Chicken in a Garden (Southern Living, 1980)

Lindy picked this one for us - THANK YOU!!  It was really good and really different for us.  We both like the flavor profile, but don't usually cook it, so it was nice to have the excuse.  

 

This was was very involved.  I was glad it wasn't something we had to do after working all day, but I think you could have it ready to go ahead of time (everything chopped and chicken marinating) to make it easy.  We stayed somewhat close to the original recipe, other than eliminating a few things (somewhat by accident).

Chicken in A Garden

2 Chicken breasts, cut in strips

1/2 tsp garlic

3 tbls Vegetable Oil, divided

2+ tbls Soy Sauce

3 tbls cornstarch

1/2 tsp pepper

1 green pepper, cut in strips

1/2 onion, cut into strips

1 pkg frozen edamame peas

1/4 tsp sugar

1/8 tsp ginger

3/4 cup chicken bouillon, cooled

10 oz petite diced tomatoes

Egg Fried Rice 

* combine chicken with garlic poweder, 1 tbls oil, 1 tbls soy sauce, 1 tsp cornstarch, salt, and pepper.  Set aside to marinate for at least 20 minutes.  

* Make the chicken bouillon (combine 1 chicken bouillon cube with one cup boiling water - set aside to cool).  You only need 3/4 cup, but the cube requires a full cup.

* Pour remaining oil in pre-heated wok.  Add peppers, cook for 2 minutes.  Add onion and pea pods; cook additional 4 minutes.

* Remove veggies and add chicken to wok.  Cook chicken until done.  

* While chicken is cooking - combine remaining soy sauce and cornstarch; stir in sugar, ginger, and cooled chicken bouillon.

* Once chicken is cooked - add the bouillon mixture and the veggies back to the wok and cook until thick and bubbly.  Serve over rice.

During cooking... I was pretty excited we actually had a wok!

The final product!  (I even used the china dishes so it didn't look so brown on our everyday dishes!)

It was good.  The pea pods weren't quite cooked, but that could just be the pea type we used due to the lack of options when we purchased.  I think fresh peas would work MUCH better.  We also needed more pepper.  This was a leftover recipe from last week and the peppers we had went bad.  We only had one good one, so that is what we used.  The same thing happened with the tomatoes we bought - they were bad, so we used canned tomatoes.  Whoops.  (I guess that happens when you don't follow your menu plan...).  You may notice, we didn't use celery.  You could.  It might be good, I just don't love it and didn't need it for anything else; so we didn't waste the money on it.  

All in all, we are looking forward to making this one again.  We will be using fresh peas and 3 peppers the next time.  4 stars for sure.  

- Chery