No added sugar was definitely harder, both practically and emotionally, than no alcohol. Sugar is in everything, and monstrously difficult to avoid. James and I were both fully aware that we were doing this experiment due to a lifestyle choice, and not any essential dietary restriction, and so we were fairly flexible around the margins. We examined labels like hawks, but ultimately and mostly due to laziness, stopped short of traipsing to multiple supermarkets to buy no-added-sugar staples. So we still ate some added sugar in the form of wheat bread and mayonnaise. We also didn’t stop eating out. We really only eat out on the weekends anyway, and we tried our best, but we also ate what we wanted. We had one exceptional cheat meal where we got Japanese. I naively thought it would be okay – it was sushi! Raw fish and rice! Then we got a bunch of barbequed meat that came slathered in teriyaki sauce and eel rolls that came drenched in sweet eel sauce. Whoops. Asian food is basically all just a big added sugar no-no. Given all this, in practice we probably ate closer to an average of <5 grams added sugar per day. That’s sort of depressing, considering that we did try hard to adhere to the rules of the game.

I think that it took me a full 28 days before the sugar cravings stopped. I consistently thought of cake throughout the month – chocolate cake, lemon cake, ice cream cake… The cravings sort of ebbed and flowed, but I would say that it was only on the last Monday of January that I woke up and felt absolutely no desire to eat cake or drink a cocktail. It was only on that Monday that I felt that I could continue this no-added-sugar January for awhile longer. And I did! I didn’t eat any dessert for about 6 days in February. Then James and I went out for a celebratory dinner, I had cake, and BOOM – it was all over. I was back to salivating over cake, and it was like this past January never happened.

Okay – that last statement is a bit facetious. 20 days into February, I haven’t eaten any of those crappy supermarket cakes or chocolate candy bars that I love(d) so much. But I’m very aware that I’m just teetering on a sugary precipice, with only a few Reese’s peanut butter cups standing between current restraint and the sugary bonanza of my past life.

On a positive note, I am hoping some changes will stick quite easily. Plain yogurt tastes more palatable to me now than it did at the beginning of the month, especially with fruit. There are no-added sugar, or low-added sugar, versions of a lot of things, if you look hard enough. I found no-added-sugar museli (branded as Swiss museli – perhaps the Swiss don’t each much sugar?) with raisins that tastes a bit like horse food, but which is growing on me. I know which brands of breadcrumbs have more or less added sugar. I know which kinds of chicken broth have sugar and which do not.

In particular, the infamously sugary flavored yogurt world (some versions have 10 grams of added sugar per one serving!) has begun to catch onto the demand for low-added-sugar yogurts. James loves his coconut yogurts, and the transition from flavored to plain yogurt was especially painful for him. Not one to give up without a fight, however, he tried a lot of no-added-sugar yogurt products with gusto. There were the Siggi’s no-added-sugar yogurts, flavored with only fruit, that were good though sorely lacking on variety, with only two flavors – peach and mango and cinnamon and banana. He bought buckets of raspberries and blueberries to adorn plain yogurt. He tried an unsweetened dairy free yogurt made with soy milk that tasted like cardboard paste. He found a yogurt smoothie drink that boasted no added sugar, but still contained concentrated apple and mango puree (which are still added sugars!), and that, despite the fruit concentrate, still managed to taste like powdery vitamin-y liquid chemicals. In the end, the Siggi’s no-added-sugar yogurts have become a good staple, along with Chobani and Fage less-sugar-added yogurts, which have a bit of added sugar, but also a lot more variety of flavors.

This no-added-sugar diet is expensive! James and I have taken to replacing our calories from sugar with calories from nuts, and while this change is a healthy one, it is also a more expensive one. I don’t think I quite realized before how much of my diet consisted of cheap sugar fillers until now. Before, if I was still hungry after dinner, I’d just eat a couple of cookies, or a candy bar. At most expense, I would eat a fancy Magnum ice cream bar. However, even those fancy ice cream bars, which were frequently on sale, were less expensive than nuts, which were never on sale. Eating healthfully is truly a privilege that is unequally distributed among socioeconomic classes.

In conclusion, ascetic January was a success. There are changes which I hope will permanently stick – plain yogurt instead of flavored yogurt, unsweetened or low-sweetened granola. I am hoping to cut down on candy bars and sugary impulse buys.

