(upbeat rhythmic music) - I get it.

Some nights, you're just too tired to make dinner from scratch, so you go and you get Chinese takeout.

Well, I'm here to tell you that you can make healthy Chinese food at home faster than it takes to pick up Chinese takeout.

We'll turn to stir-fry queen, Grace Young, for a lesson in making fast and easy Chinese Burmese Chicken.

It's loaded with vegetables and just enough spice.

Then it's off to the races, right here in my kitchen.

Just for fun, I'm sending two staff members out to get takeout Chinese, and before they get back, I'm going to make the same order at home.

In this case, baby egg rolls with a sesame soy dipping sauce.

That's Chinese takeout food at home, next on Sara's Weeknight Meals.

Funding provided by - [Voiceover] Subaru builds vehicles like the versatile Subaru Forester.

With symmetrical all-wheel drive and plenty of cargo room, a recipe made for whatever the day brings.

Subaru, a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- [Voiceover] Family-owned and Indiana-grown, Maple Leaf Farms is a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

Providing a variety of duck products for home kitchens, Maple Leaf Farms duck helps inspire culinary adventures everywhere.

Maple Leaf Farms.

- [Sara] And thanks to the generous support of Hi, I'm Sara Moulton.

Welcome to Sara's Weeknight Meals.

You know, I am so excited to learn about the proper use of a wok in stir-frying, because there's no better way to get dinner on the table during the workweek, and I have an expert.

This is the stir-fry queen, Grace Young!

Thank you for being here.

I have to give you a hug.

Okay, so how did you become the expert that you are about traditional Chinese cuisine?

How did that happen?

- [Grace Young] I decided one day that a lot of Chinese culinary traditions were at risk of being lost, so that prompted me to go home and cook with my parents and they're very, very traditional.

But I really want to record these old-fashioned recipes and in the process of doing that, I found out a lot about my own family's history that my parents would never have talked about if we hadn't cooked together.

- [Sara] Tell me what we're making.

- We're making Chinese Burmese Chili Chicken.

- [Sara] Okay, let me get the chicken out.

- [Grace] Okay.

- [Sara] So we are using how much chicken?

- This is one pound of skinless, boneless chicken thighs that have been cut into half-inch thick slices, and we need one teaspoon of cornstarch.

- And I will do that.

So we're seasoning the chicken?

- Yes.

We're marinating it.

- Okay.

And this is like a chicken with a lot of vegetables.

- Right.

- Okay, so, cornstarch.

- Nice and healthy.

I'm adding a tablespoon of oil.

This can be peanut or vegetable oil, canola, grapeseed.

- I love grapeseed.

That's my favorite.

- Whenever you stir-fry, you want to use an oil that has a high smoking point.

- [Sara] Good point because we're cooking over very high heat.

- [Grace] Right.

- Okay, then you need a little bit of salt.

- Half a teaspoon of salt.

- Okay.

- And half a teaspoon of pepper.

- Okay.

There we go, and that's all that goes in the seasoning.

- [Grace] That's all.

- [Sara] And why the cornstarch now?

I always think of it as a thickener at the end.

Why would you add it now?

- [Grace] Because it helps it to brown and caramlizes it, and it actually tenderizes the chicken.

- [Sara] Oh, that's great.

- Yeah.

This is two teaspoons of paprika.

- [Sara] One.

- [Grace] And this is one teaspoon of ground cumin.

So-- - [Sara] Cumin, that's interesting.

- [Grace] This dish is Chinese Burmese, as I mentioned to you, and, this is a half teaspoon of paprika which we'll use later.

- [Sara] You mean of chili.

- [Grace] I'm sorry, chili powder.

- [Sara] I could tell by the color.

It wasn't-- Oh I like that, so it's going to be spicy.

- Yes.

- Okay, you want me to chop up the, these guys.

- [Grace] Yes, oh, and actually, I should mince the ginger.

This is the easiest way to peel ginger is using a teaspoon.

