Twice Cooked Chicken and Cabbage Stir Fry
The other night we cut up and sauteed a head of cabbage with just some salt and butter as a side to our dinner. Mike kept saying how much it reminded him of a dish he used to get as his favorite Chinese restaurant at a place he lived before we met.
Part of cutting out grains and sugars is that we no longer order the Chinese food every Friday night or stand over the kitchen sink trying to fix a hangover with cold lo mein straight from the box. But just because we can’t have the noodles and rice doesn’t mean all Asian food has to be lost to us.
We tried googling and could find nothing close to what he was describing. “It had thin pieces of chicken!”
“Okay.” Google: thin chicken cabbage chinese. Nada. “And it was kind of spicy but not too much! And it was kind of sweet but salty too!”
“Wow, you’re just on a really narrow description road, arentcha?”
Because this is a family blog, I will not tell you his reply to my sarcastic comment. It may have rhymed with Hut the Duck Pup.
Finally I said, “Since you remember it, just make it.” Because you know, sometimes it really is that simple. And lo! This dish was born. It was SO good. To eat my words: it was spicy and a little sweet and a little salty and a perfect use of the cabbage from the farmer’s market I was starting to worry about.
Oh and easy! It was easy! I have to give Mike all the credit because my only part was writing down the ingredients as he called them out as he kept adding stuff to taste.
Mike’s Twice Cooked Chicken and Cabbage Stir Fry
What you need:
- 1 head of cabbage
- 2-3 chicken breasts
- 2 eggs
- 1/8 c. wheat-free tamari (or soy sauce if you’re ok with wheat)
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp sesame seed oil
- 1-3 tbsp Srirachi sauce (spice level depends on your preference)
- 1 tsp minced garlic (split into 1/2 and 1/2)
- pinch salt
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp honey
What you do:
- Slice the chicken breasts into as thin strips as possible. Kitchen shears work the best for this.
- Slice or dice the cabbage up as you wish, either in long slivers or chunks like we did:
- Melt the butter in large pot and add salt, 1/2 tsp. garlic, and onion powder and mix.
- Add in cabbage and stir and coat thoroughly.
- While the cabbage is cooking, heat the sesame seed oil and the other 1/2 tsp. garlic in a large skillet.
- Add in the sliced chicken and srirarchi and cook through, approximately 10 minutes.
- Combine the chicken and the cabbage and add the tamari sauce and honey and stir.
- Once that’s all mixed, make yourself a little hole in the middle and crack two eggs in.
- Stir the eggs until they start to cook almost all the way and then stir the whole thing together.
- Cook, tossing often, an additional 5-7 minutes.
- Taste it and see if it needs anything; if it does, now’s the time to add it! Everyone’s taste is different.
- Serve and enjoy!
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Was the original dish Moo Shu?
No Dustin, Mike said the dish was literally just called "Twice-Cooked Chicken"
This does have similar ingredients and I guess may be a variation though moo shu has a lot more "sauce" (usually hoisin) which I LOVE.
These are quite similar though – I bet with a few more tweaks we could get it there!
Great, now I want moo shu. How do you suppose I can primal-ize the "pancake"? Ha!
Holy crap that looks amazing. Chris is cooking dinners now that I'm working later…I'm going to shove him over here and tell him to make a few things from your blog. That is all.
Oh, I thought you made that up. We (Primalocity and I) eat moo shu all the time. We tell them to hold the pancake and use our own lettuce wraps instead (or eat with a fork). Yum. I forgo the plum sauce (I like it but too much sugah) and am not crazy about all the sodium either but I'll eat soy sauce.
Perfect timing. I have a head of cabbage coming in my CSA box today and no idea what to do with it. Problem solved. Thank you!
Dustin – I love his blog! You're a lucky guy! Do you guys still use the rice paper wraps at all for things like spring rolls? I figure they're so thin, how much grain/carbs can they really have?
While I am generally a pretty moderate guy, since going primal I am little afraid of letting things creep in. I understand your point that the rice wrappers can't have that many carbs but I am guessing I am getting carbs in places I am unaware of already so I am staying as low-carb as I consciously can. Will I be that way forever? I don't know. I am little surprised I have gone 2 1/2 months this way but it feels so good (and looks good too) that I don't want to compromise.
I may overdo it on the booze, nuts, and fruit so I'll keep watching the even the smidgens of grains that may creep in.
Yeah, I have been very careful too. Other than booze, I haven't let anything creep in because like you, I'm afraid that it will lead to a dam breaking.
AndreAnna – I bet you could make a pancake from a egg/egg white combo mixed, poured VERY thinly in a pan and cooked/flipped until it's crepe like.
Anyway, the man is cooking this up for me as we speak. Can't wait!
This is tonight's dinner! Holy crap, was that a lot of cabbage!
Tonight, when I brought home The Paleo Diet for Athletes from the library, my husband (who is otherwise lovely, just a little food-change shy) grumbled that he's not an athlete and he's not interested in all this primal or paleo fooferah.
He took ONE BITE of tonight's dinner (…this one, with a side of snow peas tossed in a little tamari) and said "Put this on file!! What's in here that makes it taste so good?"
Neener neener.
Erica – so glad he liked it!!! And next time tell him it's AndreAnna love in there! That's what makes it taste so good! ;)
Coming late to this party, but oh.em.gee, this is a winner at casa del Allie. Thanks to you and Mr. Plate!
I make this about once a week now. Easy, healthy, delicious! I add just a little of the chili sauce and then let people add more, to taste, at the table.