Home made Chinese food

  When I was a teen and young adult I loved Chinese food. I loved it so much I went to work at my then best friend's parent's Chinese restaurant as an order taker. Along with the minimum wage pay, I got to eat as much authentic Chinese food as I wanted. When I got older I realized that I had an averse reaction to MSG. So my choices in restaurant were limited to those who cooked sans MSG. Now I realize that almost all restaurants will say they do not add MSG to their food, but that it not true of all of them. I know because I've eaten at many places that claim they do not use it, but I still had a reaction.
Then once I got married our choices were limited to those who did not cook with lard or msg. Then our favorite restaurant changed chefs, our favorite dishes were no longer made the way we liked them and instead of looking for another restaurant we decided to try and make our own food at home.

 This led to my search of all different Chinese food dishes. I found a few good ones, that we all really enjoy.  Some come from recipe books and some I found online... there are so many options, you are sure to find a few that you really like.

Tonight for dinner I made chicken and bok choy stir fry with jasmine rice. I found this easy and delicious recipe online one day while searching for ideas to cook bok choy.

Ingredients:

3 medium chicken breasts, boneless and skinless  (I use 1 or 2)
3 large bok choy stalks with leaves (I use about 4 or 5)
       Marinade
1TB Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1 green onion, diced
2 tbs cornstarch
       Sauce
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth  (I use vegetable broth)
2 TB water
1 tsp white rice vinegar
1/2 tsp black rice vinegar
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp salt
       Other
1 tspn cornstarch
4 tspn water
4 to 5 tbspn oil for stir-frying as needed

Preparation:

Cut the chicken into thin strips about 2 inches long. Add the rice wine or sherry, green onions and the cornstarch. Marinade the chicken for 30 minutes.

While the chicken is marinading prepare the bok choy and the sauce.  Separate the bok choy leaves and  stalks, and cut both cross-wise into thin strips.

Combine the sauce ingredients and set aside. Combine the cornstarch and water in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat wok and add 2 TB oil. When oil is ready, add the chicken and stir-fry until it turns white and is nearly cooked. (stir-fry in 2 batches if necessary). Take the chicken out of the wok and put aside in a bowl.

Clean out the wok and add 2 to 3 tbsnp. oil. When oil is ready, add the bok choy stalks. Stir-fry briefly, then add the leaves.
Push the bok choy up to the sides of the wok and add the sauce in the middle. Turn up the heat to bring to a boil. Add the cornstarch/water mixture to the sauce and stir rapidly to thicken. Add the chicken, mix thoroughly and serve hot.

I like to make plain jasmine rice to accompany this dish. The rice takes about 15 or 20 min. to cook so it's perfect as the dish only takes about 20 min. or so to cook.

I can never find black rice vinegar so I just add a few more tspns. of the rice wine vinegar. I also slice red onions and add them to the bok choy stalks.  I like my chicken well cooked so I thoroughly cook it, then when it comes time to add it to the mixture I cook the whole thing for another five minutes or so. If you see that the sauce has gotten too thick add some more veggie broth to thin it out.  I use home made veggie broth with no salt so I add salt to the dish while the sauce/cornstarch mixture is cooking. If you are using canned/boxed broth I'd advise not to add extra salt as the broth already has a high sodium content.