Chicken and mushrooms

Press, 27 October 1982, Page 11

Chicken and mushrooms

Alison Hoist’s

Food Facts

The breast meat from a chicken is very tender, and cooks in a short time. You can sometimes but chicken breasts in supermarkets, or you can joint a chicken yourself. After the legs and wings are cut off a chicken you are left with the flesh on the body. It is quite easy to lie the chicken on its back, to cut down the skin on the centre of the breast, and to peel away the skin from the ...thick layers of very tender meat on each side of the breast bone. With a sharp knife cut each side of the breastbone lifting the breast meat away from the carcass. This gives you two servings of breast meat from one

medium to large chicken. This meat is excellent tc use with stir-fried vegetables. I like it best with young, pale, fleshy button mushrooms which cook very fast too. If you want to serve the breast meat with vegetables with longer cooking times you should lift the chicken from the pah while the’ vegetables cook, then add the chicken again just before you add the sauce. For 2 large servings: 2 chicken breasts, sliced (i.e. from one chicken) 2 tablespoons oil 1 -2 cloves garlic, chopped Pinch of ginger Pinch of curry powder 250 g button mushrooms 4 snrina onions

1 teaspoon cornflour 1 teaspoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon soy sauce 2 tablespoons water Cut the skinned chicken breasts into smm (*2 inch) slices across the grain (muscle). Put the sliced meat in a small bowl or plastic bag with the oil, chopped garlic, ginger and curry powder. Leave to stand for 5 minutes or up to 2 days.

Wash the mushrooms and halve them if they are fairly large, since they should be in

pieces about the same size as the pieces of chicken. If the mushrooms are light coloured but open, break them into smaller pieces instead of cutting them. Slice the spring onions diagonally into 2cm ( 3 4 inch) lengths. Combine the remaining ingredients to make a smooth mixture. Once the vegetables are ready, heat a medium sized pan. Add the chicken and stir over high heat for 1-2 minutes, until it loses its pink colour and is a milky white. Add the mush-

rooms and continue to stir, still over high heat, until the mushrooms are wilted, then add the spring onions and the mixed sauce ingredients. Total cooking time should be less than 5 minutes. As soon as the sauce thickens and coats the other ingredients’turn it out onto rice, or into serving dish. Stir-fried spinach is a good vegetable to serve with this dish.