Chinese Chicken and Broccoli

When Tim and I go out to eat at Chinese restaurants, our favorite item off the menu is chicken and broccoli; however, while it sounds healthy, it can be rather unhealthy due to the amount of oil and sodium it has at the restaurant. My goal was to make a healthier recipe, and while being quite skeptical about it, it actually tasted better than the dish at the Chinese restaurant. I found this recipe on foodnetwork.com.


Ingredients
Game Plan:
Marinate the chicken while you prepare the rest of the ingredients
1 pound chicken breast (about 2 breasts), cubed
3 scallions, whites only, thinly sliced on an angle
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece peeled fresh ginger, minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
About 1/3 cup water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 to 6 cups broccoli, trimmed sliced stalks and medium florets (keep the 2 cuts separate)
3/4 to 1 teaspoon red chili flakes, optional
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
Garnish: toasted sesame seeds, optional
Serving suggestion: Jasmine rice
Directions
In a medium bowl, toss the chicken with the scallion whites, about half the garlic and ginger, the soy sauce, sugar, 1 teaspoon of the cornstarch, 1 teaspoon of the salt, the sherry, and the sesame oil. Marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes. Mix the remaining cornstarch with 1/3 cup water.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and heat. Add the broccoli stems, and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the florets and the remaining garlic, ginger, 2 tablespoons of water, and season with 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Stir-fry until the broccoli is bright green but still crisp, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Get the skillet good and hot again, and then heat 2 more tablespoons oil. Add the chicken and chili flakes if using. Stir-fry until the chicken loses its raw color and gets a little brown, about 3 minutes. Add the hoisin sauce, return the broccoli to the pan and toss to heat through. Stir in the reserved cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil to thicken. Add more water if need to thin the sauce, if necessary. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if you like. Mound the stir-fry on a serving platter or divide among 4 plates and garnish with sesame seeds; serve with rice.

Website Notes: The garlic and ginger can be chopped together in a minichopper to save time.

Scallion greens can also be used to garnish, if you like that extra onion-y flavor and you want to use up the scallions.

The broccoli stems are used (love all that fiber) to add textural contrast and also to help bulk up the dish, and why waste them?

My Notes: To make the dish healthier, I steamed the broccoli first, why add extra oil when you don't have to. I then just sauted the garlic and ginger in a tiny bit of oil and mixed that in the broccoli. I then used half the amout of oil when making the chicken and instead of vegatable oil I used Canola Oil since it is lower in saturated fat and calories.

For rice I used Brown rice instead of the suggested Jasmine Rice, it has more whole grains and is healthier.

This recipe got two thumbs up from both Tim and I. I definitely will cook it again, its a balanced meal with grains, protein, and vegetables!