Friday, January 4, 2008

Chicken and Broccoli

I came home from work last night and wanted to make something that fit my three requirements: 1) easy to throw together, 2) healthy and low carb, and 3) delicious. This is what I came up with. I makde a chicken and broccoli stir fry and served it on a bed of spaghetti squash. It turned out really nice.

I love spaghetti squash. It is healthy and delicious and it has such an interesting texture. I use it fairly often when I want to lower the carbs in a dish where I would normally have rice or pasta. Of course it isn't the same but it still tastes great. I had a small sized squash here. The question was how to cook it quickly. I usually bake it in a hot oven for 45 min to an hour to get it soft and tasty. I didn't want to wait that long so I looked to my microwave. I sliced the squash in half lenghthwise and removed the seeds. Then I placed the halves back together and tied it with some butcher's twine. This I placed in the microwave and cooked it on high for 10 minutes. It was cooked to a perfect texture. Although you don't get the caramelization that you would in the oven, it still performed well. I left it to rest while I prepared the rest of the dish.

I pre-steamed the broccoli for just a few minutes. Just until it was slightly cooked but still a bit crunchy. It would cook more in the stir fry. I cubed the chicken and seasoned it. I also added red onion, garlic and ginger. The onions, garlic, ginger and chicken were stir fried in my wok until the chicken was done. I added liberal doses of soy sauce, sesame oil and mirin. I tossed in the broccoli and covered it to cook through for a few minutes. I then added some corn starch slurry to thicken up the sauce a little bit.

This was so good I'm having the leftovers for breakfast this morning!

5 comments:

Big Boys Oven said...

that sure look tasty and delicious!

missbliss said...

How do you transform the squash into this "spaghetti squash" business? Do you just shred it with forks?

Looks great, I love broccoli.

Greg said...

Yes, the squash has natural fibers running across the width of the squash (not lengthwise). Once it's cooked you just drag your fork down along the length and the strands just come out. It's really neat. The flavor is mild, sweet ,and delicious.

Greg said...

And thanks, both of you, for reminding me to add your blogs to my blog list.

Astra Libris said...

What a clever technique for speedy spaghetti squash cooking! Thanks for the tip!