And now, the dish of the month! A deeply flavorful, herby, fresh spin on chicken and rice that includes absolutely no added sugar! This dish is delicious, and an absolute staple in our household. I make it often, and it never disappoints. It does take a bit of time, unfortunately, but much of it is inactive. The time is worth it, and you can easily scale this recipe up for more leftovers (which just get better with time!). A few notes:

• The recipe calls for chicken thighs, which lend additional flavor and fat to the rice. However, when I made it this time, I actually ran out of thighs and mixed in some boneless skinless chicken breast. The breast worked okay, although it was a bit dry. I would definitely stick with thighs next time, or at least use bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. If you’re stuck up a creek and using skinless breasts, be a little more liberal with the olive oil as you’re searing the chicken.
• I pretty much tripled the amount of herbs added at the end, because I love the freshness and lightness they give the dish. I ended up tossing in whole handfuls of parsley, dill, and especially cilantro, which I love. The quantity increases are reflected in the recipe that I’ve provided, but don’t be afraid to taste and add to your liking. The herbs perfectly complement the heartiness and richness of the rest of the dish.
• The raisins are my own substitution, since I’m lazy and have never sourced barberries or currants. If you use them, please let me know what I’m missing! I like the raisins and the slight sweetness they give the dish. You could omit entirely, but I think the raisins add a nice depth of flavor.

I finally, finally saw Crazy Rich Asians this past weekend, and it was a wild and delicious ride.

I know this is a food blog, but I have so many thoughts about the movie, I have to share them! However, SPOILER ALERT – minor plot points and my very strong opinions follow, so if you don’t care to read those or haven’t seen the movie yet, just scroll to where it says “END.”

If you’ve been living under a rock, Crazy Rich Asians is a movie based on a book of the same name, written by Kevin Kwan. Directed by Jon M. Chu, it’s the first Hollywood studio production in 25 years to have an all-Asian cast, since The Joy Luck Club in 1993. Since its release, the movie has broken all sorts of records, dominating the U.S. box office and becoming most successful studio rom-com in nine years, since 2009’s The Proposal. Being Taiwanese American, I cannot overstate how happy this movie made me – to see people who looked like me on the biggest screen, recounting experiences that were my experiences. Overall, I loved it. As a rom-com, it was not my favorite – I thought Rachel Chu’s character was underdeveloped and mostly given awful dialogue until the final scene. Sometimes, it felt like Rachel’s supposedly successful career as an NYU economics professor was treated just as a convenient plot device instead of a real characterization of her identity. I mean, let’s be honest – Nick Young is basically an actual buffoon who has: 1) essentially lied by omission to his girlfriend for one whole year, and 2) contributes 50% to the decision to marry Rachel, yet seems to bear 0% of the responsibility, at least to his mother. Why exactly is Rachel moping around after him in Singapore when she probably has like five million deadlines waiting for her back in New York??

I realize that this is not the point of the movie, but to me, it feels like the movie sort of just glossed over the fact that “sacrifice” for East Asian families is often synonymous with “women sacrificing.” It’s often the Asian daughters that draw the shortest stick. Whatever Westernization relinquished in terms of family cohesion and loyalty, it at least partly gained in opportunity and independence for women. It’s not for me to say which is necessarily better or worse, but I think this intersection between Asianness, Asian Americanness, and feminism is a complex and tangled topic for a future story. Jon M. Chu did a phenomenal job, but I would love to see how this story would unfold in the hands of a female director.

Which brings me to a related point. Some criticisms of the movie have centered on its narrow focus on one specific, privileged section of Singapore society, and how it doesn’t include a wider Asian experience. While this is a legitimate point about representation, and also how our language often conflates “Asian” with “East Asian,” this is ultimately a fruitless argument, because no one movie can purport, or claim, to do all that. We just need more movies. More stories with more diverse perspectives. Over the years, we have seen Asians on screen as comedic relief, kung-fu warriors, sensual lovers, overachieving students, scrappy underdogs, immigrant women, immigrant families, now even zombie killers. But there are so many more voices to be heard. And I, for one, am loving the fact that this particular historic, groundbreaking movie is one that shows Asians as unabashedly and unapologetically bursting with wealth, privilege, and power. For all our collective obsession with the Kardashians, for all this year’s spectacle with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, it is about darn time we got a close look at Singapore’s luxurious, resplendent, glittering (albeit fictional) one-percent.

*******************END OF STRONG OPINIONS*******************

Okay, this all still has to do with food, I promise! One of my favorite scenes in this movie (not a spoiler) is one where the main characters are eating in a loud, bustling open air night market. This scene is so iconic of life in many cities in East Asia, where night markets are places of socialization and entertainment, where people go to eat, drink, shop, and win stuffed animals at carnival games. They’re bustling, chaotic, frenetic places that take your breath away. One of the iconic things to eat in a Taiwanese night market is popcorn chicken. It’s lightly breaded chicken laced with white pepper, salt, and other fragrant spices. It can come in the form of a huge cutlet, but it’s more commonly found as nuggets, fried with basil leaves, and served in a paper sack with long wooden skewers for poking and munching. It is delicious, and something I have to eat whenever I go back to Taiwan.

