Chicken and lots of veg in a black pepper sauce

A Chinese dish which was one of our favourites when we travelled around China. You can use chicken, beef or just veg in this dish, they all work equally well!

Cut your choice of meat and veg. Sprinkle the chicken with crushed black pepper and leave to stand for 30 minutes before cooking. Finely chop some ginger, half a birds eye chilli and crush a clove of garlic                                       

You can boil the veg for 5-10 mins if you think it will be too hard. 

Stir fry the chopped ginger, chilli and crushed garlic in a wok/pan to release the flavour for a couple of minutes. Then add the chicken *top tip when stir frying chicken, keep the oil to a minimum as the chicken will take on the oil as it cooks, instead use splashes of hot water (or stock) to stop it from sticking to the pan/wok. This ensures the chicken stays tender and moist.

When the chicken is sealed add the harder veg such as carrot, green beans, cauliflower etc and continue to stir fry for 10 minutes. Then add broccoli, red pepper and stir fry for another 5 minutes. Lastly add the softer veg such as cabbage and tomatoes and stir fry until the cabbage has wilted.

Add diluted chicken stock to the chicken and veg, a glug of soy sauce, a dessert spoon of sugar and more black pepper. Once the sauce is bubbling add cornflour mixed with water to thicken the sauce.

Once the sauce is thick enough, taste and adjust seasoning and it's ready to eat with lovely fluffy rice!