Five Spiced Chicken Stir Fry

Hello good people. This may be the longest little blog break I've had since I started back in August. It was much needed. I was traveling last week for a conference in Virginia Beach returned home and immediately got sick. This is par for the course lately for me. So I'm taking action. I'm on a mission to fight off my weak immune system and jump start a health kick. I've even gone to a nutritionist and am starting a 30 Day Whole Foods Detox Program next week. Very against the church calendar to start a fast on Holy Saturday but it is a must. My intro to the program was this Saturday and I learned so much about the toxic nature of all things in the world. Jet fuel has been found in breast milk in every country, vacuum often with hepafilters to get rid of the toxins that fall from your fire proof and toxic mattresses, don't run any where near a road with diesel buses nearby...and a hail storm of other scary stuff. Check out my nutritionist's website www.kasiakines.com. She is amazing and I feel like a new person after starting a B-12 regimen a few weeks ago. 

I have already dropped coffee down to two lattes a week, vs. one triple shot from Charmington's every day! I had a killer headache for one day and then it went away. I only drink booze on the weekends so that won't be too tough to break, but food preparation will be the ringer. I love to cook. I love to bring people around the table. I love meat. I love cheese and dairy. So what else will I eat? Who knows but I hope to blog a little about it and see what happens. Oddly enough I had a pretty great recipe that was in my hopper for the blog, Five Spiced Chicken Stir Fry. Aside from the corn starch I think this is a wonderfully balanced and organic meal.

Start by sauteing your Brussels sprouts. You can find these all the time at Whole Foods thankfully. They are nuggets of goodness. I slice them in half, add sesame oil to a heavy pan and sear them until they caramelize. When they turn bright green, about 5-7 minutes, deglaze the pan with approximately 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Remove broccoli from pan and set aside.

Use skinless, boneless, organic chicken breasts (1.5 for two people with leftovers).

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

4-5 stalks of organic celery (holy scary pesticide stories about non-organic celery!)

1 more teaspoon of sesame oil

1 tablespoon of Chinese Five Spice blend

1 tablespoon of corn starch

1 carrot, sliced in ribbons with a peeler

no salt, it is salty from the soy sauce

I've had the same can of five spice for at minimum ten years and oddly enough it still tastes amazing. 

Sear your chicken until nearly cooked and add the celery and carrot ribbons. The vegetables will sweat and release water while cooking. This is easier in a wok, but somewhere in the move the Wok has run amok. Push the vegetables and chicken mixture to the sides.

Add your corn starch to the middle and watch the sauce thicken. 

Add your broccoli back to the pan and coat with the sauce. Serve with brown rice. I learned a little trick from one of the chef's I worked with on plating rice. Pack your cooked rice into a small miso soup bowl. Flip upside down on your plate and you have a fancy little mountain of rice. Vegans, you can remove the chicken all together and just add other vegetables or even pineapple.

I want to congratulate Maggie at Freckled Citizen for being the winner of my first ever Stone Hill Farm giveaway. She was the only person who entered and I'm so glad she did! She has a fabulous blog and is a cookbook collector as well. Enjoy Maggie. I'll send you the cookbook soon. Wishing all of my friends a holy Passover and a wonderful Holy Week.