Improving the "Western Weeknight Stir Fry"

Our take on the genre, inspired by Chinese technique.

• Click here to jump to how we prepped our ingredients for the three stir fries

• Click here for the Cantonese flavor saucy stir fry

• Click here for the Sichuan flavor saucy stir fry

• Click here for the ‘Thai’ flavor saucy stir fry

I’ve always loved the dishes that sit awkwardly in between cultures: the well-done Cantonese steaks, the Canadian Hawaiian Pizzas, the Japanese boxed curries. Culturally, I they give a rare honest prism into how the world views each other’s food — but from a culinary perspective, above all?

They’re fun.

They break the mould. After all, if you wanted a maximally delicious pizza dough, you probably would want to find some manner of experienced Italian chef. But such a chef never would have been able to even begun to conceptualize topping the thing with pineapple chunks.

And so, I’ve always been intrigued by what I’ll call “The Western Weeknight Stir Fry”. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, it’s something along the lines of these recipes… but there are many, many, more out there:

A classic ‘Western Weeknight Stir-Fry’, in my eyes. Courtesy the blog ‘Command Cooking’, recipe here.

While some of these may make the purist’s eye twitch a bit, they’re so ubiquitous that they’re obviously at least useful to homecooks in the west.

Nobody should be snobs about this. These stir fries give us lens into how Chinese food is thought about and enjoyed in the west, and that’s something to take seriously.

The Core Ideas of the Western Weeknight Stir Fry

If you peruse these recipes enough, you begin to notice a few similarities:

They are almost always mixed vegetable stir fries. Mixed vegetable stir fries certainly exist in China too. But speaking in the broadest of generalities, more common would be to see separate ‘vegetable’ dishes and ‘meat’ dishes — served next to each other in the same meal.

But I think it’s fair to say that at least America is a country that struggles to eat its veggies. Our cultural go-to is a side salad, which is often like… five pieces of lettuce. If you actually cook the quantity of leafy greens that usually go into a side salad, the absurdity can be somewhat spectacular. And plus, at the risk of projecting… outside of Caesar, does salad really get anyone’s blood moving anyway?

So, I think, the mixed vegetable stir fry allows the western home cook to cut back a touch on the meat, and incorporate cooked vegetables into a flavorful dish. I’d gather that this is also a big reason why many of these recipes advertise themselves as ‘healthy’. This is the definition of a noble pursuit, no matter what culinary objections we may have at times.

They are served alongside white rice. For a long time, I’d be incredibly puzzled by the sheer quantity of soy sauce used in some of these western weeknight stir fries. For example, this recipe over on AllRecipes uses ⅔ of a CUP of soy sauce. That’s… a lot of soy sauce. For a bit of cultural context, imagine if you saw a recipe that called for ⅔ of a cup of Worcestershire sauce!

Over the years, sometimes me and Steph would joke that you know that someone is getting their stir fry recipes from an American food blogger if they (1) use only ‘low sodium’ soy sauce, (2) use WAY too much of it and then (3) compensate by refusing to season at all with salt.

As you can tell, I’m probably still guilty of having normative opinions on the topic. But recently, I had a bit of an ‘aha moment’ on the why of it all: people seem to be always eating their western weeknight stir fries alongside — and often smothered over — white rice. These stir-fries are being consumed in the same bite with white rice, so much stronger, saltier flavors can be more easily tolerated. In short, they’re using the mixed vegetable stir fry as a pickle.

For the unaware, in China it’s very common to see working class meals centered around white rice and some sort of preserved vegetable. These vegetables are quite salty, heavily seasoned, and help ‘send the white rice down’. Zha Cai probably the most famous example, but you can also see similar moves across China — e.g. Cantonese Dausi Lengjyu, a tinned salty fried fish with a metric ton of Chinese preserved black soybeans:

I know these pictures aren't exactly selling the practice, but hey. Left, Zhacai with white rice (Xiaohongshu @YOUBL); Right, Cantonese Dausi Lengjyu with rice (Xiaohongshu @小收藏夹)

They often contain a grab bag of ‘Asian’ flavors. Whenever you’re less familiar with a cuisine, there tends to be a sort of ‘mish-mash effect’. For example, I don’t know all that much about Korean cuisine — never lived there, and the closest I’ve been to a Korean community is in Shenzhen (where there was a small handful of Korean expats). So for me, the specific combination of Gochujang, Kimchi, and Sugar inevitably tickles my brain as “Korean flavor”… but of course, there’s a lot more flavors in Korea than that!

