Stir-Fry Chicken with Capsicum

De Arbol (Capsicum Annuum) means tree like in Spanish. The plant has thick, upright, woody stems and the chile itself is narrow, curved and bright red in color. Believed to be closely related to the pequin, the De Arbol is thin fleshed, with tannic, smoky, grassy flavor and searing heat. This chile has a heat range of 7.5 on the heat scale of 1-10. De Arbol Chiles are comparable to a Cayenne Pepper. Scoville heat units 15,000 to 30,000.

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Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS
• 500g/1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 3 red/yellow/orange capsicum (about 350g net), cut into bite-sized pieces
• ½ bunch fresh basil, roughly torn/chopped (I used Thai basil)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
• 2-4 small red chiles, finely chopped (optional)
• 2-3 tbsp. coconut oil

FOR THE SAUCE:
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• One 270ml/ 9 oz can coconut milk
• ½ cup water
• 2 tbsp. coconut sugar/brown sugar
• 1 heaped tsp. cornflour (cornstarch)*

INSTRUCTIONS
Chop and prepare all your ingredients before you start cooking and have them near you for easy access.
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a jug or a bowl, set aside.
Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet or wok over high heat for a few minutes until really hot, add the chicken, season with a little salt and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until edges are lightly golden. DO NOT overcook. Also, DO NOT overcrowd the pan; you want the chicken pieces to be a little spaced out and not cramped together or else they will release all their moisture and stew instead of sear, resulting in dry chicken. Cook the chicken in 2 batches if your pan isn’t large enough. Once cooked, remove from pan into a plate and set aside. Turn down the heat to medium.
Add the garlic, ginger and chile to the pan, cook for 1 minute until just fragrant.
Add the capsicum and cook, stirring, for another 2 minutes.
Give the prepared sauce a good stir (the cornflour tends to settle at the bottom) and then add it all to the pan. Return your chicken to the pan and simmer everything for 5 minutes, until sauce thickens.
Remove from heat, add basil and serve immediately over rice.

NOTES
• You may use skinless, boneless chicken thigh instead of breast if you like, just add an extra minute or 2 to the cooking time and keep everything else the same.
• * The cornflour/cornstarch I am referring to is the very fine white powder, NOT the coarse cornmeal similar to polenta. In the US it is called cornstarch, in the UK it is called cornflour.

From mattersofthebelly.com