I’ve had a recipe for popcorn chicken bookmarked for years to make at home, but never got around to it. It sounded fairly easy, but marinading and frying are always intimidating on a weeknight. And… the recipe lived up to its feared fussiness for a weeknight! It was crispy and delicious, but involved more time and cleanup than I’d like. Also, the one thing I would definitely do differently would be to fry the chicken in larger chunks. I cut the chicken into small bite-sized nuggets because I liked the look of them, but the breading and frying then took foreeeeevver. The next time, I would cut the thighs into long strips, at least, or maybe even just fry them whole. Other tips:

• Chinese five spice powder is a spice mix that is popular in Asian cooking for marinades and stir fries. Different variants exist, but it is usually a blend of cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, and Szechwan peppercorns, plus possibly salt and MSG. It can be found in any Asian supermarket and some specialty spice shops and large American supermarkets. Read the ingredients before buying, though, as I’ve seen some cheap knockoffs will pass off a mix of just white pepper and salt as “five spice powder.” I’ve also seen some brands will dilute their spices with flour. So, read the ingredients before you buy.
• Make sure the chicken is at room temperature before you fry it – marinading it at room temperature will achieve this. Frying room temperature chicken will ensure a crispier crust.
• I made enough for leftovers, and they reconstituted magnificently the next night – that is the beauty of dark chicken meat. I just baked them at 375°F for about 10 minutes, and they were hot and crunchy, and only slightly less moist. However, if you’re not into leftovers and just want to make enough for 2, halve the ingredients and marinade.

Servings	Fuss Factor	Total Time	Prep Time	Cook Time
4	4	1 1/2 hours	1 hour (includes 30 mins marinading)	30 minutes

We served this with white rice, sauteed spinach, and roasted cauliflower. Total time to dinner, including sides: about 1 hour 30 minutes (I prepped the rice and vegetables while the chicken was marinading).

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Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken

Adapted from Kirbie's Cravings and Rasa Malaysia

Ingredients

• 1 pound chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces, long strips, or left whole (the bigger the piece, the lower the fuss down the line)
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves (optional)
• 2 cups cornstarch
• Extra salt and white pepper, for dusting finished chicken
• Neutral oil for frying (canola, peanut, grapeseed)

For the marinade:

• 4 garlic cloves, crushed and roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onions
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (a combination of regular and dark, or all regular)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

• In a medium bowl, combine the chicken with all of the marinade ingredients and mix together well. Marinade at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Pour oil into a wok or cast iron skillet to the depth of at least one inch. Heat over medium-high heat until oil is about 350°F (you can also test the temperature by putting in a small cornstarch-coated chicken piece - it should sizzle vigorously). Put the cornstarch in a large bowl. Shake any excess marinade and seasonings off chicken pieces, and coat each chicken piece evenly with cornstarch. When the oil is hot, shake off excess cornstarch on chicken pieces, and place into oil.
• Fry chicken on both sides until it turns golden brown, about 1-2 minutes per side. Fry a few pieces of chicken at a time, but don't crowd the pan too much, or the chicken won't turn out as crispy. When chicken is done, remove and place on a plate lined with paper towels to drain excess oil. Sprinkle chicken immediately with extra salt and white pepper while still hot, if desired, and toss to coat evenly (you can taste test one piece to gauge the flavor level).
• After frying all the chicken, drop the basil leaves in the hot oil. The leaves cook quite fast, so you only need to fry them for a few seconds. Be careful as they will make a popping sound and may cause hot oil to sputter up. Sprinkle basil on top of chicken and serve immediately.
  

James is obsessed with katsu curry. When we lived in Boston and he was a postdoc and I was a grad student, both with infinitely flexible schedules and excellent procrastination techniques, we would go for lunch all the time at his favorite place, Fin’s Sushi & Grill. Despite the name, we would both invariably order a chicken or pork katsu curry bento box. Breaded and golden-fried crispy meat, lathered with a thick, sweet Japanese curry sauce, served with steaming white rice, petite California rolls, and crunchy salad, all in their appropriate bento containers, this meal put me right to sleep for the rest of the afternoon. But it was good, oh so very good.

Katsu refers to a breaded, fried cutlet in Japanese cuisine, and is commonly tori katsu (chicken cutlet) or tonkatsu (pork cutlet). But the story of Japanese karē raisu, or curry rice, is a fascinating one of the globalization and adaptation of food – how curry made its way to Japan from India, via Britain. Curry was thought to be introduced to Japan by the British in the Meiji era in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. During this period, Japan moved from a relatively isolated feudal society to a Westernized state, and underwent sudden and rapid modernization. Part of its foreign policy involved a close alliance with the UK, which involved particularly close relations between the navies of the two countries. Consequently, Anglicized interpretations of Indian curry were taken to Japan by the Anglo-Indian officers of the royal Navy and other British subjects. Since this new dish came from the West, it was actually classified as yōshoku (Western food), and subsequently became reinvented to something uniquely Japanese. In 1872, the first karē raisu recipe was published in a Japanese cookbook, and in 1877 a Tokyo restaurant first offered karē raisu on the menu. Just as in England, curry quickly became a staple of the Japanese diet.