You see, there's no flesh that's removed, just the peel.

- [Sara] It's the least wasteful way to do it.

- [Grace] Yes.

I'm just going to make a very thin slice and then rest it on that flat side so it's safer.

- [Sara] Yeah, I always say that.

Make sure you're not chasing your rolling item, your round item.

- [Grace] Then make paper thin slices, and then cut the paper thin slices into the fine julienne, so, easy, right?

- [Sara] And we already minced, is it two teaspoons of garlic here?

- Of garlic.

Yes, two teaspoons of garlic.

- So, I just want to point out this is totally different than the way I cook at home, I mean, unless I'm cooking Chinese or Asian.

We're going to get every last little thing measured before we start.

If you don't, you will have a disaster.

Okay, so tell me, you want me to cut up the onion into how many pieces?

- [Grace] Just quarter it and then cut it into, like, 3/4-inch chunks.

- [Sara] Okay.

And these peppers I'm cutting into roughly one-inch chunks?

- [Sara] Okay.

Now, tell me, while we're doing this, why Burmese?

What's Burmese about this?

- [Grace] So, I learned this recipe from this wonderful home cook named Irene Kinwa.

She was born and raised in Burma, and the Chinese Burmese, really, the stir-fries have a combination of Chinese-Indian and Burmese influences, so the spices that we're using, the paprika and the cumin-- - Yeah, that took me by surprise.

- It took me by surprise too.

Those are Indian, and they're wonderful in this dish because they add these lush flavors that really compliment the chilies that we'll be using, and also the chicken.

- [Sara] Okay.

All right, so, we're lining up all of our suspects here.

- Yes, this is the Anaheim chili.

It's a very mild chili.

All right.

- [Sara] Okay.

- [Grace] So we're ready to stir-fry.

- [Sara] I'm getting your-- - My wok.

- Yes, I am.

And-- - [Grace] This is Wonder Boy.

- Wonder Boy!

All right, and we want it on high?

- Yes.

- [Sara] There we go.

- [Grace] And oh, we forgot to combine the water and cornstarch.

- We need a little cornstarch.

How much cornstarch do we need?

- Half a teaspoon.

- Okay.

Yeah.

See what I mean?

This is so not how I cook, but it's so how you must cook, because you're going to see.

Everything just spends like 10 seconds.

So I'm going to be your assistant and pass the scalpel.

- So, to test the wok we just put in a drop.

- [Sara] Whoo!

- We're ready.

- Okay, we're ready.

- Okay, so, I'm going to swirl in the oil.

Always swirl it in and then tilt the wok so that it's nicely spread throughout, and if you could give me the onions.

- [Sara] Okay, the onions.

Here come the onions.

Put 'em in?

- [Grace] Yep.

- [Sara] In the middle?

- [Grace] Yes.

- [Sara] Okay, I know it matters where you put things.

- [Grace] And do you hear that sizzle?

Whenever you're stir-frying, your wok is talking to you.

If there's no sizzle, then the oil wasn't heated enough.

So you stir-fry this just 30 seconds, and then you spread the onions to the side of the wok and add the chicken and spread that in one even layer.

So I just let that go for about a minute.

- [Sara] Okay.

Quickly, flat bottoms versus round-bottom wok.

- So the round-bottom wok is the traditional wok but it wasn't intended for a western stove.

It's intended to be in a hearth stove, in a hole, so it's set in, bathed in flames.

So when you set it on an American stove, you have to put on a wok-ring, and the moment you put it on a wok-ring, it's too high-- - Removed from the heat.

- Removed from the heat.

- Okay.

- [Grace] So let's just check the bottom of this chicken to see if it's browning.

I think we can start the stir-fry.

- [Sara] Tell me what's next.

- [Grace] So now you see this nice browning?

- [Sara] That's beautiful.

- [Grace] Yep.

So we do this for just 30 seconds until the chicken turns opaque and so we're using the stir-fry technique which is a scooping under and tossing.

