Chinese Chicken with Peanuts and Veggies

It's Sunday again so here is my "something new" for the week.

My dad gave me a bag of snow peas on Saturday, so I decided to make a dish that would go well with a side of sauteed snow peas. Asian flavors sounded good, so I looked around on Epicurious.com and found this recipe. I followed most of it, but made some changes and additions. I doubled the liquids and added chicken broth so I'd have more of a sauce; I added veggies for some color and crunch, and I didn't use the MSG. Below is my version -

Ingredients

• 3 boneless, skinless, trimmed chicken breasts
• 2 scallions, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp and 1 tsp low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbsp and 1 tsp of cornstarch
• 1 tsp sugar
• Several drops of vinegar
• 2 tsp cooking sherry
• 1 slice ginger, minced
• Several drops of sesame oil
• 10 oz low sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 c olive oil
• 1/4 c blanched peanuts
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• Finely chopped veggies - I used 1/2 of a red pepper, handful of water chestnuts, and 1/2 of a zucchini

Directions

• Cut chicken into small chunks and mix with salt, 1 tsp soy sauce, and 1 tbsp cornstarch
• In a small bowl, mix remaining soy sauce and cornstarch, sugar, vinegar, sherry, scallions, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil
• Heat oil in a frying pan. Add peanuts and stir until golden.
• Add veggies and half of the red pepper flakes; saute for 1-2 minutes. Move veggies and peanuts to the side of the pan.
• Add chicken and the rest of the red pepper flakes to the pan and saute for 4-5 minutes until just about cooked through.
• Add the small bowl of sauce, stir to coat.
• Add the chicken broth, stir until all of the sauce is smooth, and let simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring ocassionally.
• Serve over rice or noodles.

We both loved this - the chicken was tender, the sauce was great, and it had the right amount of kick - but agreed that we didn't like the consistency of the peanuts in the dish. We did like the flavor of the peanuts, so next time I'll use them to season the oil and then remove them before adding the veggies and the chicken.

Another Sunday dinner that will go on the "make again" list!