[Side Note – I did not know ANY OF THIS until I researched the history of Japanese curry. Why my British husband also did not know the history and the globalized forces behind his love of katsu curry, I will never know]

In general, Japanese curry is sweeter, milder, and simpler than Indian curries, consisting of a broth of meat and vegetables thickened with a roux made of curry powder, flour and oil and sweetened with apples or other fruit. The popularity of karē raisu spread even further nationwide when food manufacturers introduced “instant” curry mixes – first, powdered mixes in the late 1920s, then the solid-block curry mixes popular today in 1954. These blocks contained roux thickener and various flavor enhancers such as vegetable or meat concentrate, and ensured that making a flavorful, warm pot of curry was an absolute breeze. Things got even easier when ready-to-eat curry sold in pressure-cooked and vacuum-sealed bags were introduced in 1969, with cooked meat, carrots, and potatoes already added, and requiring only hot water to heat.

My mom and I have been making Japanese curry with these curry cubes for forever. They pack such a flavor punch, and are DROP DEAD easy. We always stock up on these when we go to the Asian market, and we always have some in our home. But it wasn’t until James gave me a little nudge-nudge puppy-eyed encouragement, that I discovered that katsu cutlets are also actually pretty easy to make! The breading is not that intimidating once you’ve done it a few times, Panko is very easy to work with and is available in any large American supermarket, and the frying is incredibly fast and can be done in a skillet with not too much oil.

And so, katsu curry has traveled from India, to Britain, to Japan, to Chicago, where it has become a staple in our household, and one of James and my top favorite meals. Isn’t food just so darn cool??!

Some Notes:

• Instant curry cubes: My favorite is the House Foods Vermont Curry brand (don’t ask me why it’s called Vermont curry; that’s probably the place that most evoked warm, comforting curry to the Japanese??). You can buy it at any Asian supermarket, some American supermarkets with a large international selection, or on Amazon. They come in spice levels ranging from mild to hot, but honestly, I think they all taste exactly the same, so just buy whatever you can find! Golden Curry is another popular brand.
• I like my curries chock-a-block with vegetables, so I add a lot of them. If you like your curry sauce soupier and thinner, use the lower range given of carrots and potatoes, and add more water to the curry.
• Due to a previous encounter with banana pudding pie, I had a pile of leftover egg whites sitting in my fridge, which I used up here. Thus, my egg wash plate has no yolks, but yours will obviously contain them.

We served this with white rice and some sauteed broccoli and zucchini. Total time to dinner, including sides: about an hour. Not bad for a Fin’s-worthy katsu curry chicken dinner!

Servings	Fuss Factor	Total Time	Prep Time	Cook Time
6	3	50 minutes	25 minutes	25 minutes

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Chicken Katsu Curry

Ingredients

• 1 yellow onion
• 3-4 carrots (about 1/2 - 3/4 pounds)
• 1-2 potatoes (about 1/2 - 3/4 pounds)
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 3 whole breasts, or can use breast tenderloins or thin sliced chicken breast)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2-3 eggs, scrambled (start with 2 eggs; if you find you need more, crack another one)
• 1 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 6-8 cubes instant curry mix (I use House Foods Vermont Curry cubes)
• Canola or other neutral oil
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

• Vegetable & Chicken Prep. Trim the onion at both ends, peel off the outer layer of skin, and cut into large chunks about 1-inch across. Wash and peel the carrots and potatoes. Cut the carrots into disks about 1/4-inch thick. Cut the potatoes into chunks about 1-inch across. Set the vegetables aside.
• Arrange the chicken on a large cutting board. If using whole breasts, I halve them horizontally so that they are thinner (the meat should be about 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick). To do this, lay a chicken breast flat on the cutting board. Run a knife horizontally through the breast, parallel to the cutting board surface, to cut it in half. As you're cutting, place your other hand on top of the meat to hold it in place, but take care not to cut your hand! Don't worry if one half is thicker than the other half - this will happen, and is not a big deal - just note which parts are thicker, and cook them for a bit longer once you get there. Once the chicken pieces are laid out, sprinkle salt and pepper on each side.
• Dredging and Breading Chicken. Place the flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs in 3 separate large, flat plates. Line the plates up in that order so that you can easily move the chicken from the flour to the eggs to the breadcrumbs. Place another couple more plates at the end of the assembly line for the finished breaded chicken. 
• Dip a chicken piece in the flour, dipping it on both sides to make sure it is completely coated. Shake the chicken to get rid of excess flour. Then, dip the chicken in the egg mixture, again making sure it is coated on all sides. Shake slightly to get rid of excess egg. Finally, dip the chicken in the breadcrumbs, flipping it a couple of times and patting gently to make sure it is completely coated. Transfer the chicken to a clean plate. Repeat the steps with the remaining chicken pieces.
• Once all the prep is ready, start the curry. Heat 1 tablespoon of canola oil over medium-high heat in a large pot (mine is 5-quarts). Add the garlic and onion, and stir until the garlic is fragrant and onion becomes slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Add the carrots and potatoes, and stir to combine. Add water so that just the tips of the vegetables are uncovered - about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups. For a chunkier curry, add less water. For a soupier curry, add more water. Cover, and then, once the water has come to a boil, turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally. Cook until the potatoes are just cooked through, about 10-12 minutes. At this point, add the curry cubes and stir to combine once they have dissolved. Start with 6 cubes, taste, and add more if the sauce is too bland. Cook for another 2-3 minutes more to thicken the curry sauce.
• While the curry is simmering, fry the chicken. Heat a large, flat skillet over medium-high heat. Pour in canola oil to a depth of about 1/4 inch. Test the oil with a bit of breadcrumb - it is ready when the breadcrumb sizzles when it hits the oil. Place the chicken gently into the hot oil. I was able to cook the chicken in 2 batches, 3 pieces at a time. Cook until the chicken is golden brown and crispy on the bottom, about 2-3 minutes. Flip the chicken, and cook until golden brown on the other side, another 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.
• Assemble and Serve. Cut the chicken cutlets into strips about an inch wide. Serve with a dollop of rice and a ladle of curry. James likes the curry covering both his rice and chicken, as they do in the restaurants, but I like keeping my chicken separate so that it stays crispier. Add some green veggies, if you like, and enjoy!

