Chicken Stir Fry For A Crowd

Chicken Stir Fry For A Crowd

Monday was an active day for our flood damaged neighborhood. By now, everyone was upset that the piles of garbage which lined  the street haven’t been picked up yet - a week and a half after the flood. The piles are so wide, only one car can pass at a time.

Well, the neighbors who are staying with me had some visitors yesterday. ABC News showed up with a camera crew who set up in their driveway. They did a news segment that aired on the evening news, highlighting the struggles my neighbors were having, and documented the mountains of garbage. While they were filming, FEMA was going house to house to access the damage. 

Now get this!  After the segment about the garbage piles aired on the news, a front end loader showed up first thing Tuesday morning with a parade of dump trucks to clean up the garbage. Hmm. It must be coincidence. I’m sure the news story had nothing to do with it.

Monday night we all watched the ABC News video about our neighborhood and then sat down to dinner. We had about twelve people for dinner that night, and we did stir fry. Now normally I make a stir fry using peanut oil, but I didn’t have any, so we made do with olive oil.

3 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Soy sauce

Louisiana Hot Sauce

White wine

Red pepper flakes

6 large cloves of garlic

Olive oil

1 bowl of sliced carrots

1 bowl of chopped celery

1 bowl of bell pepper, in strips

1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms

1 bowl of onion, sliced to wedges

Molasses

Toasted sesame oil

Preparation

You’ll have to do this in three batches. If you aren’t cooking for a group, you can reduce everything and use only one third of the amounts shown. I used two woks. I made one batch first and then placed it in a bowl. I started the second batch, and a few minutes later started the third batch in a second wok. When those were finished, I dumped the first batch out of the bowl into a scorching hot cast iron pan so all three batches were sizzling.

Cut the chicken up and place it in three bowls. Add two cloves of chopped garlic to each bowl. Sprinkle the bowls with red pepper flakes. Add some soy sauce, Louisiana Hot Sauce, and a little white wine to each bowl of chicken. Stir and let that sit for about fifteen minutes.

For each batch, heat a wok until it is very hot. Add a puddle of olive oil and swirl to coat the wok. Add the chicken mixture and stir fry that until the chicken is completely cooked. Remove the chicken to a clean bowl. For the vegetables, use one third of each bowl per batch.

After you remove the chicken, reheat the wok and add the sliced carrots. Stir for a minute and then add the chopped celery. Stir that for a couple of minutes and add the bell pepper strips. Stir another couple of minutes. Add the mushrooms and stir. Add the onions and stir. Let that stir fry until the onions are almost softened. Add the chicken back in. Stir and mix. Add about a quarter cup of the molasses and stir to mix. Add a splash of soy sauce a splash of white wine. Stir to mix. Once everything is sizzling and bubbling, splash on some toasted sesame oil, stir and turn off the heat. You’re ready to serve.

Serving

Place a big pile of steamed rice on a plate and smother it with the chicken stir fry. Add more! Sprinkle on some soy sauce and a little hot sauce. Now add some homemade bread, some sliced watermelon and several bottles of white wine (Riesling is good). We had homemade cookies for dessert.