mix and match: stir-fry chicken and kang-kung greens with jasmine rice

Yesterday, I attempted to cook a real meal after about a year and a half – quite the daunting prospect! Since the husband and I have been staying in a hotel for a long time now, we’ve had to live with room service. (While this was AWESOMELY convenient at one level, I did miss the freedom of having my own kitchen and cooking anything I felt like.)

The ingredients were a mish-mash from all over.

I had brought back a pack of Pakistani jasmine rice and chicken stock cubes from our recent Sri Lanka trip. The supermarket down the road from our new place stocks great frozen chicken breast. And the local market on the island had lovely, locally-grown kang-kung – an Asian variety of greens, halfway between spinach and lettuce.

So I decided to make stir-fried chicken and kang-kung greens, with fragrant jasmine rice. Nothing too fancy, but it turned out to be pretty tasty!

I did a regular chicken stir-fry, adding some gravy towards the end (chicken stock and cornflour) – this softened the chicken pieces and the gravy was nicely infused with all the stir-fry flavours. Then I separated the sauce and added in the kang-kung stalks along with the chicken and stir fried for another minute or two.

Finally, I added in the kang-kung leaves. As soon as they wilted, I threw in the sauce, stirred everything for a minute and served on steamed jasmine rice! The rice was cooked on the stove (2 parts water to 1 part rice) in a covered pot, with a dash of olive oil and salt.