Szechuan Chicken Stirfry

I love stirfry, and the more vegetables there are, the better I like it. I have discovered that I like spicy Asian food better than sweet, and this is pretty spicy. Even better, it's fast. From prep to plate, I spent half an hour making this dish.

1 chicken breast, cubed or sliced thinly
1 tsp black sesame oil
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup small broccoli florets
1 small red pepper, cut into thin strips
2 medium cloves of minced garlic
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp low-sodium tamari soy sauce
2 tsp water
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
2 tsp sesame seeds
chopped fresh cilantro

Cook the chicken in a non-stick pan just until cooked through. Set it aside. Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat. Add the garlic, broccoli, red pepper, and green onions and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the broccoli turns bright green. Add the chicken, red pepper and ginger and let it cook for another minute, then add the tamari soy sauce and the water and let it cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently, until vegetables are crisp-tender. Add water 1 tsp at a time if necessary. Serve over brown rice and top with sesame seeds and cilantro.

This recipe originally called for mushrooms (which I hate), regular sesame oil (which I didn't have), black sesame seeds (which I couldn't find) and soba noodles (which I didn't feel like stopping to get tonight) instead of rice. It also called for szechuan pepper, but suggested substituting lemon pepper instead. I meant to do this but totally forgot, so I will definitely add that in next time. Without it, I think this is really good stirfry, but with it, I think it would have that little something awesome.

This recipe was quick and easy, which I like. I try to do as much prep work as possible when I get home from the grocery store - chopping carrots and broccoli, washing all the fruit, etc - as I have found I am MUCH more likely to use it when it is already prepared and very unlikely to use it at all if I don't do it immediately after getting home from the store. Having all the broccoli and green onions chopped cut down on the prep time, but it still went quickly.

Rating: 4/5
Why? I really wish I would have remembered to put in the lemon pepper. This was decent stirfry, but I think it was missing something that would have really made this awesome. I love that this recipe was quite spicy and it would be easier to make it more spicy by adding more dried red pepper.