Chicken, Broccoli, and Cashew Stir-Fry with Jasmine Rice

Your Cooking Lesson

Advice, explanation, and in-depth information to help you achieve recipe success.

Stir-fry dishes originated in Asia but now are popular across the globe.  Culinary lore tells us that this cooking method was developed by cooks in places that traditionally lacked fuel resources; without forests to provide hardwood logs for long, slow roasting and other sustained heat methods, instead they learned to quickly cook small morsels of food over kindling or charcoal with just a short burst of high heat.  They invented the wok, a hemispherical spun-steel pan that conducts heat well and enables food to sizzle and sear in a minimal amount of oil.  The Chinese culinary term wok hei describes the special taste of foods cooked over fire with a blast of high heat: smoky, slightly charred, and with bold, concentrated flavor.  If you’ve watched an Asian restaurant chef at work, you’ve heard the hiss of the food hitting the hot wok and seen the flames licking up around it.  

Unfortunately, few domestic ranges provide the extremely high heat required to achieve wok hei.  Moreover, domestic range grids aren’t designed to accommodate a traditional wok’s rounded bottom.  If you want to use a wok on your domestic range, try a flat-bottomed one.  https://amzn.to/4gNk2J7 But you can achieve good results with a carbon steel sauté pan. https://amzn.to/40rqLCO Of course, if you have an electric flat-top or induction range, you must use compatible pans.  Whatever equipment you use, the secret to a good stir-fry is using the highest heat your stove can generate and getting the pan very, very hot before you begin.  

The first step in prepping any protein-based stir-fry is to fabricate and marinate the meat.  Asian marinades typically include cornstarch, which dissolves into the liquid marinade ingredients and coats the meat with a slippery surface that holds in moisture and prevents sticking.  Although I prefer chicken thigh meat for its full flavor and denser texture that helps prevent overcooking, you can use chicken breast meat for this dish if you prefer.  To fabricate boneless, skinless chicken thighs, all you need to do is remove visible fat and connective tissue, then cut the thighs into strips.  

Jasmine rice, which is my choice for east Asian meals, requires 20 minutes of soaking in hot water before cooking.  This allows the delicate grains to absorb water slowly and swell up gently before it’s cooked on the stove.  First, you’ll wash the rice under cool running water to remove milling dust that can make rice sticky.  Drain and then cover with hot tap water.  You have 20 minutes to do other things, then you’ll drain again and add the cooking water.  The ratio for jasmine and other tender-grain rice is easy to remember—after soaking, 1:1.  The water amount is equal to the amount of raw rice you started with.  Although it’s not traditional, I like to add a little salt and a bit of oil to the cooking water to enhance flavor and texture.  The type and size of the saucepan you use is important to success.  Rice needs a thick-bottomed pan to prevent scorching, and the pan needs to be the correct size. When cooked, rice absorbs liquid and expands to three times its raw volume.  Your saucepan should have a capacity of about 4 times the volume of the raw rice.  Too large a pan results in uneven absorption of water, resulting in mushy rice on the bottom and undercooked rice at the top.  For 1 cup raw rice the Le Creuset 1 1/4-qt saucepan is perfect https://amzn.to/4h6hAgL; for 2 cups rice, choose the 2-qt https://amzn.to/4h8X6E9.  Start the rice on the stovetop until most of the cooking liquid absorbs, then finish cooking in the oven.  Of course, you can use a rice cooker if you prefer https://amzn.to/3PvjhZj.

Broccoli plays the starring role in this stir-fry.  Available and of good quality year-round, it’s a dependable vegetable that holds up well in the ‘fridge.  We rarely see whole broccoli, including the stem, in today’s supermarkets because the stems are now processed into broccoli slaw.  If the broccoli crown you purchase has some stem attached, be sure to use it.  I recommend peeling any stem pieces so that they cook at the same rate as the florets.  The photo below shows the most efficient way to separate the crown into same-size florets: cut down just through the stem, then pull the resulting sections apart.  Mature broccoli, such as you buy in a store, is a firm vegetable that requires some moist heat to cook properly.  Asian restaurant chefs cook broccoli to order in the wok by braising it: first stir-frying, then splashing in some water to create steam, then allowing the water to evaporate away so that the broccoli finishes by once again sizzling in hot oil.  To simplify your stir-fry process, we’re going to blanch and refresh the broccoli ahead of time as part of prep.  You’ll drop it in rapidly boiling water for less than a minute until crisp-tender, then transfer to a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking.  To efficiently blanch and refresh, a “spider” strainer (shown in the right-side photo) is helpful. (https://amzn.to/4gNGlyr or https://amzn.to/3PrUvtc) To prevent spattering oil, make sure to blot the broccoli dry before frying it!

The rest of your prep involves fabricating the aromatic vegetables and secondary vegetables, and mixing the sauce. Here’s your completed mise-en-place:

It’s dinnertime—now you’re ready to COOK! 

Stir-fry happens fast!  There’s no time to be running around the kitchen looking for tools or ingredients you’ve forgotten.  Before you start cooking, double-check that everything you need is at hand.  Having your cooking oil in a squeeze bottle is helpful for speed and control.  (Include a pan lid in your equipment mise to extinguish flames in the pan if the oil flares up.)  Wearing long sleeves is a good idea, as spattering may occur.

Put your sauté pan on your highest heat burner and wait until it’s really hot.  You should see wisps of vapor rising from the surface.  On a well-seasoned carbon-steel pan you may see tiny wisps of smoke, as well.  A drop of water flicked into the pan will bead up instantly and vanish.  Squeeze in a little oil and then toss in the vegetables along with a pinch of salt.  Stir, flip, and “jump” the vegetables in the pan a few seconds until glossy, vividly colored, and slightly charred at the edges.  Remove to a sizzle pan or work plate.

Squeeze in a bit more oil and add the chicken.  Stir-fry, as before, for about a minute then add the aromatic vegetables.  Stir-fry a few seconds longer; don’t let the aromatics start to scorch.

Quickly return the vegetables to the pan, pour in the sauce, and bring to the boil.  Taste for seasoning and make corrections.  (If you love spicy food, you may want more Sriracha.)  Push the chicken and vegetables to one side of the pan and then stir in just enough slurry to thicken the sauce to nappé consistency (thick enough to coat a spoon yet thin enough to flow on a plate).  Then stir to re-combine. 

 Now you’re ready to plate! 

Mound the rice in the center of a warm plate and make a well in the center.  Spoon in the stir-fry, ensuring even portioning of chicken, vegetables, cashews, and sauce.