Stir Fry’s and noodle dishes, in general, can either remind you of a steaming hot Chinese meal with friends or, the very depressing greasy noodle take away box that every hung-over / single American seems to eat out of with chop sticks, in every rom-com with a bottle of beer.

Either way, I see this greasy dish as quite appealing, hung-over or not. It doesn’t have to be so slimy you can’t grasp it in your chopsticks, neither does it have to be bad for you. Stir Fry’s are unbelievably quick. When I cooked this I set a timer and the whole dish was cooked in 7 minutes (I chopped up all of the ingredients before I started). It’s full of flavour and there is no MSG in sight.

‘Stir Frying’ simply refers to the style of cooking, frying quickly in a wok in hot oil. Hot cooking supposedly seals in the flavour of the ingredients quickly and also gives all of your ingredients a golden colour. This term wasn’t used in England until 1945 when it travelled West to America with Chinese immigrants.

This is a great dish for weeknights as well as a big dish for the weekend if you are having a gang round to watch the football. It’s completely up to you what your chicken, veg, noodle ratio is. Also, this is just a guide. If you want to add prawns or pork or egg just chuck it in – ensuring it’s cooked through!

I like using the packs of noodles that you can buy in any supermarket. You just add them two minutes before the end of stir frying. If you want to buy the type that you boil in water, follow the packet instructions and add the noodles at the end.

Recipe

Serves 2

10 Minutes chopping everything up.

6-10 Minutes stir frying depending on how quick you are!

Sunflower/ Vegetable Oil

300-400g Mini Chicken Breast Fillets, each sliced into four pieces

2 Carrots, peeled and chopped into matchsticks shape pieces

5 cm Piece of Root Ginger, chopped into matchstick shape pieces

2 Cloves of Garlic, finely sliced

2 Pak Choi, Cut off the end and separate the leaves

4 Tablespoons Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon of Fish Sauce

1 Red Chilli, finely chopped

4 Spring Onions, using just the white part, finely slice

Quick to Cook Medium Noodles 2 x 150g Packs

Handful of Cashews, roughly chopped

Squeeze of Lime

Hanful of Chopped Coriander

 

Marinate the chicken in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

While the chicken is marinating prepare all of the other ingredients.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok on a medium to high heat. You can use a high sided frying pan if you don’t have a wok.

Add the chicken and fry for 3 minutes, turning half way. You want the pan to be hot enough that the chicken sizzles when it hits the pan.

Add the ginger and carrot matchsticks. Fry for a minute.

Add the garlic, stir.

Lay the leaves of pak choi on top and leave to cook for a couple of minutes.

Mix together 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

Pour the sauce in and stir everything together adding the spring onions, red chilli and noodles.

Turn out your stir fry onto your plates and top with chopped cashew nuts.