Baby Bok Choy in Oyster Sauce with Chicken

I couldn't pass up the fragrant green garlic and tender baby bok choy at the farmers market today. My favorite recipe for bok choy or any Chinese greens (i.e. kai lan or Chinese broccoli) is one that my mom made for us growing up. You can omit meat and do this recipe totally vegetarian and add carrots, mushrooms or whatever veggies you like. Or you can substitute the chicken for beef, pork or shrimp. Really anything goes but I always follow my mom's rule of not having more than 8-10 ingredients in any dish, otherwise you just have too much going on and flavors get muddled. Asian cooking is very simple that way.

Here is a photo tutorial.

Prepping the green garlic, chicken and bok choy (I also bought a gorgeous bouquet of radishes at the market today, but they weren't used in this recipe)

Frying up the green garlic with a little oil like Canola or vegetable. Don't use olive oil, it is too fruity for Asian dishes. If you can't get green garlic just use regular garlic. I like green garlic because it has the flavor of garlic and spring onions, plus it is in season right now.

Add the chicken, Tbsp each of oyster sauce, light soy sauce (or organic Tamari, if you wish), sesame seed oil and a tsp of sugar.

Cook chicken thoroughly. Keep stirring.

Once chicken is done, add your washed greens. I always leave them whole but you can cut them up if you must.

I take everything off the heat right before the greens are cooked through. Even off the heat the veggies are still cooking and you can over do them, soggy bok choy is not tasty, plus you'll lose all the nutrients when you cook them too long. This looks about right.

Take the bok choy and chicken out of the wok (make sure to scrape up every last bit of sweet, yummy green garlic otherwise I will personally come over to your house and thump you across the head).

Mix a Tbsp of cornstarch with about 4 oz. of water and then pour into the sauce. This makes the sauce nice and thick and yummy. Once thickened up, pour over your chicken and veggies and plate it.

The dish cooks up in less than 15 minutes - great for you working mothers out there. Serve with brown rice or white rice.

So next time you are in the mood for a simple, nutritious and delicious Chinese stir fry I hope you try this recipe out (and invite me over!)

While I was busy cooking, little Matthew was busy doing this. He can now push the beads around the little maze. That is Dylan zooming past in the background.

One sock Matt.