Another #eatingclean healthy recipe for the week! Thai Garlic and Pepper sauce over meat is one of my fave Thai dishes, and would often order a pork version at restaurants. Then I found out how terribly easy this is to make at home. White pepper makes this dish authentic, although it can be substituted with black pepper – or even a combination of both, if you want.
I find the flavor of white pepper as far more complex than black pepper. White pepper has a musky fragrance and a slow spicy kick that blooms into a mild sweetness, instead of an immediate spicy assault on the tastebuds and throat. The simple summary of this dish is meat stir-fried with minced garlic, white pepper powder, a bit of oyster sauce, fish sauce, and sugar. You can use pork or chicken, but this is really suitable with tofu, mushrooms, and vegetables too if you wanna keep it vegetarian. Seafood – scallops, prawns, squid, clams, crab – is delicious prepared this way too.
Not in the mood to eat rice so I made quinoa as a much better and more delicious alternative. As I intended this to be a one-dish meal, I chopped up some vegetables and tossed that into the quinoa while it’s cooking. I also added goji berries, not just for color, but also for a surprise element of sweetness that complements the Thai Garlic Pepper Chicken beautifully.
Thai Garlic Pepper Chicken Quinoa Bowl
1 chicken breast, sliced
5-6 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon palm sugar (or white sugar)
1 teaspoon white pepper powder
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons oil (enough to coat bottom of pan)
1 cup quinoa
2 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons chopped green vegetables
3 tablespoons goji berries
Rinse and cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Smash the garlic lightly with the side of a knife. Heat the oil in a pan, add the garlic and chicken, cook until no longer pink. Add palm sugar, fish sauce and white pepper.
Cook quinoa in a pot filled with 2 cups chicken stock. Mid-boil, at chopped green vegetables and goji berries, and continue to boil until quinoa is cooked. Serve with chicken immediately. (Suggested garnish: coriander leaf, chopped scallion, and/or deep-fried crunchy minced garlic.)
Deep-fried crunchy minced garlic is superkickassdotcom. It’s crunchy, it’s aromatic, it elevates any dish that you add this as topping to. Very easy to make, just finely chop up an entire bulb of garlic, and gently fry in about three to four tablespoons of hot oil over low heat, until it turns golden brown. Stored in a jar with a tight lid, this can keep for months.
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