Hairy Bikers Chicken, Cashew and Pineapple Stir Fry

The chicken gets a ten minute marinade before it goes anywhere near the wok, and that is the whole trick. Hairy Bikers chicken stir fry uses just 200g of chicken for four people, with mangetout, baby corn, cashews and pineapple doing the rest. The recipe is in Everyday Winners and works out at about 225 calories.

They name the technique in the book: marinating chicken this way is called velveting, and it makes the meat beautifully soft and tender. They add that it works just as well on pork loin.

Coat the chicken until there are no white streaks of cornflour left. Those streaks turn into pale gluey patches in the wok, so keep mixing until the whole lot looks evenly slick.

Hairy Bikers Chicken Stir Fry

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Frying Cuisine:British Chinese Courses:Main

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 20 minutesCook time: 15 minutesRest time: 10 minutesTotal time: 45 minutesServings:4 servingsCalories:225 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

Soy sauce and mirin go on first, then oil, then cornflour, in that order. The chicken cooks alone for two or three minutes and comes straight back out. The wok is wiped clean before the vegetables go in, and everything meets again at the end.

Ingredients

For the chicken

• 200g skinless, boneless chicken breast or thigh meat, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tsp oil
• 2 tsp cornflour

For the sauce

• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp pineapple juice

For the vegetables

• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 shallots, finely sliced
• ½ red pepper, diced
• 100g mangetout
• 50g baby corn
• 1 hot red chilli, finely chopped, or ½ tsp hot chilli flakes
• 10g root ginger, cut into matchsticks
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 35g cashew nuts
• 100g diced pineapple, canned or fresh

To serve

• sesame oil
• fresh coriander, chopped

Instructions

1. Velvet the chicken: Put the chicken in a bowl and pour over the soy sauce and mirin. Leave for 10 minutes, then stir in the oil followed by the cornflour. Make sure it is completely coated with no white streaks of cornflour left.
2. Mix the sauce: Stir the sauce ingredients together and set aside.
3. Cook the chicken: Heat half the oil in your wok. When the air above it is shimmering, add the chicken and stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes until coloured all over and just cooked through. Lift it out into a clean bowl.
4. Start the vegetables: Wipe out the wok and add the remaining oil. Add the shallots, red pepper, mangetout and corn and stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Add the aromatics: Add the chilli, ginger, garlic and cashews and keep stir-frying until the cashews have taken on some colour.
6. Bring it together: Stir in the pineapple and the chicken, then pour over the sauce. Cook over a high heat until the chicken is hot through and the vegetables are just al dente.
7. Serve: Drizzle with sesame oil and scatter over chopped coriander.

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FAQs

What is velveting?

A Chinese restaurant technique, and the book names it. The chicken sits in soy sauce and mirin, then gets oil and cornflour worked into it, which leaves a thin coating that protects the meat in a very hot wok.

The result is chicken that stays soft instead of drying out in three minutes of high heat. They also say it works well with pork loin, so it is worth learning for more than this one dish.

Why cook the chicken separately?

Because a wok full of chicken and vegetables at once will steam rather than fry. The chicken goes in alone, cooks in two or three minutes and comes straight out.

Wipe the wok before the vegetables go in, which the recipe asks for. Any cornflour left behind from the velveting will catch and burn at stir-fry heat.

How do I know the wok is hot enough?

They give a good test: look for the air shimmering above the oil. That is hotter than most people take a domestic pan, and it is what gives you frying rather than steaming.

Only 200g of chicken for four?

Yes, and that is deliberate. They describe it as a tasty way to get some of your five a day, so the mangetout, corn, pepper, shallots and pineapple do most of the work.

It is why the dish lands at around 225 calories a serving. Serve it with rice or noodles if you want it to stretch further.

How is this different from their sweet and sour chicken?

Different dish entirely, even though both have pineapple. Their sweet and sour chicken is built on a proper sauce made from 300ml of pineapple juice, ketchup, vinegar and brown sugar.

Here the sauce is four tablespoons in total and it barely coats anything, because a stir-fry should be dry. Their chicken korma uses cashews too, but ground into the sauce rather than left whole and toasted.