Sesame chicken for an easy midweek supper

After a wonderful few days with my friend, it is now back to reality.  But not without a smile on my face because we just had the most lovely time.  It's funny, isn't it - when you have really good friends, it's just easy to spend time together and it doesn't matter when you last saw each other...you just pick up where you left off.  Lots of chatting, dog walking, laughing and relaxing...and of course eating - just tasty stuff like fish pie (see the recipe link here) and roast dinners, prepared together.  Perfect :-)

Sesame chicken

But now, I better had caught up on posting a few recipes .  How about this one: sesame chicken. 

Mr Happy Larder and I had this as part of our anniversary dinner the other day and with a few tweaks we turned it into a quick and simple yet tasty meal.  Served on rice and veggies, this is not just for special occasions but can easily be made as a midweek meal for the family when you need to feed everyone quickly.

The trick with this is to dust the meat with cornflour prior to frying - this keeps it incredibly soft.  I do this with all types of meat in stir-fries or casseroles and it always works a treat (added bonus: the cornflour also thickens the sauce).

I hope you'll enjoy this one! xx

Sesame chicken (serves 4)

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, cut into bitesize pieces (or use chicken thighs)
2 tbsp cornflour
salt, pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil

For the sauce:
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp brown sugar (or use honey or maple syrup)
1.5 tbsp rice vinegar
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
1 - 2 cloves of garlic, minced
half a fresh chilli, cut into small pieces or some dried chilli flakes
2 spring onions, sliced into "rings" (is that what you call those?)
a squeeze of lemon or lime juice

To serve: rice

Method:

1. Season the chicken pieces and dust liberally with cornflour.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan or wok, then add the chicken pieces and fry until golden (approx. 7 mins).
3. In a small bowl mix together all the sauce ingredients.
4. When the chicken is cooked, simply pour over the sauce and coat evenly.  Cook for a couple of minutes - the sauce will thicken quickly.
5. Squeeze over a little lemon or lime juice and serve immediately on rice. 

  (recipe adapted from lovewithrecipe.com via Pinterest)