When James moved from the steepled city of London to the steepled city of Boston in 2014 (fun fact! James emigrated on my birthday! #destiny), he brought these little BBC cookbooks with him. They’re tiny little 6-inch-by-6-inch jobbies, and they look like cookbooks for children, or really dated cookbooks that rely too heavily on processed ingredients. I thought it was super cute when he opened them up to look for recipes, like he was still living in the 2000’s while I was on the internet scouring for the newest and best food trends.

But these books have really exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations! They are little gold nuggets of recipe books, offering truly easy, truly delicious recipes by focusing on simple ingredients in flavorful combinations. We’ve made a few things from these books already, but my favorite so far is definitely this creamy, nutty, fresh green chicken curry. And the good thing about these books is that they don’t pretend that their recipes are anything they’re clearly not. This curry is not “authentic” – I don’t even know what region it would be authentic to. India? Thailand? Britain?? It is not farm-to-table, relying on storebought Greek yogurt and peanut butter for much of the flavor. It will not compete with a curry with 10 ingredients just in the spice list and requiring a mortar and pestle to execute.

But this curry is a filling, hearty dish that we’ve made many times on a weeknight, that uses ingredients that will take you probably five minutes to find and buy, and that tastes more complex and delicious than its ingredients would lead you to believe, because it focuses on the basics and enlists flavor bombs like garlic, ginger, serrano peppers, and peanut butter. It gets some of its ease by enlisting the use of a food processor, which is sort of annoying for me, since I hate washing that thing up. But today, I threw the parts in the dishwasher and ran that baby, even though it was really only half full. Hey – carefree wife, carefree life! (No, not really, that was just a joke – I’m not solely responsible for the level of anxiety in James’s and my marriage!)

Some notes:

• I used regular Skippy peanut butter because that was all I had, but natural peanut butter will work fine too.
• I used chicken thighs because I like dark meat and it’s less likely to overcook, but breasts will also work just as well here.
• Yes, I goofed and accidentally put all of the cilantro in the food processor. Sigh. Don’t worry – we’ve also made it the right way. Processing all of the cilantro wasn’t too big of a deal, I think it just resulted in less pronounced cilantro flavor overall in the final dish, and a soupier, less pretty curry.
• I’ve never worked with paneer before, but my guess is that it would work here as a vegetarian substitute (with vegetable stock). I don’t think the final dish would be too creamy… if you try this / have any more insight, please let me know!
• This recipe is obviously not for those people who think cilantro tastes like soap. I am not one of those people, clearly, and I adore cilantro. You’ll be like, really?? The entire bunch of cilantro?? But the flavor is not overwhelming by any means, and besides, when was the last time you used up an entire bunch of cilantro before it went bad? Like, never, right? This time, though, you’re socking it to the gods in charge of sad herb spoilage. Be triumphant in your defiance!

We served this with white rice and sauteed spinach (very green dinner!). Total time to dinner, including sides: about 45 minutes.

