Wok Chicken with Alex McCord

Divya Gugnani: These days everybody has got their hands full. Today we’re going to visit a working mother of two, book author and a real housewife of New York who happens to be a avid home cook. She’s going to share her favorite go-to recipe that’s about simple and gourmet. I’m Divya Gugnani here in Brooklyn, New York so let’s go Behind the Burner and meet the expert. So I’m here with Alex McCord. Alex, I see lots of Asian ingredients and some chicken. What are we making? Alex McCord: We are making wok chicken and this is one of my favorite recipes that is quick and healthy and something that when Simon and I come home at six o’clock. We can have one at the table in 30 minutes or less. I would like you to chop the chicken into chunks that in a bite size please. Divya Gugnani: Okay bite size I can do that, not hard for me Alex McCord: The reason we’re doing bite size is that they will cook evenly. We want to make sure that they are more or less the same size so that they cook evenly and we don’t have any little raw bits. We don’t like that. Divya Gugnani: We don’t like raw bits. We want cooking evenly and we also want the presentation to look nice. Alex McCord: Exactly. Divya Gugnani: So now that I’ve chop the chicken in bite size pieces I’m going to hand it over to you right. Alex McCord: Let’s get it in the bowl and then I’m going to put the soy sauce and the cherry in and switch it around a little bit. Divya Gugnani: I love those flavors. Alex McCord: Okay so we have soy sauce. Divya Gugnani: What kind of soy sauces that you so like? Alex McCord: And cherry. Divya Gugnani: You can use sodium or regular. Alex McCord: You know I go regular because usually when I cook with soy sauce I don’t use salt so I like to go heavy. Divya Gugnani: So the great tip is you can omit the salt if you're using soy sauce a lot of time because it has its own salt. Alex McCord: Yes, absolutely. To mix this up so we’re going to get this completely covered in the marinade and just swish it around a little bit. I’ll love to let it sit for 15 minutes if I can but ultimately what I really do is I time it this way. The rice takes the 15 minutes to cook so I’ll come in. I’ll put this to marinate first and then I’ll start the rice and by the time the rice is done this is ready to go. Divya Gugnani: Then you're ready to go. Alex McCord: This is the fast recipe and when you just don’t have that much time to concentrate on food but you still want to eat well and healthfully this is a great way to go so lets a jump in. Divya Gugnani: Yup, okay so I’ve got my oil here because that wok is nice and hot. Alex McCord: Let’s out the oil in. Divya Gugnani: Get that in there, it’s nice and sizzle going on. Alex McCord: Yeah, yeah and wow we are good to go. Okay so we’re going to now put the garlic in. Divya Gugnani: So I noticed that you use chopped garlic. Alex McCord Yes. This is one of my favorite shortcuts actually because as a busy mom one thing that I decided to let go of with chopping garlic because I use garlic in everything. I’ll buy organic pre-chopped garlic and this way you know I’ve been using four tablespoons in this recipe and that will take you in good 15 minute to chop all that. Divya Gugnani: So you save time and effort and you just with the organic stuff you feel like you're doing right. Alex McCord: Absolutely. This has been marinating for 15minutes. We’re going to put them in. Divya Gugnani: In our cherry and soy, great combination for great flavor. Alex McCord: Yeah, thank you and here we go. We’re going to brown this. In just a minute I’m going to take this out and let it sit on a plate while we do the sauce and what we’re doing is we’re leaving a little bit of the garlic and oil mixture in a wok. Some of it is coming out with the chicken but some of it has a little base for our sauce so now my dear if you would give me the chicken stock first. Divya Gugnani: Chicken stock, throw it in? Alex McCord: Yup, throw it all in, thank you. Divya Gugnani: There we go. Alex McCord: And we’re going to put everything and basically we’re going to do the chili oil and the soy sauce, organic peanut butter. Put in a little bit corn starch just too thicken it up. Part of what I love about this recipe is just how fast it is. Now we’re going to get it the chicken covered in a sauce. You notice we haven’t use a lot of spices in this recipe but we’re now going to throw in some fresh basil leaves just to kind of the icing on the cake. Divya Gugnani: Nice big leaves. Alex McCord: Chunky leaves actually not quite that many, there we go. That’s good. We’re going to swish it around just a little bit. Divya Gugnani: Okay. Alex McCord: And we’re going to turn the heat off. Divya Gugnani: Oh, I love that and I know why you’re doing that, tell me your secret as to why you trying to feed of when you add basil. Alex McCord: I like to add basil at the very end and turn the heat off and cover it so that the steaming action lets the flavor infuse with the rest of the recipe but you also retain the color so what I usually do is I will serve the rice out in kind of a kind of donut. Divya Gugnani: Uh-hmm. Alex McCord: And put the chicken or whatever it is that I’m making in the hole. Divya Gugnani: Perfect! So I’m going to give you some chicken, and I’ve got it right here you gave me the nice whole. Alex McCord: Alright there we go. Divya Gugnani: And I want to do this. Alex McCord: It is healthy, the basil is green and it’s going to taste great. Divya Gugnani: I’m dying to take a bite, delicious. The chicken is very tender yet there’s really nice peanut flavors coming through. Alex McCord: Now I’m so glad you like it. Divya Gugnani: I really do and this is so quick and easy you can make it anytime. Alex McCord: This is an opportunity to have a fresh home cooked meal. I always say you know the things that I make on a week night at home for the family needs to be executable in 30 minutes or less and this fits the bills. Divya Gugnani: So it’s healthy, delicious, and quick which is exactly what we’re looking for so thanks so much Alex for having us. Alex McCord: You’re welcome, Little Kids, Big City is a book that Simon my husband and I wrote together. It’s a chronicle of our experiences raising children in the city, the good, the bad, the ugly and the down right disgusting. We started to write down all the crazy stories on the time when we wanted to high five each other and the times that we wanted to light our hair on fire and run away screaming. So it’s a little bit of a ranted sarcastic. It’s funny, it’s poignant and I hope that people will read it and laugh and think I’ve been through that. Divya Gugnani: Stay tuned to the Behind the Burner where we give you the tips, tricks and techniques that are lighting the culinary world on fire. For the recipe, Q&A, photos, and more visit BehindTheBurner.com.