Last night I decided to try a stir fry. I’d been eyeing up the Spring Stir Fried Chicken recipe on SkinnyTaste.com since I saw it, and even though I’ve never done it (and didn’t own a wok until Saturday), I figured it was worth a try.
Overall the dish turned out to taste pretty good, but it wasn’t a pleasant cooking experience, and once again I’ve been reminded that the answer to “How hard could it be?” is sometimes “actually… harder than it looks!”
Before I describe what happened, let me preface by saying I followed the recipe to the letter (other than I doubled the ingredients – wanted some leftovers for lunches!)
My first “oh crap” moment was when I added the oil to the pan before frying the chicken. It was snapping and popping all over the place – I couldn’t get within 3 feet of the stove because the oil was exploding everywhere!
Fast forward to frying the veggies – same deal with the oil, only this time, because there was leftover chicken fragments in the pan still, not only was oil exploding everywhere, but everything started to smoke. I was worried that I’d set off the fire alarms, or worse – have a grease fire on my hands.
In the end, the stove and surrounding counter, floor and walls were splattered with grease, the house was a bit smoky, but we had an enjoyable meal. After poking around on the internet I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the following things (or a combination) was my problem:
– The wok was too thin (can we say cheap?)
– The wok was too hot
– The wok was not hot enough?
– I used the wrong kind of oil (again, followed the recipe)
– Stir frying is too complicated for me
I’m going to settle on the last option – we may not be eating a lot of stir fries in the future (at least not home cooked stir fries)!
Blooming Canvases 