Servings	Fuss Factor	Total Time	Prep Time	Cook Time
4-5	1	30 minutes	15 minutes	15 minutes

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Nutty Cilantro Chicken Curry

Source: BBC Good Food 101: 30-Minute Suppers

Ingredients

• 1 large serrano chili pepper, 2 if you want more spice
• Small knob of ginger, roughly chopped (about 1 1/2 tablespoons worth)
• 3-4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 bunch cilantro, tough stems removed and roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs, cut into large chunks
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup chicken stock or broth
• 1 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt (my Greek friend says Fage is the best supermarket brand)

Instructions

• Put the chili pepper, ginger, and garlic in a food processor and pulse until finely minced. Add about 1/3 of the cilantro and process until it becomes a rough paste.
• Heat the oil in a large skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat until hot and almost smoking. Add the chicken, season with salt and black pepper, and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until browned on all sides.
• Stir in the cilantro paste and cook for 1 minute. Add the peanut butter, stock or broth, and yogurt, and stir to combine. When the sauce is gently bubbling, turn down the heat to medium and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is slightly thickened, 7-10 minutes. If the sauce gets too thick, add a splash more stock.
• When the curry is done, stir in the remaining cilantro, leaving a handful aside for garnish, if desired. Serve with rice, scattering the garnishing cilantro on top.

Fried rice is my comfort food, my heritage. I grew up eating egg fried rice for breakfast, which my mom would make frying up leftover white rice with heavily seasoned scrambled eggs and a handful of bright green scallions. I still remember waking up for school, hearing the sizzle of rice meeting hot oil, smelling the fragrant odors wafting from the kitchen, and eating the piping hot bowl at the kitchen table while watching my mom prepare my lunch.

Nowadays, my fried rice recipe has evolved a bit, but not much. It’s still easy to throw together, uses up any leftover vegetables you might have, and extremely forgiving. The marinade is all James, and adds a delightful, complex flavor to the meat and the rice. Secretly, I think James makes this fried rice better than me.

Now, let’s talk ingredients. If you scroll down to the recipe, you’ll see that I tell you to include a generic “2 cups of vegetables.” Is that exasperating? Please hear me out. The truth is, when I first sat down to write this recipe, it was hard! We never measure the vegetables, and we often end up using whatever looks fresh at the market or whatever’s left in the fridge. So I thought about what ingredients we both liked the most, and most frequently include. The original recipe, instead of the 2 cups of vegetables, consisted of a 1/2 pound of snow peas or sugar snap peas (or 1 cup fresh or frozen peas), 1 (8-ounce) can of bamboo shoots, and 1 (8-ounce) can of water chestnuts. However, I sat on this recipe for a long time because it didn’t feel truthful. These might be the most common vegetables we put in, but they appear in this exact combination maybe 20% of the time. The other 80% of the time, we forget water chestnuts at the store, we forget the bamboo even though they’re right there on the counter, and we have bell peppers and baby carrots that have been hanging around in the fridge foreeeeever… and so you get what you see in the pictures. Honestly, James and I make this fried rice differently almost every single time.

So then I realized – and this is a revelation I had on the bus coming home from work – why hide the exciting and empowering possibility of an eminently modifiable recipe? And who am I to dampen your creativity and your own preferences? Thus the “2 cups of vegetables,” and I think that the way it’s written now feels a lot more honest, a lot more truthful to my process. By now, James and I have made fried rice every which way – with the peas, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts described above, with the diced bell peppers and carrots shown in the photos, or in combination with many, many other things – diced zucchini, chopped broccoli, corn, green onions. And it’s come out delicious every single time. (The onion – I kept in. Because onions are magical)

So don’t be afraid to experiment! You can also try it with beef instead of chicken. You can substitute tofu for a vegetarian option – still marinade it the same way, but leave out the fish sauce (Don’t forget to press and drain the tofu first to get rid of excess moisture!). If you’re using vegetables of different hardiness and cook times (for example carrots and bell peppers), add the hardier vegetable such as the carrot first, cook for two minutes or so, then add the other vegetable. Quantities are also not set in stone – don’t worry if you’re a bit low on vegetables, or have too much chicken. It will all come together in the end, as fried rice invariably, inevitably, uniquely does. And then let me know what you did in the comments!

A note about Shaoxing wine: it is a rice wine with a translucent amber color, made from fermented rice. It contains anywhere from 15-20% alcohol, and has a complex flavor that’s slightly sweet, spicy, and nutty. It can be drunk as a beverage – try some! Mostly, though, I use it to flavor the protein in everything Chinese I make (and probably some non-Chinese dishes too) – most often in marinades, or if I get lazy, I just add a splash of it when I’m sautéing chicken or beef. Like using red or white wine in cooking, Shaoxing wine adds a wonderful depth of flavor to the resulting dish. You can buy Shaoxing wine in any Asian supermarket, and I really hope you’ll seek some out! It’s not expensive, will last many months, and really does make a difference in Chinese cooking. There are lots of varieties, most of which are probably fairly similar. However, DO NOT buy Shaoxing “cooking wine” (like how you shouldn’t buy any other “cooking wines” to cook with either) or any Shaoxing wine that contains salt – these will be inferior, low-grade versions that taste terrible. If you can’t find Shaoxing wine, dry sherry makes the closest substitute.

