Chicken with Zucchini

A quick Chinese-style stir-fry where shredded zucchini takes a starring role you don’t usually see in Chinese cooking. Sliced chicken gets a brief soy-and-wine marinade, then hits a smoking-hot wok with bamboo shoots and a generous pile of coarsely shredded zucchini. Seven minutes later, dinner’s done.

The shredded-not-sliced zucchini is the technique twist. Cutting it coarse rather than into rounds gives the vegetable enormous surface area, which lets it absorb the soy-wine sauce and reduce dramatically in volume during cooking. By the time it’s tender, three cups of shredded zucchini have collapsed into a savory tangle that wraps around the chicken pieces.

A pinch of sugar balances the soy sauce. This is a classic Chinese seasoning move that comes up across stir-fries, sauces, and braises. The sugar isn’t enough to make the dish sweet, but it rounds out the saltiness of the soy and lets the natural flavors of the vegetables come through.

Pro Tips

• Heat the wok or skillet until it just starts to smoke before adding oil. Cold pans steam instead of stir-fry
• Slice the chicken thin and uniform. Thick pieces don’t cook through in the brief stir-fry window
• Shred the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater. Too fine and it disintegrates into pulp
• Don’t crowd the wok. If doubling the recipe, cook in two batches

Variations

• Substitute thinly sliced pork for chicken (cook a couple of minutes longer)
• Add a tablespoon of grated fresh ginger and 2 cloves of minced garlic with the chicken for deeper aromatics
• Stir in sliced water chestnuts or snow peas during the last minute for more crunch