Stir-fry never turns out well

fussyonion

I can't seem to do a nice stir fry and I don't know what I'm doing wrong!

I start off using sliced chicken breast, which I fry in a wok until cooked, then I add half a bag of Green Isle Asian StirFry vegetables and then I pour on BlueDragon sauce, serving with Sharwood Egg Noodles.

The result is a sticky dry claggy mess that tastes of nothing.
I don't really want to use ready made sauces but I've no idea how to make a home made stir fry that will taste nice, so please hit me with your suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

Morag

Use sesame oil if you can get it, grate garlic and ginger into the pan/wok as the oil is heating up. Try cooking the chicken and then removing it and then doing the veg until crispy and then add in the sauce and chicken.

fussyonion

Thanks Morag!
Can you recommend any nice sauces? I've tried nearly all the Blue Dragon ones but to me, they taste all the same.

Hondo75

Fresh not Frozen.. Green Isle is Muck..

phonypony

To be honest, using frozen stir fry veg mixes will never give a decent result, it just ends up boiled and soggy. Slice up half an onion, carrot, crush some garlic and grate some ginger. Maybe slice up some chilli. You could quickly marinate your chicken strips in a little soy sauce and some cornflour before frying. You could add a little sugar and chicken stock to your leftover marinade, sauce done!

fussyonion

Hondo75 wrote: »

Fresh not Frozen.. Green Isle is Muck..

Yeah am getting a bit bored with the frozen veg actually.
So using fresh, I'm thinking:

Sliced peppers (red/yellow/green)
Sliced red onion
Sliced mushrooms
Baby corn/Sugar snap peas
Carrot batons

Anything else I'm missing?

fussyonion

phonypony wrote: »

To be honest, using frozen stir fry veg mixes will never give a decent result, it just ends up boiled and soggy. Slice up half an onion, carrot, crush some garlic and grate some ginger. Maybe slice up some chilli. You could quickly marinate your chicken strips in a little soy sauce and some cornflour before frying. You could add a little sugar and chicken stock to your leftover marinade, sauce done!

Oh this sounds delicious, thanks so much!
Yes I have found the frozen veg makes it all very soggy and what I'm looking for is a nice crunchy dish.
Thanks for this!

Morag

Fresh veg is the best, you can by a pack or just cut up onion, mushroom, peppers, courgette, and you can make Teriyaki sauce yourself, it's pretty much soy sauce, honey and some cornflour.

http://www.enjoy-how-to-cook.com/how-to-make-teriyaki-sauce.html

phonypony

fussyonion wrote: »

Yeah am getting a bit bored with the frozen veg actually.
So using fresh, I'm thinking:

Sliced peppers (red/yellow/green)
Sliced red onion
Sliced mushrooms
Baby corn/Sugar snap peas
Carrot batons

Anything else I'm missing?

Spring onion is always fab, broccoli works well, even a few garden peas!

fussyonion

Brilliant!
You've all been so helpful. Can't wait to make a stir-fry now, with some actual flavour and texture.

Markd250

I make a honey chilli chicken that goes down well:

Heat about 1 inch of oil in your wok. Slice chicken breasts into bite size pieces. Roll chicken in flour seasoned with five spice and salt and fry in the oil until golden and crispy. Remove chicken and drain away most of the oil. Add thinly sliced a garlic and ginger to the wok, then a finely sliced chilli. Once hot again, add veg (your choice - I like sliced pepper, spring onion, mange tout and beansprouts) and quickly stir fry. When just starting to soften, add a splash of soy sauce and toss, then add chicken back to the wok with a tablespoon of honey. Give it a stir, allow the honey to melt and coat everything, and serve with rice or noodles. Tasty!

Edit - fresh veg is the only way to go by the way...

Fresh veg only!
Anything you want really. There's nothing that can't be thrown in. Butternut squash is delish.


Marinade your meat in soy sauce, fresh chillies, fresh ginger, and garlic. Chop up all your veggies. Cook the meat, including all the marinade, in the wok. Add your veg. Throw in some curry powder and sesame oil. Yum.

VanillaLime

This is my favourite stir-fry, though I make it most often with a sliced pork chop rather than the duck! It's easy and tasty.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1104641/duck-stirfry-with-ginger-and-greens

trashcan

phonypony wrote: »

Spring onion is always fab, broccoli works well, even a few garden peas!

This. Broccoli is a must for any Chinese type stir fry imo. I've used the Blue Dragon Oyster and Spring Onion sauce and I've always found it quite nice. And I never cook the meat first. I'd really only use chicken, which only needs a couple of minutes. I add it in at the end and it's lovely and tender.

Francie Barrett

Mushrooms contain quite a lot of water and can end up making your stir fry watery, so I find it best to leave them out of a stir fry.

Mr Simpson

Fresh veg only! You can get good stir fry veg packs in most supermarkets. Btw, homemade sauce is best, but if you're stuck for inspiration, Tesco stock wagamama sauces. Their chilli men sauce is unbelievably good, nearly but not quite as good as homemade.

dr.bollocko

I don't use the pre-packed sauces much. They don't really tend to give off as much flavour as the equivalent home made one.

All I can taste from packet sauces is sugar

Mr Simpson

whoopsadaisydoodles wrote: »

All I can taste from packet sauces is sugar

Me too, but I was pleasantly surprised by the wagamama ones

hollster2

fussyonion wrote: »

Yeah am getting a bit bored with the frozen veg actually.
So using fresh, I'm thinking:

Sliced peppers (red/yellow/green)
Sliced red onion
Sliced mushrooms
Baby corn/Sugar snap peas
Carrot batons

Anything else I'm missing?

beansprouts!!!

