Salt and Pepper Chicken

This was a quick supper for Amy and I. I love chicken thighs, they are in my view the best part of the chicken. Chicken fillets have their place, but because they’re lean and a lot of flavour comes from fat, they can be bland. Chicken thighs are fatty which gives them their flavour, so trim as much off as you can – a really sharp knife comes in handy here.

Don’t be daunted by what looks like a long list of ingredients. Ingredients like spices are something that can be a little bit of an outlay at first, but you can do a lot with a little. Shop around online and you can find some great deals on bulk spices, rather than this little spice jars of sorrow that you get in the supermarket.

With any stir fry dish the aim of the game is to cook it hot and cook it fast, so get your prep done first.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken thigh fillets
• 1 bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 130g baby corn, thinly sliced
• 100g mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp szechuan pepper corns
• 1 tsp black pepper corns
• 1/2 tsp flaked sea salt
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 2 tbsp white wine*
• 20g ginger, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 1 nest of medium egg noodles

*yeah, I know, I ran out of rice wine, so what? It’s lockdown. Dry sherry works too, if you’re the kind of person that stocks sherry in their house.

Method

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil and turn down the heat to a simmer. Add your nest of noodles and cook for five minutes.
2. While the noodles are cooking, trim any fat off your chicken and cut into 5mm wide strips. Put the chicken into a bowl and add the pepper, salt, and cornflour. Mix them all together until the chicken is well coated.
3. After the noodles are cooked, take the pan off the hob and strain the noodles, then place them in cold water.
4. Place a wok or large frying pan on a high heat, and add a tbsp of oil. Once the pan begins to smoke, add the chicken, and cook for 5-7 minutes until the chicken has browned and you can’t see any pink. Empty the pan back into the mixing bowl.
5. Bring the wok back to the hob on a high heat and a little oil. Slice up your baby corn, pepper, and mushrooms. When the oil begins to smoke add the vegetables in and cook for 5-10 minutes until they have soften stirring regularly. If they are to burn, add a tbsp or two of water, the water boil to steam quickly to help cook the vegetables.
6. Once they have softened, add them to the mixing bowl along with the chicken.
7. Add the wok back to the hob on a high heat and add a little oil. Once it is smoking add the ginger and cook for a minute before adding the garlic. Cook for 30 seconds and then add the soy sauce, water, and honey, and stock cube. Stir together until well combined. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 3 minutes.
8. Drain your noodles and add back to the pan.
9. Cook for 3-5 minutes to warm the noodles, and serve.