You can find a lot of Western stir fry flavors out there underneath various names like ‘Thai Flavor’ and ‘Szechwan Flavor’. Again, no shade — I mean, Cantonese people also have their “Swiss Chicken Wings” and “Singapore Rice Noodles”. But it’s probably fair to say that ‘Thai Flavor Weeknight Stir Fries’ don’t really have all that much to do with the flavors of Thailand itself.

If I had to categorize the flavors that the ‘western weeknight stir fry’ tends to employ, it’s one of:

1. Soy sauce

2. Sweet and sour

3. Sweet, sour, and spicy (often labeled ‘Szechuan’)

4. Sweet, sour, spicy, and nutty (often labeled ‘Thai’)

And to accomplish these flavors, the ‘International Aisle’ in the normal supermarket tends to be raided for what’s available. For example, this ‘Thai stir fry sauce’ here is squarely in the fourth category: Hoisin (sweet), Lime (Sour), Chili Crunch (Spicy), and Peanut Butter (Nutty).

These flavors are popular, I think, because the combinations are simultaneously easy to love, while not being overly present in Western cuisines.

They are often very saucy. Outside of China, it seems like many people’s favorite Chinese dishes are the very saucy kind: Beef and Broccoli. Moo Goo Gai Pan. General Tso’s.

These are restaurant style dishes that (usually) get their thickness from a generous application of a starch slurry. And so, the ‘western weeknight stir fry’ tends to aim for that sort of consistency — dutifully mixing together a ‘stir fry sauce’ laden with all of their seasoning, and a non-negligible amount of cornstarch.

Is there anything Chinese technique can teach the Western stir fry?

Because this is the internet, I want to be clear here — in cooking as in life, when it comes to taste… there are no universals. If you like what you’re doing with your Western weeknight stir fry, it is by definition correct. Don’t let me or anyone else convince you otherwise.

That said, as someone that obviously thinks way too much about this topic, I do have opinions.

First off, some points of agreement: I also like mixed vegetable stir fries, I also like saucy stir fries. But there are also a few aspects that I think could be improved.

1. Instead of over seasoning your sauce, just purchase a jar of something to ‘send the rice down’. When I have a rice heavy meal, I eat it next to one of two jars: (1) Lao Gan Ma, for spicy meals and (2) Teochew Olive Vegetable, for non-spicy meals. This way, I can enjoy the (more reasonably seasoned) dish itself, and use the jarred stuff to help ‘send the rice down’ if I need.

2. Venture outside of the Sweet and Sour. One of our favorite creators in our space is Michelle Zhao, who is now a restaurateur but used to run a blog called “No Sweet Sour”. And even though I always loved Michelle’s stuff… if I’m being honest, sometimes her blog name would sort of rub me the wrong way. After all, there’s tons of sweet and sour stuff in China, from Guangdong all the way up to the Northeast!

   

   Sweet and sour pork and potato. In Fuzhou, Fujian.

   But now… I kind of get it. I think there’s an over-reliance on sweet and sour flavor profiles in stir-fries in the west — I mean, two thirds of the takeout menu is probably some combination of sweet and sour. I’ll never begrudge someone for loving sweet and sour stuff (it’s a fantastic entry point), but I would suggest expanding the horizons a bit.

3. Use the Qian Technique. Most recipes online will feature a cornstarch laden ‘stir fry sauce’, and instruct you to dump it in near the end of cooking. For a very saucy stir fry, I would heavily advise to pre-stir frying the ingredients, removing them, making a thick sauce, and then adding the ingredients back in.

Our take on the Western Weeknight Stir Fry

I wanted to challenge myself today. I wanted to try my hand at making a culturally informed ‘western weeknight stir fry’, albeit using a bit of Chinese technique. And so, to that end, we’ve got three stir fry flavors here — a western supermarket-friendly Cantonese flavor stir-fry, a Sichuan-inspired stir-fry, and (because why not?) a Central Thai-inspired stir fry:

And for each, we decided to lean on an internationally available mix of

• Chicken breast (250g)

• King oyster mushroom (250g)

• Red pepper (100g)

• Spinach (400g)

Before we jump in however, I should say that I am not Chef John, nor am I Brian Lagerstrom, nor am I even Ethan Chlebowski. Doing this exercise, I realized that I am far too neurotic and obsessive to be able to effectively compete in the ‘quick and easy’ space. Brian can pump out a stir fry in 25 minutes — on the tin, the recipes below will probably take closer to 60 (if you’re in a groove) or maybe even 90 (if you’re new to the sport).

Because… I’m pretty particular about ingredient prep. You do not need to be as particular as I was. If you’re happy with the meat/vegetable texture you’ve got in your stir fry already, just skip the next ‘stir fry prep’ section, and jump in with the flavor profile you’re interested in!