You want that metal spatula, never a wooden spatula because you want the thin metal that can get underneath, and now we want the paprika and the ginger and the garlic.

- [Sara] Does this all go in at the same time?

- [Grace] Yes.

If you don't mind.

Just sprinkle it in.

- [Sara] Two handed.

Woo!

- [Grace] Yes, okay, and we just want to incorporate that.

- Ooh, I'm smelling it.

- Isn't that fabulous?

- It's just so wonderful.

Wow.

- [Grace] Now, the red bell peppers and the green, and I'm turning the temperature down to medium.

So, for traditional stir-fries, 99% of the time, you're stir-frying on high heat, so this is very unusual that for two minutes, Irene wants us to use medium heat.

- [Sara] But you're doing what she says?

- I'm doing what she says.

- [Sara] Oh the color's fantastic.

I bet that's from the paprika.

- And now I think we can add-- - [Sara] This?

- [Grace] the zucchini, yup, and Anaheim chilies, and two tablespoons of the fish sauce.

Swirl it, yup.

- Oh, I'm sorry, I should have done that.

- That's okay.

- I'm, you know-- - I try to swirl it in because that doesn't cool down the wok, and there's a quarter of a teaspoon of salt.

- [Sara] Oh!

That's interesting, okay, because we've - And I like to sprinkle it in.

- Okay.

I'm learning.

I know, isn't it funny?

That's just a quarter of a teaspoon and it looks like so much.

That's the thing with kosher salt.

It's creating some juices under there from the vegetables.

- [Grace] Right.

Now, if you don't want your stir-fry to be too spicy, you could use less of the Anaheim chili or you could cut it in half and remove the seeds.

And now I'm going to increase the heat to high and if you could restir that cornstarch mixture?

Because the cornstarch always settles to the bottom of the dish.

And now-- - Okay, do I swirl this?

- Yeah, always along the edge, because when you pour it down the center, you cool down the wok.

- [Sara] You cool down the wok and we want to keep that constant temperature.

- [Grace] Beautiful.

Yup.

- [Sara] All right, here's another question.

These are all loaded questions.

- Yes, yes.

- Why not just use a skillet?

Pa-choo!

- You don't want to use a skillet because as one chef said to me, "Each time you scoop up the ingredients in a skillet, "you're chasing the ingredients."

You're just pushing it to the other side of the pan, whereas here, the stir-fry motion, each time the ingredients go back down into the hot well of the wok, and it cooks more evenly.

- Well, the point is, with the wok, it's not just the bottom that's hot.

It goes all the way up the sides.

So, every part of this inside is a cooking surface.

- [Grace] All right, so you see now, the sauce has just started to thicken.

We're done.

- Oh, okay.

- That's it.

And now we're just going to sprinkle in-- - And we finish it with chili?

- Yes.

- Very interesting.

- [Grace] If you don't use chili powder, you could use a quarter of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

- [Sara] Okay.

- [Grace] More heat.

- Interesting.

- And that's it.

- Wow.

Okay, and we've got some rice.

- Beautiful.

- Which of course is the perfect accompaniment, and I have to ask you a question.

Can you show us the spatula you've got there?

- Yes.

- That's not normal.

That's like, what I would use.

- [Grace] Yes.

So this is the classic Chinese spatula.

It's wonderful because it has the rounded lip, which fits the curve of the wok, and it is a little bit more shovel-like in its shape so it can hold more food, but the problem is, these days, it's impossible to find a really good one.

I found that one in Hong Kong years ago, so I find this western spatula is great.

- [Sara] Wow.

This is so exciting, so this is our Chinese Burmese Chili Chicken.

- [Grace] Chicken.

It's a mouthful.

- Courtesy of Irene - Kinwa.

- Okay, thanks Irene!

(upbeat Chinese-themed instrumental music) You know, I get it.

Some nights you're just tired and you want to get takeout.

