Chicken Green Pepper Stir Fry

I love to buy those pre-packed bell peppers, where you get one red, one yellow and one green. Now the predicament is that I usually only use the yellow and the red in my salads. The green bell peppers are a sort of  ugly stepsister that often finds itself at the bottom of the vegetable shelf in the fridge for quite some time before it gets thrown out.

But then, I don’t like to throw out food. Recently I remembered that the Chinese use green peppers in their stir-fries very often, from when we lived in China (ok, that is more than 20 years ago.) Combined with onion, chicken (or beef) and a mixture of soy sauce and red wine to spice up the dish, it is now one of my favorite weekday dinners. Fast, simple, delicious, little ingredients.

We are on holiday at the German North Sea right now and this was our dinner last night. I took the picture above at 8.30pm. I love those long evenings. It only gets really dark between 10.30 and 11pm. And apart from this, this part of the world is just beautiful, with lots of fresh air, an amazing seaside with amazing tides and mudflats and lots of greenery. A welcome and much needed change to the heat of Dubai.

1/4 cup vegetable or chicken broth (use 1/2 cup if you like it saucier)

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons red wine

1 tablespoon flour

2 chicken breasts

2 green bell peppers

1 onion

1 teaspoon neutral cooking oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated

Serves 2-3

Whisk together broth, soy sauce, wine and flour in small bowl until flour has dissolved. Set aside.

Cut chicken breasts into small 1/2 inch strips. Chop peppers and onion into bite-size chunks.

Heat oil in a wok over high heat. Add garlic and ginger and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add chicken pieces to skillet and stir-fry until white, about 3 minutes. Add bell peppers and onion and and stir-fry until vegetables are crisp-tender and chicken is just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add broth mixture and bring to boil, stirring constantly. Cook until sauce thickens, about 1 minute. Serve with steamed rice.