The sauces below will work off any 600 grams of ingredients, give or take.

So for example, if you personally enjoy how Brian prepped his the chicken and vegetables in his ‘quicker Kung Pao’ recipe… totally use that! You can then add the cooked chicken, celery, and pepper to any of the sauces below.

How we Prepped Our Ingredients

We chose to serve our stir fries on a bed of spinach. This is, of course, very optional… though it is a great way to sop up all the sauce and eat a lot of vegetable:

For the chicken, we chose to mimic the Chinese restaurant technique of ‘passing through oil’ (basically a brief deep fry by any other name), albeit using the minimum possible quantity of oil the technique can use — about a half a cup. We then re-use the frying oil throughout the recipes. You will likely have a little bit of oil leftover, 3-4 tbsp worth. This excess oil can be saved for cooking another day¹.

Slice

• 250g mushrooms, e.g. King Oyster Mushrooms

into sheets. Set aside.

Slice

• 100g red pepper

into a rough diamond shape. Set aside.

Tear

• 400g spinach

into ~5-6 inch sections, if needed. Set aside.

Slice

• 250g chicken breast

into thin ~half centimeter sheets. Mix with:

• ¼ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp sugar

• ¼ tsp chicken bouillon powder

• ~¹⁄₁₆ tsp white (or black) pepper powder

• ½ tsp Shaoxing wine²

• ½ tsp Soy sauce

• ½ tsp starch

Then, on the side of the bowl, mix together

• 1 egg white

• ½ tbsp starch

until basically combined, and then mix that well with the chicken. Coat with

• 1 tbsp oil

and set aside.

To pass the chicken through oil, add

• ~½ cup oil (we used lard as it goes well in the rest of our stir fries)

to a hot wok. Heat over a medium flame until the oil hits ~145C, then add in the chicken. Stir fry in the oil for ~1 minute, or until done. Remove and drain.

Remove all the oil except ~1 tbsp from the wok. Over a high flame, add in half of the spinach. Once wilted, season with

• ⅛ tsp salt

• ⅛ tsp sugar

and continue to stir fry for ~20 seconds. Remove onto a large serving plate. Then add another 1 tbsp of oil into the wok, and stir fry the second half of the spinach in the same manner, with the same seasoning.

Add ~1.5 tbsp oil to the wok, then over a high flame add in the mushrooms. Stir fry to mix, and periodically lay the mushrooms flat to develop a bit of browning… stir frying every so often. After about two minutes, add in

• ⅛ tsp salt

• ⅛ tsp sugar

mix, and then add in the red pepper. Stir fry for 30-40 seconds, then lay the mushrooms and peppers in a bowl together with the cooked chicken.

Cantonese Flavor

Astute observers will notice that this recipe is quite similar to the ‘white sauce’ in our previous post on ‘The Qian Technique’.

Separate the white part from the green part from

• 3 scallions

and finely mince the white, while cutting the greens into ~1.5 inch sections. Mince:

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 cm ginger

and set aside. Make a slurry of:

• 1.5 tbsp starch, preferably potato starch

• 3 tbsp water

You will likely not need all of the slurry.

To a hot wok, swirl in

• 2 tbsp oil, preferably lard

and fry the garlic, ginger, and scallion whites over a medium-low flame. Once fragrant, ~45 seconds, up the flame to high. Swirl in

• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

Mix, then add in

• 1 cup stock³

and bring to a boil. Season with

• 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder

• ½ tsp sugar

• ¼ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp MSG

and once dissolved swap the flame down to medium low. Drizzle in the slurry in a thin stream, stirring constantly, until thickened to your liking. I usually use 75-90% of the slurry quantity to get where I want.

Once thickened, up the flame back to high. Add back in the chicken, mushrooms, and peppers. Mix to combine over the high flame and bring all the ingredients back up to temperature. Add in the scallion greens, mix, heat off.

Season to taste. I added a bit of white pepper powder in the video. You may need add another ~⅛ tsp salt or so. Drizzle with

• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil -or- lard

Mix, and lay over the spinach.

A Sichuan (Szechwan?) Flavor Saucy Stir Fry

This recipe is based off of the old school Sichuan dish Mala Roupian (麻辣肉片), which we covered in this post. Instead of having a base of Pixian Doubanjiang however, we elected to use Lao Gan Ma Chili Oil with Black Bean.

Separate the white part from the green part from

• 3 scallions

and finely mince the white, while cutting the greens into ~1.5 inch sections. Set aside, and make a slurry of:

• 1.5 tbsp starch, preferably potato starch

• 3 tbsp water

You will likely not need all of the slurry.

