With soy butter and lots of garlic
Ingredients
- 700 grams chicken breasts (ie, 4-6 breasts), cut into ¼cm-thick strips (freeze the chicken for half an hour first, to make it easier to cut)
- 75 ml soy sauce
- 10 cloves garlic cloves peeled, 3 crushed, the rest thinly sliced
- 1¼ tsp black peppercorns coarsely crushed in a mortar, plus a little extra to garnish
- 60 ml sunflower oil
- 2 tsp caster sugar
- 600 grams choi sum leaves left whole and stems cut into 5-6cm lengths
- 140 grams fridge-cold unsalted butter cut into 2cm cubes
- 40 grams cornflour
Instructions
- Put the sliced chicken in a bowl and add two tablespoons of the soy sauce, all the crushed garlic and half the crushed pepper. Toss to coat, then leave the chicken to marinate for at least 15 minutes and up to an hour.
- While the chicken is marinating, put the oil and sliced garlic in a large saute pan on a medium-high heat. Cook, stirring regularly, for seven to eight minutes, until the garlic is golden. Strain through a sieve set over a bowl, to catch the garlic-infused oil, and reserve the fried garlic slices, too. Wipe out the pan with kitchen towel, because you’ll be using it again later.
- Add half the cornflour to the chicken bowl and mix well to combine. Leave this to sit for another two minutes, by which time the cornflour will have been mostly absorbed into the mix. Now add the rest of the cornflour and all the sugar, and mix again to combine.
- Pour two and half tablespoons of the reserved garlic oil into the wiped-clean saute pan and put on a high heat. Once the oil is very hot, add a third of the chicken, and cook, stirring continuously to keep the strips from clumping, until nicely browned and crisp – about three minutes. Transfer to a plate and repeat with the rest of the chicken, cooking a third of it at a time.
- Once all the chicken is cooked and on the plate, add the remaining garlic oil to the pan, stir in the chopped choi sum stems and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and fry on a high heat for five minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly coloured. Now add the choi sum leaves and stir-fry until wilted – about two minutes more.
- Return the chicken to the pan, heat through for another two minutes, then keep warm until you’re ready to serve.
- Now make the soy butter sauce. Put the remaining three tablespoons of soy sauce, the rest of the crushed pepper and two and a half tablespoons of water in a small saucepan on a medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer for three minutes, then turn the heat to its lowest setting. Whisk in two or three butter cubes and, once they’ve melted, add two or three more cubes, and repeat, whisking continuously, until all the butter has been incorporated and you are left with a thick, homogenised sauce.
- To serve, transfer the chicken stir-fry to a large platter and pour over the soy butter sauce. Top with the crisp garlic slices and a little extra crushed black pepper, and serve warm.
