astray recipes: Hunan hot and sour chicken

Categories: Main dish
Yield: 4 Servings

Measure	Ingredient
	-Chicken -
2 teaspoons	Each cornstarch and dry sherry
¼ teaspoon	Each salt and pepper
1 pounds	Chicken breasts, skinned, boned, and cut in bite-siz pieces
3½ tablespoon	Salad oil
1 tablespoon	Minced garlic
2 teaspoons	Minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon	Fermented black beans, rinsed and drained
1 small	Green pepper, seeded and cut into 1 inch pieces
1	Medium-size carrot, thinly sliced
8 ounces	Can sliced bamboo shoots
1 tablespoon	Water Cooking sauce -
2 teaspoons	Cornstarch
½ teaspoon	Each crushed red pepper and salad oil
2 tablespoons	Soy sauce
2½ tablespoon	White wine vinegar
½ cup	Chicken broth

In a bowl, combine cornstarch, sherry, salt and pepper. Add chicken and stir to coat, then stir in 1½ t of the oil and let stand for 15 minutes to marinate. Prepare cooking sauce by blending all ingredients in another bowl, set aside. Place a wok or wide frying pan over high heat. When pan is hot, add 2 T of the oil. When oil begins to heat, add garlic, ginger, and black beans. Stir once, then add chicken and stir-fry until chicken is opaque (about 3 minutes). Remove chicken from pan.

Add the remaining 1 T oil to pan. When oil is hot, add green pepper, carrot and bamboo shoots. Stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add water and stir-fry for 1 ½ minutes. Return chicken to pan. Stir cooking sauce, add to pan, and cook, stirring, until sauce bubbles and thickens.

If you like food that produces watery eyes and a burning mouth, pass a little bowl of hot pepper & black bean sauce (recipe follows).

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

hunan hot and sour chicken