Oyster Sauce Chicken & Broccoli

Ingredients

• 500 g chicken thigh fillets, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 15 g fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 3 tbsp oyster sauce
• 300 g broccoli, cut into small florets
• 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
• 2 x 250g pre-cooked jasmine rice pouches
• 3 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
• Crusty bread, to serve
• Dressed green salad, to serve
• Fresh parsley, to serve

Method

1. Whisk the oyster sauce, soy, rice vinegar, sesame oil and chilli flakes together in a small bowl and set aside. Taste it — most of the salt is doing its job through the soy and oyster, but a tiny pinch now ties the flavours together.
2. Pat the chicken dry and season with a pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper. Water means steam, and steam means no caramelisation — and seasoning before the heat hits is the difference between flat chicken and chicken that tastes of itself.
3. Get the wok screaming hot over maximum heat. Add the vegetable oil, then lay the chicken in a single layer — work in two batches if your wok is small. Crowd it and the chicken steams in its own juices instead of catching colour. Leave it alone for 2–3 minutes until the underside is deep golden and caramelised, then stir-fry for 2 minutes more until cooked through. Tip out onto a plate.
4. Add the broccoli and red pepper to the same wok and stir-fry for 3 minutes, until the broccoli is bright green and just tender with proper char on the florets — that blistered edge is where the flavour lives.
5. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for no more than 30 seconds, just until fragrant and pale gold. Watch it like a hawk — burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter and there's no rescuing it.
6. Return the chicken to the wok, pour over the sauce — including the rice vinegar mix with its squeeze of lime-bright acid from the vinegar — and toss everything together for 1 minute until each piece is glossy and mahogany-slicked. Taste one piece: if it needs lifting, a final splash of soy or a few flakes of salt now, not at the table.
7. Heat the jasmine rice pouches according to the packet instructions.
8. Pile the rice into bowls, spoon the chicken and broccoli over the top, scatter the spring onions across in pale green rings and finish with a generous shower of toasted sesame seeds.