Two by Two Stir Fry

I don't usually eat anything remotely resembling Japanese food nor do I frequently eat rice but I do try to take advantage of the ingredients at hand once in awhile. Yes, I know a stir fry isn't very "western" and I said I'd talk about living a western lifestyle. If it helps, I eat it with a fork.

This is an easy to remember chicken stir fry recipe (because you use 2 of most ingredients) that I like to have once a month or so for variety. It's cheap, quick, healthy, and easy to make. The prep time for getting the chicken into the marinade is about 10 minutes. The prep time for the remainder is about 5 minutes (unless you are extremely incompetent with cutting up vegetables). Cooking time is 10-15 minutes depending on your pan size and how hot your stir fry is.

Ingredients:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into small bite-size pieces
marinade:
2 T. mirin (sweet cooking sake)
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. olive oil
2 t. seasoned vinegar (I use Mitsukan)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
dash or two of salt and pepper

1- 2 T. olive oil (for stir frying)
2 small-medium green peppers cut into largish bite-size pieces
2 small onions, cut into largish bite-size pieces
2 chicken consomme cubes dissolved in 3/4 cup very hot water
2 t. cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup cold water
cashews (optional)

Place the chicken breast into a Ziploc bag. Put mirin, soy sauce, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk until well blended. Pour this over the chicken for a marinade. Squeeze the bag gently to distribute the marinade evenly and put in the refrigerator for 2-8 hours.

For the green pepper and onion, the easiest way to cut them is to cut them in half then cut each half in quarters. You don't want the pieces to be too small or they'll cook too quickly and get mushy.

Heat a large skillet or wok under high heat. Add oil. Add the peppers and onions and stir around constantly until slightly cooked (about 3 minutes). You want them to stay crispy so make sure they aren't cooked to a wilted point. Add the chicken. You can likely upend the entire bag in since the chicken will have absorbed all of the marinade. Stir the chicken around over high heat until almost cooked. It should not take too long if the pieces aren't too large. The pieces will brown slightly.

Add the chicken broth made with consomme and stir around. Allow the chicken to finish cooking in the broth then add the cornstarch water and stir to thicken.

Serve over rice. Top with cashews. Makes 4 servings.

This recipe may be a bit salty for some so you may want to consider using low salt chicken broth instead of consomme or low sodium soy sauce.