Lean chicken and fresh zucchini stir fried with Asian sauces for a quick, light and healthy lunch! And the air fryer makes it almost totally guilt-free!
Boshonto eshe gechhe (Spring is here)! If you’d have asked me a year back about the significance of it, I’d have probably groaned and said, “Do we even have a Boshonto? Don’t we just slip from Winter to Summer?” Growing up in the tropics, I could never understand the big deal about season changes (and trust me, we have had to write a crazy lot of essays on Ritu Poriborton back in school). To me, there was a huge 8-month-long excruciating Summer, 2 months of rain and a 2-month-long mild Winter. Barring Durga Pujo and Doljatra, there was perhaps no way of knowing that Sharat and Boshonto have come and gone. And Hemanta? Who are you kidding? Apart from singing “Heemer raate oi gogoner deepguli” and “Hemante kon Boshonter i baani”, have we ever really felt the presence of Hemanta in our lives?
But all of that changed since I’ve moved to a temperate zone. I arrived in US late Summer last year, when the trees were lush and the emerald state was truest to its name. There was so much green around you that it literally hurt your eyes. Within 20 days of my being here, Summer started to give way to Fall. Before I knew, the leaves had changed color and anywhere you looked, it was a bounty of brown, yellow, orange, pink and red: colors so beautiful that you had to stop at every turn of the road to just gape and marvel at mother nature. Come November, and I saw my first snowfall in the city. The Seattle area is not so much prone to snowfall but in an entire winter of 3 months, I got to witness it around 5 times. Winter months, I’d say, were probably the hardest to get through, as far a cry as possible from winters back in India. And not because it was cold or anything. I am very comfortable with the chill and I never really felt numb with cold. I rather enjoyed wrapping myself up in coats and boots and going out for walks on cold winter mornings. December was celebratory despite the short days and incessant rains. Christmas was round the corner and the whole city was decked up in finery. Seattle saw a white Christmas last year (a fairly rare occurrence) but we were in California, spending the holiday with friends and hiking in Yosemite.
January was the most depressing month for me so far. The festivities had ended, the days were still super short, the weather was still gloomy, the trees were barren and dry, the sun was almost never out and there was nothing to look forward to. This seemed like a good time to whip up quick hot chocolates and and immerse myself in studies and read as many books possible from this embarrassing cookbook collection I’ve built up over the years.
Things started looking brighter from February end. The sunset time started getting pushed bit by bit from 4.15 pm and by March 12, we started having sunset at 7. Cherry blossoms sprung everywhere heralding the arrival of Spring: the time for warmer and longer days, lesser rain (touch wood) and full on preparation for Summer.
And then Spring finally came. Yesterday. I wore pink to class to commemorate the first day of Boshonto, a day we never got to celebrate in India, because by now the mercury would be touching 40 degree C. I have never really been somebody to get affected by seasons. True, I hated Summer and loved Winter, but back home, it was more of a weather phenomenon. Here, the passage of seasons is not just manifest in the weather or the longer/shorter days. Here nature speaks to you. Whether that be the lush green surrounding in Summer, the mesmerising colors of Fall, the dry flora sprinkled with snowflakes in Winter and the serene cherry blossoms in Spring: every season has a story to tell.
Asian Chicken Zucchini Stir Fry
Print
Ingredients
- Boneless chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces: 750 gm
- Zucchini, cubed: 3
- Green chillies, slit: 3
- Garlic, minced: 1 tbsp
- Dried red chilli: 2
- Soy sauce: 1.5 tbsp
- Rice vinegar: 1 tbsp
- Oyster sauce: 1.5 tbsp
- Sriracha sauce: 2 tbsp
- Salt: To taste
- Sesame oil: 1 tbsp + to stir fry chicken in case not using air fryer
- Sesame seeds: 1 tbsp + to garnish
- Coriander leaves, chopped: To garnish
- For marinade:
- Garlic, minced: 1 tsp
- Vinegar: 1 tsp
- Soy sauce: 1 tsp
- Salt: 1 tsp
- Pepper: 1 tsp
- Special equipment: Air Fryer (optional)
METHOD
1. Marinade the chicken pieces with the ingredients listed under marinade for 2-4 hours.
2. Preheat air fryer at highest temperature for 5 minutes. Fry the chicken in two batches for 18-20 minutes each. Reserve the marinade. (In case you’re not using the air fryer, stir fry the chicken pieces in a wok/kadhai). Set aside
3. In a wok (use the same wok where you’ve been frying the chicken), heat 1 tbsp oil. Add the dried red chillies and garlic and fry for 30 seconds or so.
4. Add the zucchinis and green chillies and stir fry for two minutes.
5. Add the vinegar, soy sauce, oyster sauce sriracha sauce and toss the zucchini in the sauce till the zucchini loses its firmness.
6. Now add the previously fried chicken and coat everything well with the sauce. Add a few tbsp of warm water if needed.
7. Sprinkle 1 tbsp sesame seeds and toss the contents of the wok one last time.
8. Garnish with the remaining sesame seeds, chopped coriander leaves and serve with rice/noodles or just as a starter.