15-Minute Chicken and Broccoli Stir-Fry with Ginger

Fifteen minutes, one pan, and faster than a delivery. Toss the chicken in a teaspoon of cornflour before it goes in the pan; it is the restaurant trick that stops breast meat drying out.

Dinner

Serves 2

Chicken and tenderstem broccoli stir-fry with red pepper and noodles in a wok, topped with sesame seeds

Ingredients

2 skinless chicken breasts (about 300g), thinly sliced
1 tsp cornflour
200g tenderstem broccoli, halved lengthways
1 red pepper, sliced
3 spring onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
A thumb-sized piece of ginger, cut into matchsticks
125g dried medium egg noodles
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
For the sauce: 1.5 tbsp reduced-salt soy sauce or tamari, 1 tsp honey, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds and a pinch of chilli flakes, to serve

Method

Put a pan of water on to boil for the noodles. Mix the sauce ingredients in a cup.
Toss the sliced chicken with the cornflour until every piece is lightly coated. It forms a thin layer that holds the juices in, so the chicken stays tender even over a high heat.
Cook the noodles according to the packet, usually 4 minutes, then drain and rinse briefly under the cold tap so they do not stick together.
Meanwhile, heat the rapeseed oil in a wok or large frying pan over a high heat until it shimmers. Add the chicken in a single layer and leave it alone for a minute so it browns, then stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes until cooked through with no pink left. Lift it out onto a plate.
Add the broccoli, pepper and 2 tablespoons of water to the pan and stir-fry for 2 minutes; the water steams the broccoli stems through. Add the garlic, ginger and most of the spring onions for the last 30 seconds, until fragrant.
Return the chicken, add the noodles and the sauce, and toss for a minute until everything is hot and glossy. Serve with the sesame seeds, chilli flakes and the rest of the spring onions.

Why it works

This is the dinner for the night you were about to order in. It carries 51g of protein a serving, and the only thing that takes any time is slicing the chicken.

Chicken breast is one of the leanest proteins you can buy, which is also why it dries out so easily. The cornflour coating is a simplified version of velveting, the technique Chinese restaurants use, and it is the difference between chicken that is juicy and chicken that squeaks.

The salt is in the sauce, not the pan. A tablespoon of ordinary soy sauce carries well over 2g of salt, more than a third of the 6g adult daily maximum. That is why the recipe uses reduced-salt soy sauce, adds no salt anywhere else, and gets its flavour from garlic, ginger, vinegar and a little honey instead. Tamari tastes much the same and is usually gluten-free, but check the label: it is not automatically lower in salt.

Broccoli adds fibre and vitamin C, and the red pepper adds more vitamin C than an orange, gram for gram. Cooking the broccoli quickly, as here, keeps more of both than boiling it.

A serving is around 630 calories with the noodles, which suits a main meal after training. To make it lighter, halve the noodles and double the broccoli. It is also not gluten-free as written, because of the egg noodles; rice noodles and tamari fix that.

For another 15-minute dinner, see the garlic prawn and spinach stir-fry. More on why protein at dinner matters for men: how to increase testosterone naturally.

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