Minimum oil eggplant chicken stirfry

kyt1206

If you're like me, you like the taste of eggplant. If you're reading this post, most likely you agree. (Warning, the end result of this dish will not give you crispy chunky eggplant, if that's your goal then this probably won't help. What it will give you is tasty savory soft eggplant with chicken.)

And if you've cooked eggplant before, you would know that the fibers in the eggplant likes to soak up whatever is around it. And it's usually greasy.

How to get around this to get your favorite stir fry/fried taste without soaking it in oil?

Water! (Yes, I know, oil and water does not mix, but I will show you how to deal with this.)

For portions, you can use whatever portion you wish, but I suggest 2/3 eggplant to 3/4 eggplant then the rest chicken.

Materials:
Knife
Boiling pot big enough to fit your eggplant, with lid is even better but not required.
Stirfry pan - enough to hold your ingredients
Spatula

Ingredients:
Garlic - 2 or 3 cloves will do
Eggplant (I use a small-med one)
Chicken (dark meat tastes *much* better than white meat for this recipe - I use boneless chicken thighs) - (Balance out the eggplant, normally I use 6-10 oz)
Soy sauce - as needed, minimum 2 tablespoons for 1 eggplant for flavor
Cooking oil of your choice - preferably without strong flavor on its own (oils with strong flavors: olive and sesame) - 1 tablespoon
Red Potatoes (optional) - no more than 1/3 of your dish, adjust with eggplant (I use 1 med red potato if I use it at all)
Honey (optional) - 1 tablespoon

Prep and cook time total: 15-20 mins

First, take an eggplant, I prefer the Asian eggplants with the long thin body for faster cooking, but any eggplant will do if you only have the short round ones.

Next, take a knife and cut the eggplant in the middle all the way through with an incision that would cover about 1/3 to 1/2 of its length. Turn it, cut it again so you make a cross cut in the center of it, splitting it into almost quarters, leave the end intact.

Put in pot of water, set to boil - high heat is okay.

While it's boiling, take your chicken meat and dice it into small pieces easy to stir fry (mouth bites, do not mince).

Set the chicken aside.

Slice/mince the garlic - do not puree, chunky is good - , set garlic aside.

Set the pan on the stove on medium/medium high heat (depending on your stove, never set on high).

Put oil in to heat up the pan.

Place garlic in, let the oil cover the garlic, stir a little with spatula

Put chicken in with the garlic, pan sear the chicken.

As the chicken is cooking, pour out and drain your eggplant, you can use cold water to wash it so it cools faster.

It should be soft and moist but still intact, careful the inside would be hot because it has soaked up all the boiling water.

Chunk the eggplant, make sure your chicken isn't burnt while you're cutting.

Put some soy sauce on the chicken, stir a little bit to make sure the soy sauce has mixed with whatever oil is left over.

Drain off any excess water on the eggplant then place it in the pan.

(You can add honey and potatoes at this point if you wish, the potatoes will give it a slightly starchier taste and the honey "warms" the savory flavor.)

Stir until the entire dish is thoroughly cooked.

Eat.