Ash.J.Williams

I'm not an expert and my views are personal.

Fry the chicken and the veg seperately, this will give you tasty chicken and crispy veg...

Don't use stir fry veg packets, I find them tasteless. Chop fresh veg...

at this point you already have a nice healthy stirfry so sauce should be applied lightly..

try simply adding a bit of soy sauce?

I think your problem might be adding too much packet sauce..

You can fry the chicken and add the sauce so it sticks to the chicken...then wash the pan and fry the veg??

stevenmu

Broccoli is pretty essential I think, either tender stem or get a head of it and pull some florets off. It really adds a lot of flavour. Asparagus is another good one, it's delicious stir-fried, just be careful to not over do it it needs to stay good and crunchy. Mangetout is great too, and picks up a lot of flavour from whatever else you put in, but again be careful not to over cook it.

Johnny_Fontane

Shaoxing wine makes a big difference, a splash into a hot wok gives it an added depth. Also finishing the dish with sesame oil (be very careful with amounts its like truffle oil strong) gives it nice balance.

Finally good quality fresh ingredients, particularly decent garlic and ginger make a big difference. You could always marinate your chicken for an hour aswell.

I find Yamasa soy sauce far better than Kikkoman, and the for me gives a less saltier taste.

nozzferrahhtoo

fussyonion wrote: »

Yeah am getting a bit bored with the frozen veg actually.
So using fresh, I'm thinking:

Anything else I'm missing?

Fresh Fennel. I use that in about 33% of my stir frys for a bit of variety. Transforms the whole experience.

coadyd

I use sesame oil .cook the meat first remove add more oil. chop peppers, garlic and ginger root , onions , mushrooms , carrots cut length ways and very thin the other stuff i cut quite chunky. .
fry the veg for about 3 min .
oh with the veg is frying boil fine egg noodles for 2 min drain . add noodles to the wok with soy sauce and chilli fry for 1 min ...

Merkin

I think a golden rule when making a stir fry is that nothing should come from a packet. No packet sauces, no per-prepared or frozen vegetables and only fresh ingredients.

A few other things to note:

• MARINADE. Whatever meat you are using, marinade it first so it will have absorbed all those wonderful flavours. Keep it simple, a marinade of soy sauce/fresh chillis/garlic/fresh ginger and Thai seven spice works really well.
  
• Prepare everything before you are ready to start cooking. Every element should be chopped and prepped as the cooking of everything should take less than five minutes.
  
• Is your pan hot enough? The oil needs to be HOT and the entire wok (up around its edges) needs to be nicely coated in oil.
  
• Use good quality oil to cook in.
  
• Test that the oil is hot enough by frying a small piece of the meat you intend to use. It should colour quickly and easily.
  
• Always fry the marinaded meat first. Once this is cooked you then essentially flash fry all the other delicious vegetables that you want to eat. These should be crunchy and not soggy or overly cooked.
  
• The vegetables you use are up to you. I'm doing a pork stirfry this evening and I'll probably use courgettes, spring onions, cabbage, peppers, carrots and mushrooms. The harder the veg is in texture then the sooner it should go in. So things like carrots go in when the meat is cooked. Things like mushrooms or beansprouts go in last.
  
• Also, get a good peeler. Rather than chop your carrots like you would for a casserole or stew, it's a good idea to use a good peeler to shred the carrot into ribbons - reduces the cooking time significantly and it looks pretty!

Think that's about it!

Mrs Fox

All tips given above are great to make an easy delicious fail-proof stir-fry, OP.

Wok needs to smoking hot, then drizzle groundnut oil around the edges and throw in your garlic/ginger/chilli/chicken.

Another important one is to ensure that when using chicken/beef, they are flattened and sliced in small even pieces as you need to cook them superquick without allowing them to release their juices into the wok, and remain moist. Realistically this shouldn't take more than 2 minutes and you do need constant stirring. It eeeeeeks me when I see people brown the chicken one side for 3-4 min and then turn carefully to brown the other side.

Also, throw in a handful of cashews if you like to add extra texture.

rubadub

If you insist on frozen veg, or have some left over -then a tip is to defrost it.

When you add frozen veg to hot pan it takes a while to defrost it, so adds to overall cooking time. I have defrosted those green isle packs in the fridge overnight, and a fair bit of water comes off them, I patted them dry with kitchen roll. This would otherwise go into the pan, further lengthening the cooking time and making it soggy.

Johnny_Fontane

I'm kind of amazed that people actually use frozen vegetables when vegetables are so widely available everywhere at very good prices.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056877225

fussyonion

rubadub wrote: »

If you insist on frozen veg, or have some left over -then a tip is to defrost it.

When you add frozen veg to hot pan it takes a while to defrost it, so adds to overall cooking time. I have defrosted those green isle packs in the fridge overnight, and a fair bit of water comes off them, I patted them dry with kitchen roll. This would otherwise go into the pan, further lengthening the cooking time and making it soggy.

This is exactly what I realised last night.
The veg is obviously frozen which means it needs longer time to cook, but then that makes the stir-fry all soggy, so it defeats the purpose of a quick meal.
I'll definitely take your advice on board and defrost the veg if I ever use it again-I'm liking everyone's suggestions for using fresh veg; it all sounds so colourful and inviting!

PS I've used the frozen stir-fry veg as a side to my Sunday roast for a change and it was lovely! Best off using it that way rather than for a stir-fry.

fussyonion

Thanks to everyone who took the time and trouble to reply.
You've all been very helpful and given me lots of tips to make a tasty stir-fry.
I'll probably make one at the weekend and I'll upload some pictures in the "Here's What I Had For Dinner" thread

Thanks again!