SIMPLE, stir fry recipes

crzyone

Hey, all, I bought a Wok at a yard sale for a quarter. I tried cooking in it today. I cut up chicken, marinaded in WOrchestershire Sauce (should I have used soy sauce?), cooked it, then cooked califlower, brocooli and onions. I used olive oil. I put more WS in the vegetables. Oh, I put a lot of garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and a bit of salt.

It was .... "okay." The chicken was good; the vegetables were "fair."

When cooking the vegetables, they seemed really dry so I put a bit more oil and some WS in it. Is there something I'm supposed to put/or that you put in when you cook the vegetables?

Do you have any REALLY SIMPLE stir fry tips or recipes. I want to cook chicken. I'm not good at complicated recipes that have LOTS of ingredients that I probably don't have around. Or, do you just have "liquid" things that you throw in there, like WS or soy sauce, or ???that you can recommend?

I only want to cook chicken, if that helps, and vegetables.

AReasor

This might not fit into your eating(sodium) but I love adding Hoisin Sauce or Teriyaki Sauce. I sometimes mix the two together. Wicked Yummy and the kids love it.

javagsd

Sometimes it's a matter of technique rather than ingredients. Stir frys need to be done at very high heat or the veggies will give off a great amount of liquid - and never put a cover on them. Electric ranges aren't really well suited to woks because there isn't enough heat transfer. And putting too much food at one time will give you the same poor results.

lisapisa1

I personally don't like using an actual wok to make stir fry at home. When woks are used in the traditional sense they are used on a cooktop where flames surround the sides of the wok bowl so you have heat on the entire cooking surface. I use a regular skillet. But that's beside the point.

I usually use low-sodium soy sauce or teriyaki to flavor my stir fry. I cook up my cubed up chicken in oil first which I only season with black pepper and garlic powder. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan and set aside. Then add your veggies and saute them for a few minutes. Then I put in my soy sauce/teriyaki and put a lid over it to do a quick steam on them. Then I put the chicken back in with the veggies and toss it altogether.

lisapisa1

If you're trying to avoid too much liquid and want more of an actual sauce then add a thickener like cornstarch.

crzyone

Aww, Teriyaki Sauce sounds good, AReasor. I don't know what the other kind you mentioned is. I will try that. You just put it in there like I did the Worchestershire Sauce?

Thanks for the input, Java. I had heard that about Woks just a few days before, that electric ranges may not give out enough heat. I have a gas range!!! My problem was not that the vegetables put out too much liquid, but that they were really dry and I needed more sauce of some kind on them, but soggy vegetables would not be good either.

Thanks.

shaynak112

I use shirataki noodles (from an Asian store or they sell more expensive ones at stores like Loblaws and Metro)
Tofu (soaked overnight in tofu sauce and fried without oil)
Carrots, cauliflower, bean sprouts, cabbage, mushrooms, bok choy, cabbage. (You don't need all of these veggies - whatever you like best!)
Soy sauce (low sodium!!)
Then spices: salt, pepper, garlic salt/powder, onion salt/pepper

Delicious

McLifterPants

Agreed on hoisin or teriyaki sauce... if you live near a Trader Joe's, their Island Soyaki sauce is killer

farmers_daughter

You have to get the wok really really hot, but to keep the veggies from drying out simply put water in it, a little dab at a time to keep them moist.
Or you could use olive oil too.
I season mine with Mrs Dash I could eat veggies all day long like that.