Chicken, Cauliflower and Broccoli Stir Fry

This is one of my favourite Chinese vegetable dish that I always order in Chinese Takeaways and even in Chinese restaurants, it’s chunky, flavourful and relatively easy to prepare. A very healthy and versatile dish that you can pair with another meat dish, rice or even used as a topping on noodles stir fried or the crunchy variant.

Now since I don’t have a lot to tell about this recipe I guess we will have some it’s worth mentioning something about these two wonderful vegetables in this recipe. Let’s start with broccoli, this vegetable came from the Italian plural word of broccolo which means “the flower on top of the cabbage”. It is called such because this vegetable evolved in a wild type of cabbage 2000 years ago. A very nutritional vegetable which have a high level of vitamin C and dietary fibres and it also contains anti-cancer compounds but you have to be careful in cooking it otherwise you won’t reap the benefits that’s why the most effective cooking methods for broccoli is by steaming, blanch, microwave, stir fry and not boiling as it will loose 20 – 30% of its anti-cancer compounds.

Broccoli might closely resemble a cauliflower because they are of the same species which is called Brassica oleracea a family of vegetables that includes cabbage, brussel sprouts, kale and collard greens. Cauliflower like broccoli came from a word that came from cabbage but this time Cauliflower originated from a Latin term “caulis”. Like broccoli it is a very nutritious vegetable and they have nearly the same properties though a bit lesser than broccoli, cauliflower has a chemical that enhances DNA repair which also helps in slowing cancer cells. There are also different cauliflower colours and each have their own properties like the orange one which have a high level of vitamin A, purple which have high levels of anti-oxidant and green which does not differ much from the normal coloured cauliflower.

So if you want to have a very healthy meal but still taste great try this one out you will love it, trust me I love meat a lot, this one is on the top of my list in the best tasting vegetable dishes ever.

Ingredients

1 head broccoli, cut into florets
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
400g deboned chicken thighs, cut into cubes
1 large yellow capsicum, sliced
1 white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp Chinese wine
2 tsp sugar
salt
freshly ground black pepper
oil

Method

1. In a bowl marinate chicken in 1 tbsp cornstarch, Chinese wine and salt.
2. Bring to a boil a potful of water with 1 tsp salt and 2 tbsp oil. Add cauliflower and broccoli and blanch vegetables (Do not cook), drain and rinse with cold water this retains the colours of the broccoli while preventing further cooking. Set aside.
3. Dissolve remaining cornstarch in 1/4 cup of stock then set aside.
4. Heat up a wok, add oil then add chicken. Stir fry until it is evenly browned, set aside.
5. Sauté garlic and onions, then add the chicken, capsicum, broccoli and cauliflower stir fry for 30 seconds
6. Add the stock, dissolved cornstarch, salt (According to taste), sugar and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a boil, give it a good mix to evenly coat the vegetables with the sauce then turn heat off. Serve.