To a hot wok, swirl in

• 2 tbsp oil, preferably lard

and over a medium-low flame fry the scallion whites until fragrant, ~45 seconds. Then add in

• 2.5 tbsp Lao Gan Ma black bean with chili

and fry for about a half minute to stain the oil. Then add in

• 1 tbsp spicy chili flakes

and fry for about another half minute. Add in

• 1 cup stock

and bring to a boil. Season with

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tsp sugar

• ½ tsp chicken bouillon powder

• ⅛ tsp salt

• ⅛ tsp MSG

and once dissolved swap the flame down to medium low. Drizzle in the slurry in a thin stream, stirring constantly, until thickened to your liking. I usually use 75-90% of the slurry quantity to get where I want.

Once thickened, up the flame back to high. Add back in the chicken, mushrooms, and peppers. Mix to combine over the high flame and bring all the ingredients back up to temperature. Add in the scallion greens, mix, heat off.

Season with

• 1 tsp Sichuan pepper powder

and anything else to taste. You may need to add in another ⅛ tsp salt. If it is too spicy, you can add in a little more sugar or MSG. If it is not spicy enough, add a bit of chili oil if you have some. Finish with

• ½ tbsp oil from the Lao Gan Ma black bean with chili -or- melted lard -or- ½ tsp toasted sesame oil

and layer the saucy stir fry over the spinach.

A ‘Thai’ Flavor Saucy Stir Fry

While the combination of Peanut Butter, Chili, and Lime seems to hit much of the western cultural sphere as ‘Thai’… that’s not my personal mental shortcut. For me, the flavor that sends my brain straight to Bangkok is Nam Prik Pao (น้ำพริกเผา) — Thai chili jam. Shrimp Tom Yum? A mix of Nam Prik Pao, Evaporated Milk, Shrimp stock, and a soup base of Lemongrass, Galangal, and Makrut Lime leaf. The expat favorite of Wingbean salad? Nam Prik Pao, Evaporated milk, minced pork, chili, and lime. There’s even an entire category of stir fried dishes based around this ingredient:

So this flavor below is roughly based off of the above Nam Prik Pao flavor profile. The critical difference is, of course, that we’ll be making a Qian in the Chinese style, ala the above recipes. This move exists in Thailand too — it’s most famously employed in the dish Rad Na — but I should be upfront that I’ve never seen it in a Nam Prik Pao stir fry.

Pick

• 40g Basil, preferably Thai Basil

and set aside.

Finely mince:

• 7-8 spicy chilis, preferably Thai Bird Chili

• 3-4 cloves garlic

and set aside.

Make a slurry of:

• 1.5 tbsp starch, preferably potato starch

• 3 tbsp water

You will likely not need all of the slurry.

To a hot wok, swirl in

• 2-3 tbsp oil, preferably lard

and over a medium-low flame fry the chilis and garlic until fragrant, ~1 minute. Then add in

• 2.5 tbsp Nam Prik Pao

and mix well. Add

• 1 cup water

and bring to a boil. Season with

• 1 tbsp evaporated milk (you could also use coconut milk)

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce

• 1 tbsp fish sauce

• ½ tsp chicken powder

• ½ tsp sugar

• ⅛ tsp salt

• ⅛ tsp white pepper

• Optional ¹⁄₁₆ tsp coriander powder⁴, if you have some on hand

and once dissolved swap the flame down to medium low. Drizzle in the slurry in a thin stream, stirring constantly, until thickened to your liking. I usually use 75-90% of the slurry quantity to get where I want.

Once thickened, up the flame back to high. Add back in the chicken, mushrooms, and peppers. Also add in about ¾ of the basil. Mix well over a high flame for 30-60 seconds for the basil to wilt and everything to come up to temperature.

Season to taste. If not salty enough, add a little more fish sauce. If too spicy, add a little sugar or MSG.

Finish with the rest of the basil, and optionally ~½ tbsp of the Nam Prik Pao oil. Serve over the bed of spinach.

1. If you cannot use it up, I personally don’t have a problem tossing ~3 tbsp oil (though the internet may yell at me). Alternatively, you could play around with trying to pass the chicken through ~⅓ cup of oil to minimize leftovers.

2. With the exception of the wine, this recipe is ‘Western Supermarket Club’ out of the tin. Feel free to swap the wine in this recipe for Dry Sherry, Brandy, Sake, or even White Wine.

3. If using a concentrated Chinese stock like we outlined in this post here, use ½ cup stock and ½ cup water.

4. Thai chicken bouillon powder — Rosdee — also contains a bit of garlic powder, white pepper powder, and coriander powder. I liked what a touch of coriander powder did to the seasoning here, but the move would be a little weird, I think?