What are these mysterious five spices that so often sneak their way into Chinese cooking? The exact formula can vary from place to place but usually it’s a concoction of star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, fennel seeds and a bit of Sichuan pepper. This dish was actually inspired by a trip to Australia where they tend to use all sorts of Asian flavours in their cooking. We teamed it up with super fresh bok choy, ginger and garlic for a quick burst of flavour!
The quantities provided above are averages only.
Boxes and ingredients are packed in facilities that handles Peanut, Nuts, Sesame, Fish, Crustaceans, Milk, Egg, Mustard, Celery, Soya, Gluten and Sulphites. Due to the war in Ukraine, it has been necessary to substitute sunflower oil with rapeseed oil in some products without a label change. The FSA have advised that allergic reactions to rapeseed oil are rare.
1
Brown Basmati Rice
1
Pak Choi
2
Spring Onion
1
Red Chilli
2
Garlic Clove
1
Ginger
1
Chinese Rice Vinegar
(Contains Sulphites)
3
Soy Sauce
(Contains Cereals containing gluten, Soya)
1.5
Chinese Five Spice
3
British Chicken Thighs
Boil a large pot of water with ¼ tsp of salt for the rice. Wash the rice in a sieve under running water for a minute then add the rice to the pot of boiling water. Rapidly boil the rice on high heat for 25 mins then drain and put back in the pot. Cover with a tea towel and leave off the heat until the chicken is cooked.
While the rice cooks chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Chop the bottom root from the bok choy, then chop widthways into four. Very finely chop the spring onions into discs, separating the white and green parts. Slice the chilli in half and very thinly chop widthways.
Peel the garlic, crush it under your knife then chop finely. Using the edge of a spoon peel the skin from the ginger. Now either grate the ginger or chop it super finely.
Mix your garlic, ginger, 1 tsp of sugar(if you have some), Chinese rice wine vinegar and half the soy sauce in a bowl. Stir in the Chinese 5 spice. Add as much of the red chilli as you dare (you can omit it completely for the little ’uns). Tip this mixture over the chicken and marinate for as long as your hunger allows.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Once the oil is really hot add in the chicken with the marinade. Cook for around 8 mins until it is caramelised outside and cooked in the middle. Tip: The chicken is cooked when it is no longer pink in the middle.
Every 3 mins add 1 tbsp of waterto the pan to ‘de-glaze’ the pan. (That’s chef talk for stripping off the little burnt bits that’ll give your sauce lots of extra taste!).
When your chicken is cooked add in the whites of the spring onions. 30 seconds later add in the bok choy and the remaining soy sauce. Stir-fry for 2 mins until the bok choy has wilted.
Serve with your brown rice and sprinkle over the greens of the spring onions.