sized pieces
5-6 baby bok choy or 1 stalk bok choy, stalks & green separated and sliced
handful or so of fresh bean sprouts (preferably) or half can of canned
bean sprouts
scallions, sliced

Marinate beef in soy sauce 10 minutes to 1 hour.  Meanwhile prepare sauce; Whisk sherry, chicken broth, oyster sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, & cornstarch. In a separate bowl, combine garlic, ginger & oil. Drain beef, and cook on high heat preferably in a wok until browned. Transfer beef to plate. Add a little oil to hot wok, and add broccoli, white stalks of bok choy and water and cover pan to steam vegetables for about 2 minutes. Transfer to plate. Add a little more oil to hot wok, add peppers, bok choy leaves and bean sprouts and cook until peppers are spotty brown (1-1 1/2 min). Clear center of wok & add garlic/ginger mixture and cook for 20 seconds and stir into vegetables. Add broccoli & beef and mix together. Add sauce mixture  and cook to thickened. Sprinkle with sliced scallions and serve.

This recipe can be made with virtually any vegetables you would like. The basic principal is to prepare everything ahead of time, and then preparing takes minutes. Basically the meat is cooked, the heavier vegetables are then cooked, the lighter vegetables, the garlic/ginger is lightly cooked to bring out the aromas, and then the sauce added.