I came across a recipe for slow cooker honey and Sriracha chicken wings on the faceplace, and was planning on playing around with it using boneless breasts and Sambal Oelek in the oven, and was looking for a side.
Hmmm…
Stir fried broccoli, as published by the nice folk at Food Network looked good, but I wanted to add a few things, like ‘shrooms and mebbe some ramen noodles, to make it an all in one side dish.
INGREDIENTS
•Veggie oil
•Broccoli
•2 cloves garlic, minced
•3 or 4 scallions (white and light green bits)
•1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper
•2 tsp fresh ginger, chopped
•8 oz sliced ‘shrooms
•1 packet ramen noodles
•1/4 tsp sesame oil
Sauce:
•1/2 cup water
•2 tbsp soy sauce
•1 tbsp cornstarch
•1 tsp sugar
First things first; trim the broccoli into florets, stashing the stalks in the freezer for making broccoli soup later, then place in a ‘wave-safe casserole with two tablespoons of water. Cover and ‘wave on high for 2-1/2 minutes. My broccoli was still a bit crunchy, but bright green, perfect for my plans, so I turned it into a bowl of ice water to stop cooking and keep it that nice, bright green, then drained it and set aside.
Add the ramen noodles to two cups of boiling water in a small pot and cook until just tender and beginning to separate, then drain well.
Note: you won’t need the seasoning packet from the noodles, so you can chuck it or, if you want to try a little something different (and really good) with canned green beans; try this recipe for Green Beans Mandarin (not to worry, no tiny canned oranges are involved).
Whisk the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and place next to the prepared scallion, and the garlic, Aleppo pepper, and ginger.
Heat a wok or stir fry pan over high heat, then swirl in one tablespoon of cooking oil. Add the scallions, garlic, ginger, and Aleppo pepper just as the oil begins to smoke and stir fry just until aromatic, no more than a minute.
Add the ‘shrooms, tossing to coat, and stir fry until browned and the sauce thickened.
Add the ramen noodles, then the broccoli, tossing to coat. Continue to cook just to heat through, then remove from the heat, drizzle with sesame oil, and serve.
Nice broccoli – tho’ next time I may skip the ramen, add diced sweet onion along with the garlic, and use hot chili sesame oil at the end.
The baked Sambal Oelek and honey chicken breasts were all right, but not really a keeper in Rich’s opinion. Things worked out much better on my second try, using chicken wings, the Sriracha, honey, and lime juice sauce, and one, kind of unexpected addition that made it ALL BETTER.
Details?
Thursday, peeps (tomorrow’s The Doris Project, and we gotta keep mom happy).