And what's everybody's favorite takeout?

Chinese.

But here's the problem.

Chinese isn't necessarily very healthy and you know what, it's not always so quick.

So, I have a challenge today.

I've brought in my troops.

I have Heather and Yang Li.

They're my associates.

They work hard on the show.

And they are going to run out and buy egg rolls while I make egg rolls, and we're going to see who gets done first.

You ready?

- We're ready.

- [Sara] Okay!

Go.

- All right.

- All right.

I gotta move fast.

There's a lot of dicing and slicing and chopping so we're going to start with the pork.

I've had it in the freezer here.

We're going to make the filling first, and the reason I have the pork in the freezer, this is a half pound of boneless pork chop is because when you freeze it, it's much easier to slice.

There's going to be pork and a whole bunch of vegetables in here.

Obviously, you can do other kinds of fillings, but this is what I'm going to do.

And I'm cutting into strips.

The smaller you cut it, the faster it cooks.

And, like other Chinese recipes or Asian cooking, when we have many different parts and we do have many different parts here, you want to prep all the ingredients ahead of time to make sure that they're all ready because they spend only 30 seconds, one minute in the pan.

Okay, there's our pork, ready to go.

Now I'm going to move on to the ginger.

I'm going to cut it into planks, and that's it.

So it's just going to take me a minute, and we're using a two-inch piece of peeled ginger.

And now we need a clove of garlic.

Okay, I've got my ginger and garlic ready.

Now I'm going to move on down to the vegetables.

Now, these are the four vegetables that we're going to put in the egg roll.

You can use any you want.

Mushrooms are great too.

But we've got a red pepper, scallions, Napa cabbage, and a carrot.

So let me start with the red pepper.

I'll get everything out of the way for a second.

And I've got a nifty tool.

You know I love my gadgets that I'm going to show you, so we're going to cut this into thin strips because they all have to fit into an egg roll wrapper, a wonton wrapper, a square wonton wrapper, so they have to be the right size.

That's why I cut the pork the way I did, into strips.

I've got two scallions that I'm going to slice thinly, just a quick slice.

Now this is such a popular dish in my household, actually in my extended Moulton family that we make these for every Christmas, every New Years, often on July 4th, and we stockpile them.

Just because they're just so wonderful and, okay, there's the little bit of the green part, and they freeze well.

You make them, you freeze them, and you cook them right from the frozen state.

Great thing for entertaining, great thing to have in the freezer.

Okay, now, Napa cabbage.

I like Napa cabbage because it's sort of mild.

It's not as, you know, intense as regular cabbage.

We only need about a cup so I'll just take a little bit.

It's just got a nice, fresh flavor.

Okay, let's say that's about a cup.

Okay, now.

Here is a favorite tool.

This is a peeler that has little holes in it.

It's also a julienner, so what you do, because you could certainly do this on a mandolin, but look at how easy that is.

Isn't that cool?

Okay.

So we are all set.

Boy, I wonder where they're at.

I hope there's traffic.

- [Heather] How's my driving?

(laughs) - [Yang Li] It's great.

- Do you feel good?

Do you feel safe?

All right.

There's no way that she is going to beat us.

- She's definitely not going to beat us.

- I wasn't accounting for traffic.

(laughs) - [Sara] Here we go.

So, let me heat up the pan with some grapeseed oil.

Ginger and garlic are going in, and then once that gets a little bit hotter, I'll add the pork, and the pork we're really just cooking until it turns white.

We just want to get it, well, almost cooked through.

Okay.

I'm going to try to spread this out because it sort of sticks to itself.

You could use chicken too.

I should have mentioned that.

This is a ceramic coated pan, which is naturally stick-resistant I like them very much.

I highly recommend them.

All right, while that's getting white, I'm just going to measure, I'm going to add our sauce in a minute, so what we've got here is a couple tablespoons of chicken broth.

We're going to add a couple tablespoons of soy sauce.

This is for the vegetables, just to soften them up in a minute.

