A Chinese Food Secret No One Tells You

For years, Charles and I enjoyed wonderful Chinese food. Either we lived near it (Pasadena) or we could drive to it (Washington) or we could order it up (well, not really ever - but I've been to places where that's possible, like Manhattan).

In several places where we lived, you could neither find decent Chinese in restaurants nor order it delivered. So I tried to make it at home.

On the whole, it was a tale of many downs and only one or two ups. Like my step-monster's chicken-n-dumplings recipe, it existed to taunt me with perfection I could not attain.

However, when we moved to Kentucky I sought professional help. I checked two cookbooks out of the library - cookbooks by Martin Yan (of "Yan Can Cook"). I figured that Martin Yan has been teaching girls like me how to tackle Chinese food for more than 25 years. If anyone could help me, he was the one.

My main problem was that while I could follow a recipe, the result was always bland. Always. Booooring. It didn't matter whether I used a food blog or a book or a recipe in the Times. Boring. I couldn't understand why everything was so under-seasoned and undersauced. Nothing ever had that thick, glossy sauce you get in restaurants.

Martin Yan is my hero. Because his recipes weren't that interesting to me, but his basics were profound. At the beginning of one of the books I checked out, there was a section on the essential Chinese pantry. It made a point I'd never realized before.

This product:
Is not the same as this product:


The former is Japanese soy sauce. Thin, tart, delicious. The latter is Chinese Dark Soy. Thick, sweeter, much more concentrated.

Ding! Ding! Ding! That's the secret I'd been missing. And it made a huge difference. All those recipes that call for 2T of soy plus 2T of sugar plus scallions, stock and cornstarch? They taste good when you use the right soy. They make lovely sauce (see above) when you're using the right product. Stock your pantry with about 8 things that will last forever, and you can throw together a yummy Chinese dinner anytime you want.

So. Tonight I made a chicken stir-fry with snow peas. It took half an hour if you count marination time. It took about 5 minutes if you don't.

1 chicken breast (the whole thing) boneless, skinless. Best if slightly frozen - just because it makes it hard enough to slice thin.

Chinese dark soy
Sugar
Stock (I used beef)
Sesame oil
garlic
cornstarch
hoisin sauce (I used the Soy Vey brand because I think it's witty)
Dry sherry or Chinese sherry (I use dry sherry because I think it's tasty alone)
vegetable oil (not butter - butter will burn at high temps)

Whatever veg you like, plus a nut if you like it (peanut and cashew work well)

Do this:
*Slice the chicken thinly. I like to sort of shave off bits, not cut it into little chunks.
*Put the chicken in a bowl with a splash of the sherry and a couple of glops of hoisin sauce.
*Heat up a cast-iron skillet or other thick, high-sided pan on medium-high with some oil in it (a couple of tablespoons is fine).
*When the oil starts to shimmer, toss in the chicken and stir it around a little so it's all sitting there frying.
*Mix the sauce. In a bowl, combine 2T of Chinese dark soy with 2T of white sugar. Add some stock (a cup at most, depending on how much food there is and how much sauce you want. Don't stress - you can add more stock if you want), then some cornstarch (to thicken. So it depends on how much stock. Try 1/2 cup stock to 2 teaspoons cornstarch. It's not a big deal if you're a little thinner or a little less thin. You're going to have to work that stuff out, anyway, because of differences in the amount of chicken, the pan, the heat, etc.) Add a little hoisin and a dash of sesame oil and some minced garlic and whatever else you like (chile oil, chile garlic sauce, honey, whatever).
*Let the chicken cook until there's no liquid, then add the nuts (they should toast a little in the pan) and then the greens (snow peas, green onion, or canned foods like water chestnuts or bamboo shoots).
*Pour in the sauce and stir it up. At first, it will look watery and nothing will happen. Then the sauce will get hot and will thicken fast. So keep an eye on it. Add more stock if it gets too thick or you want to.
*Eat. A lot of times this stuff tastes better if you let it cool a tad, because it's so hot it can burn your mouth and you literally won't taste the spices.

If you're making rice, I think making more sauce is a good idea. If not, a nice thick sauce is fine.

I know it looks long, but once you get the rhythm it's easy. Basically, you marinate, then fry the protein. Add the other food, then pour on a sauce that is composed of Chinese soy, sugar, liquid, thickener, and flavor elements. Boom - you're done.

You can play with protein, veggies, and spices all you want. The base is the Chinese soy plus sugar plus liquid plus thickener. You can add whatever you want to that.

It's good. Really good. And fast.

And if you were looking close, you may have noticed the price tag on that bottle. That's right: $1.45. It lasted months, too.