What’s For Dinner Wednesday: A Dish In Honor of the Chinese New Year

It’s New Year’s somewhere, so let’s celebrate!

February 10 is the start of the Chinese New Year! Since today’s recipe is an Asian inspired dish, I thought I’d share it with you this week in honor of the Chinese New Year. Also, as a bonus, I’ll be sharing an extra-special dish with you tomorrow as well, and then to continue the Chinese New Year celebration a bit longer, my dessert post on Friday will be a perfect Chinese New Year dessert too.

According to Wikapedia, the place everyone says not to rely on for information that I do always rely on for information, “Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is also known as the ‘Spring Festival’, the literal translation of the modern Chinese name (see Names in Chinese below). Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally ran from Chinese New Year’s Day itself, the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. The evening preceding Chinese New Year’s Day is an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner.”

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to think of what to make for dinner. I wanted something different, not the same old thing, but I had all the same old ingredients to work with: chicken, shrimp and asparagus.  So, I decided to type those three ingredients into Google and see what came up.

To my delight I found this recipe from the blog So Tasty, So Yummy for Chicken and Shrimp with Asparagus. So perfect. The fact that it was Chinese in nature was even better. My family loves Chinese food but we very rarely get to eat it.

This meal was such a hit that there was not even a drop of the sauce leftover. Every single bit went and the kids were begging me to make it again. Five thumbs up for sure. Even Alex liked it, and that’s saying a lot.

I did need to adjust a few things, as I had not quite everything on the list, but enough of everything to make it work. Any adjustments I made I will make note of in the recipe.

So celebrate the Year of the Snake, and try out So Tasty, So Yummy’s awesome meal!

My ingredients, prepped and ready to go.

CHICKEN WITH SHRIMP AND ASPARAGUS
INGREDIENTS

1/2 pound chicken, cut into 3/4″ pieces  **I had several leftover cooked tenderloins so I sliced them up very small and used those instead.
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and cleaned **I used a bag of frozen shrimp from Aldi’s, thawed.**
3/4 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 3/4″ pieces **I used a bag of frozen, again from Aldi’s.**
1/4 onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger, minced (or 1/8 tsp. ground ginger)
2 tablespoons oil (we use olive oil)

Seasoning sauce:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce **I had none so I skipped it.**
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon sherry
1 tablespoon corn startch

Sauce:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sherry
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon corn starch

We don’t have a wok, but this worked out great.

DIRECTIONS

Whisk together the seasoning sauce ingredients until combined. Add the chicken, marinate for 15 minutes, set aside. Whisk the sauce ingredients until combined, set aside.

Heat oil in wok over high heat. Add onion, garlic and ginger to the wok. Saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken and marinade, stir fry for 3 minutes. Add the asparagus and shrimp, stir fry for another 2 to 3 minutes, until shrimp are pink. Add the sauce and stir fry for about a minute to coat and thicken it. Serve over rice.

**I actually cooked up brown rice and quinoa and served both. The kids mixed them together and put the chicken, asparagus and shrimp on top; they said it was like fried rice.**

I would definitely, definitely cook this again. I would double the sauce recipe because it was “So Tasty, So Yummy,” and there just wasn’t enough of it to go around!

YUMMMM!!!!

Tags: Aldi's, Asparagus and Shrimp, Chicken, Chinese New Year, dinner, eating on a budget, Jennifer L. Cowart, kids, picky eaters, recipes, shopping on a budget, So Tasty So Yummy, year of the snake