Chicken Stir-Fry with Thai Chilli Kaffir Lime Sauce

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Stir-Fry Chicken
Stir-Fry Chicken with Chilli-Kaffir Lime Sauce

For those days when I don’t have a lot of time to cook dinner and don’t want to order takeout, I turn to already prepared sauces for a quick meal.

A while back I received a complimentary hamper full of stir-fry and dipping sauces from WORLDFOODS Fusion of Flavours.

WORLDFOODS Fusion of Flavours is a Malaysia-based food company founded in 1998 and produces a complete range of sauces that can be found on the shelves of the many super- and hyper-markets around the world including the USA, UK, and UAE. One of their taglines is: “Want to cook Asian but don’t know how to start?”

WORLDFOODS hamper
WORLDFOODS hamper

From the stir-fry category, I tried the Thai Ginger Lemongrass (not my favorite), the Thai Masaman Curry (tasted okay), the Thai Yellow Curry, and the Thai Creamy Chilli Kaffir Lime (see below). I have yet to use the Red and Green curry pastes but I am looking forward to the next time I can’t be bothered to cook so that I can try them out. Good Thai curry pastes are so hard to find (one of these days, I’m going to have to make the effort and learn how to pound up my own).

The Thai Creamy Chilli Kaffir Lime sauce was my favorite which is why I am posting a recipe for it. While the “ready-pour” stir-fry sauces are good on their own, spending a little more energy on adding additional ingredients will make a more satisfactory meal. The two additional things I did to this meal was to (1) marinate the chicken for 10 minutes in what I call the Magic Mixture and (2) added bean sprouts and scallions for a bit of crunch.

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What is this Magic Mixture? Probably all Chinese cooks know this and I learned it from my mom who marinates all her stir-fry meats in equal portions of of soy-sugar-cornstarch-alcohol. I use mostly Scotch whisky 😉 but Shaoxing wine, congnac, brandy, or sherry can also be used. My mom has even used gin when her cognac ran out! Use water for nonalcoholic version – it helps to dilute the saltiness of the soy. I use light soy sauce (as opposed to dark soy sauce with is darker in color and sweeter).

Whether chicken, beef, or pork, I have found that the flavor and texture is always improved when marinating the meat for as little as 10 minutes. I marinate the meat at the very beginning of the meal prep so by the time I finish preparing the other ingredients, the meat is usually marinating for at least 10-30 minutes.

Be careful not to drown the meat in the marinade because you will be dumping all the ingredients to be stir-fried so excess liquid will steam the meat instead of fry it. Start with 1 teaspoon of each ingredient (soy sauce, white sugar, cornstarch, whisky) and work up as needed depending on how much meat you will be using.

What this Magic Mixture does is help to tenderize the meat and thicken the final sauce a little (thanks to the cornstarch), help brown and flavor the meat (thanks to the soy and the whisky), and the sugar helps to counteract the saltiness of the soy.

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I really liked the flavors of this Creamy Chilli Kaffir Lime sauce and thought it was well-suited to my tastes as it was slightly sweet, slightly tangy and not too spicy so that even Wee Scotch ate it without any problems. The ingredients listed on the sauce included: coconut milk, sugar, dried chilli, lemongrass, onion, tamarind puree, ginger, garlic, kaffir lime leaf, sugar, and tapioca starch.

I served it over white rice to soak up the sauce and with tender chicken, crunchy bean sprouts and scallions, this made for a great easy-peasy meal so that I didn’t have to spend too much time in the kitchen and away from our TV show marathon ;).

And thanks so much to WORLDSFOODS for the bountiful hamper! Please click here to see where to you can purchase their products.

Eating Stir-fry

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Stir-Fry Chicken

Chicken Stir-Fry with Thai Chilli Kaffir Lime Sauce

Ginger and Scotch
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 350 g (12 oz) boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon Scotch Whiskey or water
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 bottle of WORLDFOOS "Thai Creamy Chilli Kaffir Lime" sauce
  • 2 cups bean sprouts
  • 1-2 stalks of scallions , cut into 1 inch lengths

Instructions
 

  • Cut chicken into small bite-size pieces and place in a bowl. Add the soy sauce, cornstarch and whiskey and using a spoon, stir the chicken around under the sauce is thoroughly mixed. Set aside for 10 minutes.
  • In a saute pan, heat up the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken with the marinade to the pan and allow to brown while stirring occasionally - about 5 minutes.
  • Add the WORLDSFOOD sauce and simmer 5 minutes, uncovered. Stir occasionally. And the bean sprouts and scallions and simmer another 5 minutes uncovered.
  • Serve over white rice. Enjoy!

 

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Recipe Rating




13 Comments

  1. I was disappointed not to find a recipe for the many kaffir lime trees in my neighborhood… But I do not fault you for trying some bottled sauces — especially when some of the “authentic” ingredients are not available in your area, these sauces can be better than homemade — if you read the ingredient list to make sure the sauce is not just corn syrup and “natural flavors”…. Plus, too many food snobs ignore the truth of “authentic” cooking — that homecooks in the given cuisine never make the dishes from scratch or even at home (i.e., pad thai, a street food — making it at home would be like making giant pretzels at home — you could, but why would you when someone is making it in bulk on the street for you?!). Anyway, FYI this brand is widely available in the U.S. in grocery stores and online!

  2. Hi Ginger, I did make a homemade version of your sauce last night and it was delicious. Unfortunately I forgot to get a photo and want to make a small tweak to the sauce anyway. Once I’ve tweeked and feel its perfect I photo and post about it. Thanks again for the inspiration.

    Also, I now have a kaffir lime tree which was a xmas present. Using fresh leaves makes so much difference. I’ll never by the dried again, yuk.

  3. Yep, tamarind is one of the main ingredients in our household. Husband and in-laws are from Hyderabad, and they seem to put tamarind into everything they cook. But I’m not complaining, it tastes good 🙂

  4. The Chilli Kaffir Lime sauce is also my favorite from the hamper! I even add a dash of it when cooking fried rice. Your chicken stir-fry is bookmarked to be cooked soon 🙂

  5. Yum- this is one of my favorite flavor combinations – I love kaffir lime! Streaming TV is terribly addictive. We just discovered Homeland, and can’t get enough.

    1. Hi Jess, thanks for visiting my site. Now that I’ve discovered that I can freeze fresh kaffir lime leaves, I have to use it more in my cooking!

  6. Sounds delicious. I am defrosting salmon fillets as we speak. Had planned to do something with chilli and lemongrass so got excited when I saw your post. Then of course deflated again to discover it’s a jar of sauce and naturally not available in here in Spain. But, due to you providing a list of ingredients, I may just make up my own version based on that, thanks LOL.

    Marinading in magic sauce is imperative for achieving tender meat, but never heard of using whiskey. I always use Shaoshing wine for Chinese dishes and Sake for Japanese dishes, but of course Thai Mekong Whiskey would be good for Thai dishes. I have some of that so I’ll try that for a change tonight.

    Thanks for the inspiration.

    1. I use Whisky a lot because we (almost) always have it in the house ;). My mom normally uses Cognac but she has even used Gin (Bombay Sapphire)! For some reason she doesn’t cook with Shaoshing wine – I must remember to ask her why.

      I tried to bring back a bottle of Mekong Whiskey back from Bangkok but was discouraged by the shop assistants because I had too many international connections and possibility of having it confiscated 🙁