This quick and easy meal is a regular at lunchtime for me, but with one simple addition it is versatile enough to enjoy for dinner too.
Speaking of versatile, although I have included my preferred list of vegetables below, you can chuck practically anything (within reason) in this and still produce a delicious meal. While the ingredients list may look imposing, don’t worry – it is really easy to make.
Ingredients
Serves 2, and takes about 15 minutes.
- 2 breasts chicken, skin removed, sliced thinly
- 2 servings udon noodles (I’ll include these for dinner or omit them for lunch)
- 4 spring onions (chopped), or 1 red onion or 1 medium white onion (halved and sliced)
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tbsp sesame oil (an alternative oil is fine if you don’t have it)
- One inch of ginger, chopped
- 1 red chilli, de-seeded and chopped
- Handful of peas
- One carrot, thinly sliced
- Half a red pepper, halved and sliced
- Six mushrooms, sliced
- Two handfuls of fresh baby spinach
- Handful of beansprouts
- A generous splash of soy sauce
- A small splash of mirin or rice wine vinegar
- 1 cube (or equivalent) chicken stock, crumbled
- 1 egg
- Small sprinkle of sesame seeds
- Handful of coriander, roughly chopped (fresh ideally, dried if not)
- A few strips of pickled ginger
Instructions
Put a wok over a medium/high heat and pour in a tbsp of sesame oil. Throw in the chicken, keep things moving and fry for a couple of minutes.
Prepare any of the vegetables that will take longer to cook (such as the carrots) first. Throw them in as you chop them, with exception to the spinach and beansprouts.
Once all of the vegetables (minus exceptions) are in the wok, turn the heat up high and add the soy sauce and mirin. Continue to stir.
Once the liquid has begun to evaporate (after a minute or so), add the chicken stock cube, then the spinach. Stir until wilted.
Add the beansprouts and fry off for just 10–20 seconds.
Finally, add the egg. Make sure it separates and combines with all the ingredients – keep things moving!
After 30–60 seconds, take the wok off the heat, throw in the coriander and stir. Serve up, then put the pickled ginger on top and top off with the sesame seeds.
Tips and Suggestions
- The key here is to slice and chop everything finely. Because everything will only be on the heat for a relatively short amount of time, thinner slices will ensure that the ingredients are still cooked.
- You can make this meal a lot more convenient (as I do) with shortcut ingredients like the Very Lazy range available here in the UK.
- For a big change of flavour, replace the chicken with a couple of salmon fillets.
- Other vegetables to consider throwing into the mix: broccoli (tenderstem or regular), bok choy, snow peas and water chestnuts.
- If you can’t be bothered preparing individual vegetables, you can pick up pre-prepared stir fry vegetable packs from most supermarkets.