Good Food, Good Times
Recently, I had occasion to eat out at a local, Chinese fast food establishment. I don't eat out often, but love all sorts of Asian food, including Chinese. It was a special occasion, so I treated me to black bean chicken and shoyu pork. The food was better than I had expected, so it was a good meal
Back in the early 80's while living on the mainland, I took a Chinese cooking course through the local community college system. Not geared to people looking to make a career of becoming a Chinese chef, but geared to normal folk who want to be able to vary their home menu from time to time.
The course was a lot of fun and educational. Each week, we would show up for class and help our teacher, Mrs. Lee unload several bags of food from her car. During class, we would divide up onto teams of two, then prepare three or four items.
After cooking, we would all sit down together and enjoy our evening's class work. Definitely the most enjoyable college course I've ever taken.
One of the dishes we prepared for our class was black bean chicken. Someplace here in my cavernous studio apartment, I have all my recipes and notes from Mrs. Lee's class, but can't quite lay my hands on them at the moment.
Not to worry. I simply hit Google and typed "black bean chicken recipe" and was rewarded with about 1,000 hits.
The recipe below looked both quick and easy. It proved to be not only quick and easy, but way delicious.
In order to accommodate my diabetes and some practical issues, I made only a couple of small tweaks.
I used a pound and a half of chicken. That was one tray with two nice boneless skinless breasts. I substituted Splenda for the sugar. Lastly, I used bell pepper instead of broccoli. I like broccoli, but even if I can tolerate it getting stuck in my teeth, I hate the tedium of cleaning and trimming it. Bell pepper are much more low maintenance.
Following is the recipe. This is worth a try, regardless of your culinary skill level. I got three very good sized meals from this recipe. I'm sure I could have gotten four, but it was so good, I had a pretty large portion the night I made it. It re-heated in the microwave really well.
Next is a batch of oyster sauce chicken inspired by a friend's recent visit to a Thai restaurant.
Enjoy
Black Bean Chicken
Ingredients
1/3 cup fermented Chinese black beans
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 cups chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
2/3 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
4 cups broccoli florets
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced into 1/4-inch strips
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon dry sherry
Preparation
Place beans in a bowl, and cover with warm water. Cover and let stand 30 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water; drain well.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 30 seconds. Add beans; sauté 10 seconds. Stir in the broth, soy sauce, and sugar; bring to a boil. Add broccoli and chicken; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes or until the chicken is done, stirring occasionally.
Combine cornstarch and sherry, stirring well with a whisk. Add cornstarch mixture to chicken mixture, and bring to a boil. Cook mixture 1 minute, stirring constantly
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
