Quick and Easy Tea - Sweet and Spicy Chicken Breast Strips with Fried Mushroom Rice

Last night's meal was a great success, not a single morsel left on any of the plates, with fantastic comments for the steak and ale pie.
I needed a quick tea tonight, as we didn't get home until late, and I did not want to arrive home and say "lets order a take-away", most of which ends up in the recycling food bin - as it is not really good food from our local take-away, plus it defeats the purpose of trying to save money and waste on food. So a quick browse on the internet, I came upon what appears to be a rather nice recipe - http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/9811/sweet-and-spicy-chicken.aspx - so credit must go to the cook who posted this, as it is absolutely fantastic.

So I have gone through the bag of chicken breasts I got on my last Tesco's order, and I have taken out the ones with the least weight to use for tea tonight, to use the larger on for something else.

This dish is only quick if you prepare things in advance, i.e. rice cooked, chicken cut, sauce made, chillies, garlic and ginger chopped - all ready just for assembly.

Note - while the recipe below is for two people, the original recipe is for four people.

Cost - approx £1.50p
Serves - 2 people

Ingredients:

For the fried rice:

• 100g of long grain rice
• 1 TBLSP of olive oil
• 150g of closed cup mushrooms - wiped clean and finely chopped
• 3 TBLSP soy sauce
• 2 TSP of Chinese five spice
• 1 medium chilli - deseeded and finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

For the sauce:

• 1 TBLSP dark brown soft sugar
• 2 TBLSP honey
• 4 TBLSP soy sauce
• 2 TSP fresh root ginger finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 TBSLP hot sweet chilli sauce

For the chicken:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets, cut into 1cm strips
• 1 TBLSP vegetable oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Method the fried rice:

Tip - Make the rice ahead of time, as it needs to be cold.

• Cover rice with water
• Bring it to the boil
• Once the water is boiling reduce the heat to as low as possible and simmer until the rice is cooked
• Rinse and drain the rice under cold water
• Store the boiled rice in a food container and put in the fridge

Method for the sauce:

• Mix together dark brown soft sugar, honey, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and hot sauce in a small bowl and set aside

Method for the chicken:

• Trim the chicken if required
• Cut the chicken into strips, place chicken in a bowl, add the oil and mix - the oil just stops the strips sticking together
• Lightly salt and pepper the chicken strips

Cooking the meal:

• Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add chicken strips and brown on both sides
• Pour the sauce over the chicken. Simmer uncovered until the sauce reduces and thickens, 8 to 10 minutes
• Whilst the chicken is simmering, in a separate frying pan, add some olive oil, and add cook the mushrooms for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic, chilies and five spice and cook for one minute
• Add the rice and the soy sauce, and cook on a high heat, stirring all the time until the rice is cooked through and piping hot
• Serve the chicken and the rice, enjoy..

The finished meal