Cook Date: April 2, 2022
We originally bought a few bunches of bok choy with an eye to making a vegetarian dish for our family Sunday dinner; but schedules diverged. We wanted to wait on the big meal we had planned (more on that in a few posts) so I turned to J. Kenji López-Alt’s new wok cook book “The Wok: Recipes and Techniques” for an idea of what to do with the vegetable. I found a recipe for Chinese broccoli but the notes say bok choy would be a suitable replacement. Let’s get into it.
Prep is pretty easy: grate the ginger, chop the garlic and cut off the root stem of the bok choy.
As an aside, look at that beautifully grated ginger. Our old box grater broke a few weeks ago; after some research it was clear that the Cuisipro Surface Led Technology 4-Sided Boxed Grater was the choice. It grates great (see what I did there?) cheese but I was amazed at how well it took care of the ginger. Normally I use a microplane and work and work and whittling a stick of ginger into bits. But this grater busted through it without breaking a sweat. (I’m not an Amazon (or any other) affiliate so I won’t get any commission on that link).
One of the keys to stir frying is to get your ingredients staged in small bowls in order of cooking.
The sauce is a combination of oyster sauce mixed with cornstarch and chicken stock, soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar whisked in.
The first step is to blanch the bok choy in 1½ quarts of lightly salted water for less than a minute.
You can see our main dish cooking in the background – boneless/skinless chicken thighs cut into 1-inch pieces and sautéd. We’ll mix it with a sauce of sweet chili sauce and honey. This is ridiculously easy and tasty recipe. You can read my previous blog posts on this dish here and here; and/or get the recipe from Bev Cooks.
Back to the bok choy; after blanching it goes on a rack set into a sheet pan to drain.
Carefully dump out the hot water in the sink, wipe it out and return the wok to the stove over high heat until starting to smoke. Add the oil and sauté the garlic and ginger until fragrant – about 30 seconds. Add back the drained bok choy and toss to coat with the garlic and ginger oil.
Remove the bok choy to a serving platter, and return the wok to the stove. Add the prepared sauce and bring to a boil. Stir until slightly reduced. Then pour the sauce over the bok choy on the serving platter.
Dinner is served:
Rating: ★★★★ 4 stars. I would be proud to serve this to friends and family. This is an easy and tasty dinner. The rice takes care of itself and the chicken and bok choy can be prepped and cooked quickly.
Usually I provide a link to the recipe, but this on is not on the Serious Eats web site. It can only be found on page 205 of the book. If you are interested in wok cooking, J. Kenji López-Alt’s book (linked above) is a good choice. It focuses on the methods for successful wok cooking in addition to the recipes.
