Chicken with Mushrooms and Lemon Grass

"Weeknight Favourites", our theme for this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), quick and fuss-free dish that is easy to prepare for one of those crazy busy weeknights! I've chosen to cook this quick stir-fry chicken dish for one of our midnight dinner to serve with rice, and it is easy and delicious! 

This is a quick stir-fry dish, the only thing is, to get all the ingredients chopped and sliced, heat up the wok, and in about 20 minutes or so, you'll have a hot plate of delicious chicken dish to eat with fluffy Jasmine rice. How easy is that, real easy! Haha!

I have used chicken thigh fillet, without the skin and bones. Just cut them up to bite-sized chunks. Chop the garlic, spring onions, red chillies, and sliced up the ginger, and shred the inner stalk of the lemon grass to thin shreds. Slice the mushrooms, which I have used fresh shiitake mushroom, keep aside. Mix the sauce ingredients ; fish sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, and keep that aside. Heat up some oil, and fry the garlic, spring onions, red chillies, ginger and lemon grass until it smells aromatic and the garlic turns golden. Tip the whole lot onto a plate, add a little oil to the fyring pan and fry the chicken pieces until they are lightly brown on both sides. Add in the sliced mushroom and stir-fry until the mushrooms are tender. Add in the pre-fried aromatics and the sauce. Stir to combine, toss in some basil leaves, and serve hot.

My notes : This is a simple stir-fry dish, yet it is delicious. The flavours of the herbs ; shredded lemon grass, ginger, chillies and garlic is really so aromatic when they are stir-fried first, to release their aromatic flavours. These are then added to the cooked chicken together with the sauce. The salty sauce really blends well together with the aromatic herbs, and the final touch of the fresh basil at the end, really adds another wonderful flavour and aroma to the dish. This could easily become one of my favourite stir-fry dish, and for a spicier kick (if you are not serving it to kids), I would add more chillies.

Chicken with Mushrooms and Lemon Grass
(adapted from "The Kitchen Diaries", Nigel Slater)
3 medium-sized cloves garlic
4 coins ginger
3 spring onions
2 stalks lemon grass
groundnut oil
3 red hot chillies
400gm diced chicken
3 medium-sized field mushrooms
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablepsoons nampla (Thai fish sauce)
1 teaspoon light muscovado or palm sugar
a few leaves of Thai basil or mint

Peel and chop the garlic, shred the ginger, finely chop the spring onions and very finely shred the tender inner leaves of the lemon grass.

Heat a couple of glugs of oil in a frying pan or wok. Add the garlic, ginger, spring onions and lemon grass and let them sizzle over a moderately high heat till the garlic is golden. Halve the chillies, scrape out the seeds and discard them. Finely chop the flesh and add to the pan. Cook briefly, then tip the whole lot out into a bowl.

Get the pan really hot, pour in a little more oil and then add the chicken. Leave it to colour, then stir and fry till the meat is golden brown and sticky on all sides. Cut the mushrooms into small segments and add them to the pan. When they are tender, return the aromatics to the pan. Mix the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar in a cup, then pour this mixture into the hot pan. It will crackle and spit. Toss in the herb leaves and eat immediately.

Enough for two.

I'm linking this post to I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC).

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Cook-Your-Books #12 @ Kitchen Flavours