Szechuan Chicken Stir-Fry

My very first dish I made after a long hiatus of fail. Back in Grade 12 when I was learning to cook, I never made anything that was good. Barely edible and threw out most of the food. Huge noob. After that, I stopped making stuff for a long ass time, and beginning 2011 I got my springtime of youth for cooking again and got right back into it. I only wish I could talk with Mr. B again, I know so much more now and the conversations would be way more pro. That man was huge OG!

Here is the first recipe I went for:

 Szechuan Chicken Stir-Fry

From: Jamie Oliver's 20 Min Meal App (best cooking app ever)

P.s. I'm not going to be putting any recipes on here that aren't mine (i.e. from cookbooks)



Pics don't look as good as IRL.. or taste as good ROFLMAO!

Ingredients: 

(Some of the important ones)

- free-range/organic boneless chicken thighs

- szechuan peppercorns

- cilantro, ginger, garlic, scallion etc.

- dried red chiles

- sweet chili sauce
- yellow peppers

- peanuts (man, I love any dish with so many peanuts...mmmmm)

Notes for ingredients:

Here is the stuff

Szechuan peppercorns: this shit right here... hardest things to find if you don't know where too look. Anyways, this stuff is located in Chainese grocery stores in the spices sections. Another thing that makes this tricky to find is that it goes by many names in NA like, "Szechuan Pepper", "Prickly Ash", "Aniseed Pepper", and "Chinese Pepper". 

The rest is easy to find unless you have something that is the opposite of up lolol

Free range/organic meat is the best. I'll never go back and I think everyone should try it. Stuff you get at the grocery store is very weak sauce: stuff doesn't look good, taste good, feel good etc. Maybe I'll rant about this topic more in the future.

Tools:

Pestle and mortar: I bought this thing a while ago and in case you don't know what it is, its an old timey tool to crush things, like spices. These things are made of different materials but I recommend you go for the stronger ones like marble or wood and stay away from the ceramic ones and what not. Just doesn't feel sturdy to me.

For this recipe, I had to coat the raw chicken with crushed dried peppers and szechuan peppercorns. Yeah you could buy your ingredients already crushed and most of the time I do too. But when I have special ingredients and I have the opportunity to crush them myself, I do it. In the end, it is just more fresh if you use a pestle and mortar and your spices will smell great. Don't be lazy, food needs a little love sometimes :D

Cooking:
Stir Frying:
- With stir-fry, prep all your ingredients before hand (even if the recipe says otherwise) and have them ready near your stove, because with stir-fry, shit cooks fast and stuff needs to be put in at the right times. Noobs like us shouldn't be doing too much at once or you might end up doing something wrong.
- Common misconception about stir-fry is that you can cook a lot of it at the same time. Well as the man himself Jamie Oliver recommends, you should cook a maximum of two portions at a time. That way, your food actually stir-fries instead of steaming together like it would if there was so much shit in your wok.
- Constantly keep you food moving or I'll kill you
- Always use an oil that can withstand high-muthafuckin-temperatures. With stir-fry, your stove should be on "full wack" so don't use olive oil. Canola oil and veg oil should do the trick.

Tips/Things I've Learned:

- Google any ingredient you don't know. It'll help you when you search for ingredients
- With meat, you should try and take it out 30 min before cooking to let it warm up a bit. If meat is too cold and you throw it on a hot pan, itll "tense" up and become more tough. You probably want delicious tender meat right? lolol :)
- When you prepare ginger, use a spoon to scrape the skin off instead of a knife and you'll waste less ginger... I know eh? Respek.
- Warm up your plates and bowls in the oven. Shit was so cash.

For next time:
- Don't coat chicken with too much peppercorn/chilis unless I'm feeding brown people or Sher

P.S. A lot of the stuff I learn is from watching Jamie Oliver. The man is my cooking hero. Ya'll should check him out.