As a final note, this makes an incredible amount of fried rice. We eat it with a side vegetable – some sautéed Napa cabbage or spinach, and the rice will last at least six meals. If that’s too much for you, just halve the recipe. If you do find yourself a bit short on chicken (or whatever your chosen protein is), still use all of the quantities specified in the marinade, as all that sauce will help season the final dish.

We served this with a side of sauteed Napa cabbage, and it was warm enough to eat dinner outside on the patio! A win for my sunshine-starved self AND for getting one photo in the last rays of natural light!

Total time for dinner: 1 hour 20 minutes

Servings	Fuss Factor	Total Time	Prep Time	Cook Time
6	3	1 hour	30 minutes	30 minutes

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Chicken and Shrimp Fried Rice

Ingredients

Fried Rice:

• 1 pound chicken breast or boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 3/4 pound shrimp, rinsed, peeled, and deveined
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp minced or finely chopped ginger
• 1 onion, chopped
• About 2 cups vegetables of your choice, cleaned, trimmed, and diced or cut into bite-sized pieces
• 6-7 eggs, scrambled
• 5 cups cooked white rice
• Vegetable or canola oil
• Salt and black pepper

Marinade:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Black pepper
• Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

• Marinade the chicken: Cut the chicken against the grain into flat, thin strips and mix with all of the marinade ingredients. Let sit while you prep the vegetables and scramble the eggs, or at least 15 minutes.
• Put 1-2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil into a large frying pan, skillet, or wok (make sure it is at least 4 quarts to fit all the ingredients! You can even use a Dutch oven) and heat over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add the garlic and ginger. Cook for about 30 seconds until the garlic and ginger are fragrant. Add the chicken to the pan with all of the marinade sauce. Cook, stirring, until chicken is cooked through, about 7 minutes.
• Remove the chicken and all the juices from the pan and set aside. Tip: keep the chicken in a large bowl, so that you can add the other cooked ingredients to this bowl later. 
• Heat 1-2 tbsp of oil over medium heat in the pan. Add the shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp is just pink and cooked, about 2-4 minutes, depending on shrimp size. Transfer to the chicken bowl.
• Add 1-2 tbsp more oil to the pan. Don’t worry if there’s chicken or shrimp bits stuck onto the pan. The moisture from the onions and vegetables will deglaze the pan. Add the onion, some salt and pepper, and cook over medium-high heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the vegetables, staggering them in 1-2 minute intervals if some are hardier than others. Cook until vegetables are tender, then scoop up vegetables and set aside. You can place them in the same bowl as the chicken and shrimp. I do this, and then try to toss the shrimp up so that they’re not cooking under the hot vegetables. It seems to work okay, and doesn’t result in overcooked shrimp. If you’re worried, use a separate bowl for the vegetables or the shrimp.
• Cook the eggs. If the pan you’re working with isn’t non-stick, I would use a separate nonstick pan to cook the eggs. You’ll have an additional pan to wash up, but it’s just easier and less fuss. Heat 1-2 tbsp of oil in the pan over medium-high heat, then add the eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Scramble until the eggs are cooked, then transfer to the bowl with the chicken and vegetable mixture. 
• In the original pan, heat 1-2 tbsp of oil over medium heat, and add the rice. Season with a few dashes of soy sauce – just swirl it loosely over the rice like you would drizzle chocolate sauce on ice cream. Toss so that all the rice is seasoned. The rice might sizzle and stick to the bottom of the pan – don’t worry! Just continue to toss and fry with the soy sauce, so that the rice itself acquires some seasoning. You’ll add the other ingredients soon enough, and the chicken and vegetable juices will magically mix with the rice to make an amazingly flavorful combination.
• Add the chicken, shrimp, vegetables, and egg into the pan with the rice, and turn heat down to medium-low. Toss well to combine. Taste and add more salt, pepper, or soy sauce if needed. I like to finish my fried rice with lots of dashes of white pepper and a drizzle of fish sauce and sesame oil (again, a light drizzle, like topping ice cream), but this is optional. The sesame oil will give it a nice earthy, umami taste. The fish sauce – although it smells terribly fishy – actually adds a nice tang and saltiness to the resulting dish. White pepper is my absolute all time favorite pepper. Feel free to scoop out a small bit of rice and experiment with seasonings!

Notes:

I tend to prefer short grain rice in my fried rice, because I like my fried rice on the dense and chewy side, but if you want a fluffier, lighter rice dish, you can easily substitute basmati.

About salting and oil: yes, the instructions are correct! A lot of salt and a lot of oil are what make restaurant fried rice so darn good. Be sure to salt all of the ingredients as you cook them. It’ll draw out the flavors of the individual ingredients, and make the finished product that much tastier. Same with the oil – yes, it’ll feel like you’re using a lot of oil, but remember that this makes an enormous amount of fried rice. The finished product won’t be too oily, I promise. The more oil you add, the more decadent and “fried” your resulting dish will taste.

