Bruce A. Shields

Sesame Chicken Stir-Fry and Brown Rice

Sesame Chicken and Stir-Fry with Brown Rice

Dinner last night was another hit. It came out wonderful, and it was so easy to make. With my wife and I watching our calories, salt and fat, cooking has become somewhat of a challenge. You would be surprised at how much sodium and fat is in your favorite foods. Of course, none of this mattered too much before your health starts to deteriorate.

Here is a quick round-up of the dinner, and I want to just mention a few things quickly, I assume you know basic things about cooking, such as cutting veggies and meat either with different knives, or in the proper order (vegetables and then meat) cleaning the counter between each. As far as cooking things like rice and other pre-packaged items, they all come with directions, and are very easy to cook.

I call these posts recipes, but I do not really get into specific amounts of things, or temperatures and such. As far as seasoning, and how well you like your food cooked, these are specific to individuals tastes. My post are more about what I used to have a healthy low salt, low fat, low calorie meal.

I took chicken breast I found on sale in the local market for .99 per pound. It only took a couple cuts of my chef knife and I had boneless/skinless chicken breast and tenderloins. I sliced the meat into quarter inch slivers and pan fried them in no-salt butter and a little pepper…NO SALT.

After the chicken browned and became golden I poured a little sesame seed oil in and stirred it all up making sure to cover each piece. The steam smelled amazing when I did this. My two youngest kids came into the kitchen as soon as the smell reached them, ready to eat, ha ha.

The brown rice had been cooked ahead of time and kept int he refrigerator. When cooking rice, I usually cook 1/2 of a bag at a time, and keep it in the fridge, using a little each day for different meals, such as in burritos, mixed with tomatoes and peppers for a side dish, or for stir fry, or like my wife loves it, with a little sugar and cinnamon, a touch of milk and some raisins heated in the microwave.

For this dish, I took the brown rice and put a little butter on top, along with a little of the sesame seed oil and nuked it. The moisture in the rice along with the butter and sesame oil steamed the rice back to life and gave it a touch of the sesame flavor. My son even ate some and he hates Chinese food. I can’t believe I said HATE and CHINESE FOOD in the same sentence…but it’s true.

For the stir fry, I coarsely chopped celery, carrots, broccoli, green pepper, portabella mushrooms, and onion. In a pan I heated no-salt butter and garlic until it was golden brown, then added the veggies. After they were cooked to my liking (a little more on the al dente) I added a little orange sauce which is low cal, low salt and no MSG, which I hate.

Simple, and only a couple “special” ingredients were used. The Sesame seed oil, no-salt butter and the orange sauce. You would probably have all the other ingredients in your home.

Enjoy!