Pico’s Not-So-Bland Chicken is a velveted chicken with mushrooms and water chestnuts stir-fry.

My second attempt at velveting, the chicken did not come out quite as tender as the first time. These were chicken breasts I had previously frozen, so I am not sure how much that affected the texture. I would like to try the velveting again, but parcook in smaller batches. I wonder if too much of the coating is washing off, or the chicken is overcooking while I add it in piece-by-piece, or if the water temperature is dropping too much with the volume of meat going in.

I enjoyed this one more than the one with snap peas, but almost entirely because I prefer mushrooms and water chestnuts to snap peas. The kids, again, ate the chicken and left the veggies. I had them try the water chestnuts since they had never had them before. They did not care for them. My wife, also does not get excited about water chestnuts.

After this dinner, my wife said that these dishes were too bland. This is when I decided to stop skipping the spicy recipes and offer the kids fried eggs on those nights. Sichuan Chicken with Peanuts would be next 🌶😈

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.