Bean Sprout Stir-Fry With Chicken and Garlic Chives

This rustic, earthy stir-fry is one of my favorites. It is perfectly balanced in all senses: the salty with a hint of sweet flavor from the chives; a crisp, juicy texture; a pleasing pale yellow with vibrant green color; and a fragrant aroma from the bean sprouts. (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine often utilizes bean sprouts to make an aromatic vegetarian stock.)

You can use either mung bean or soybean sprouts for this dish. Mung bean sprouts are more tender and crisp, and smaller. Soybean sprouts are larger. For this dish, I prefer mung bean sprouts, which you can usually find fresh in your local Asian grocery store. Before adding the sprouts to the finished dish, I first like to flash-fry them in hot oil to prevent them from losing water in the subsequent fry.

This recipe was excerpted from 'My Shanghai' by Betty Liu. Buy the full book on Amazon. Get more of our favorite Chinese chicken recipes →