About cooking the ingredients separately: Yes, it’s a pain, but doesn’t really take that much additional time, and doesn’t add too much to the dirty dish count, as you can spoon up all your cooked ingredients into one large bowl. If you’re feeling lazy, you can cook the chicken and shrimp together (add the shrimp after the chicken has been cooking for about five minutes), although this always runs the risk of overcooking the shrimp.

Whew, there’s a lot of pressure for a first post! Which is why I’m turning to the tried-and-true, classic, utterly foolproof Melissa Clark for some support. I love the New York Times Cooking section, but Melissa Clark is always dependable, relatable, and makes the most approachable videos. This particular chicken dish is bright, salty, flavorful, and oh so easy. It takes a bit of time with the cooking, but it’s mostly dead time waiting for the chicken to brown / cook, etc., and the food prep is minimal. The anchovies are magical, adding a umami, robust flavor to the dish – do not skip them! They don’t make the resulting dish taste fishy at all. Also, if you happen to have a can of sardines in your cupboard and are wondering whether sardines and anchovies are similar and you can substitute them… they’re not. You can’t.

I doubled the recipe for leftovers and also because I conveniently had 10 anchovy fillets in my tin. The recipe calls for chicken thighs, but Melissa Clark says you can substitute breasts (and subtract 3 minutes off the final cooking time). I also imagine it would be delicious with drumsticks or even whole chicken wings as well. I also coarsely chop the garlic because I like eating roasted garlic pieces with my chicken, but if you don’t particularly care either way, you can just leave them smashed and it’s even less food prep.

When you’re done and the kitchen is fragrant with garlic and lemon, please serve this with crusty bread, buttery noodles, rice, or some other mild carb to soak up all that delicious sauce. You will have a lot of it, and trust me – none of it should be wasted! We ate it with basmati rice and roasted vegetables. You’ll have time to prep and cook some simple sides such as these while the chicken is cooking, and should be able to get a balanced, restaurant-worthy dinner on the table in under an hour. This chicken is definitely a weeknight staple in our household!

Servings	Fuss Factor	Total Time	Prep Time	Cook Time
4-6	2-3*	50 minutes	25 minutes**	25 minutes

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Garlicky Chicken with Lemon Anchovy Sauce

Adapted from the New York Times

Ingredients

• 2 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 12 garlic cloves, peeled, smashed, and coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 10 anchovy fillets
• 4 tablespoons drained capers, patted dry
• Crushed red pepper
• 2 lemons, juiced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Fresh chopped parsley, for serving

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350°F. Season the chicken thighs liberally with salt and pepper and let rest. Mince two of the garlic cloves and set aside. In a large, ovenproof skillet (I used a 12-inch cast iron pan) over medium-high heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the remaining 10 chopped (or smashed) garlic cloves, anchovies, capers, and a couple of dashes of crushed red pepper. Let cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up the anchovies, until the garlic browns around the edges and the anchovies dissolve, about 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the chicken thighs to the pan and cook until nicely browned on one side, about 7 minutes. Don’t worry - you won't burn the garlic. The chicken will release juices as it hits the hot pan and sort of braise all the aromatics you’ve just fried in the oil. Flip the thighs, place the pan in the oven and cook about another 7-10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. You can check doneness with a meat thermometer - the thickest part of the thigh should read 165°F. Don't worry if your chicken still looks a bit pink - thighs can look pinkish, especially near the bone, even when cooked.
• When the chicken is done, take the skillet out of the oven and transfer the thighs to another plate. Heat the skillet and its juices over medium heat and add the minced garlic and half the lemon juice. The juices should begin to simmer – cook for about 30 seconds, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Return chicken to the pan and cook it in the sauce for about another 30 seconds.
• Drizzle the remaining lemon juice over the chicken and garnish with a handful of chopped parsley. It makes a beautiful dish served straight from the pan!  

Final Notes:

*Longish cook time, but much of that is dead time

**This is what my timer said, but I have no idea why it was so long. Maybe I was fussing around with my whole extra pound of chicken (see below)! I’ll update if necessary once I’ve made this dish again. Because I will be making it again. And again and again and again!

Eagle eyed readers will ask – why is there so much chicken in your pictures?? I confess – I completely goofed, and accidentally added a whole extra pound of chicken – that is, in addition to the quantity specified after doubling the original recipe. What can I say – somehow, I thought that 3.5 = 2.5??? Anyway, it still came out delicious. The chicken was a bit blander and the juices more watery and so the whole dish wasn’t as rich, but the flavor that was there was still great. So don’t worry – even if you’re as absentminded as I am, this recipe is utterly forgiving.

Made this? Have some feedback? Let me know! Leave a comment below, or tag #trialbyfryer on Instagram. Happy cooking!