All right, we're almost there.

(pan sizzles) All of my vegetables going in.

Ain't that pretty?

Just think how healthy this is.

I mean, that's not the point.

The first thing should be, it tastes good, and I guarantee you, this tastes so good, we have to make it for every holiday in my house.

So now this just cooks for a few minutes and softens up.

We want all the liquid to evaporate.

That's what we're looking for here because we don't want the liquid to sog up my wonton wrappers.

All right, the pork goes back in.

And make sure, you see those yummy pork juices?

You don't want to lose those.

And the whole thing now is going to go into the freezer which is the trick I often do when I have to quick chill something.

Not to freeze it, just to cool it down.

Okay.

Spread it out.

Let it cool off.

And this should be cool enough to play with in about five minutes.

Okay, here we go.

All right, I am doing great.

Oh dear, I wonder how they're doing.

Well, hello.

Where are you?

- [Yang Li] Hi Sara.

- Hi Sara, we just got here.

- Wouldn't you know, I've already made the filling.

- [Both girls] What?!

- [Sara] Yeah, so you're in trouble.

- [Heather] Oh man.

- [Sara] Does it look crowded over there?

- [Yang Li] Sort of.

- [Heather] A little bit.

- [Sara] Ah hah, well!

We'll see.

I think I'm doing very well.

All right-y.

Bye!

- [Both girls] Bye!

- Oh, they're nowhere.

Ooof, I've got all the time in the world!

- [Heather] Hi.

- Hi, how are you?

- [Yang Li] We'll have five egg rolls.

- [Cashier] Um, sure, yes.

Five, 10 minutes.

- Perfect, thank you.

- [Sara] I'm going to win this race, I know it.

All right, dipping sauce.

This is very simple.

So, let's start with six tablespoons of soy sauce, and by the way, you can always use low sodium if you want, on the soy sauce, that is absolutely fine.

Two tablespoons of rice vinegar.

Two teaspoons of sugar.

Two teaspoons of sesame oil.

You want to be careful with the sesame oil because it's very strong.

It can take over whatever else you're making, and then you just whisk it up so the sugar dissolves.

Okay, so there's our sauce and I'm going to get rolling.

- Do you have our egg rolls?

- Yes, it's all ready.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you, have a good one.

Bye bye.

- [Sara] So, let's see if this is cooled off enough.

Yeah, this looks good.

Here's our filling.

Let me get my wonton wrappers.

Now, wonton wrappers I love.

It's nothing more than fresh Chinese pasta.

They don't call it Chinese pasta, they call it wonton wrappers.

You can find them either in the produce or in the freezer section of the supermarket.

I'm going to do about three at a time.

There we go.

So I've got some water here, which is my glue.

And we do them in a diamond shape like this, so, on go our vegetables.

Make sure you got a little bit of everything.

You don't really need a lot.

This filling goes a long way.

I think it makes about 30.

So, get your buddies together and do it as a team.

So what you do, so you roll it in, you tuck in the sides, and then you keep going.

You know, it's funny, it's like, everybody's going to roll them differently.

Some people make big, fat ones.

Some people make thin, skinny ones.

It's just sort of what you feel like, and they're all good.

It really doesn't matter, and the water here will keep them glued.

(mellow, Chinese-inspired instrumental music) And again, we're going to use the flavorless vegetable oil.

I like grapeseed.

You could use sunflower or safflower.

You could use peanut oil, that's fine.

And you notice, it's not a lot of oil.

It's really more like sauteing.

Okay, so these go right into the pan and we're going to saute them, and what's wonderful is these won't get crispy like they do when you deep fry them.

I'll turn it up a little bit, but they certainly will get crispy.

And you do have to watch them because they get brown, you want to turn them.

(oil sizzles) I think I'm going to beat them.

I really do.

- We're almost there.

- We're so close.

Oh my gosh.

The look on her face when we beat her.

- Yup.

- That's going to be a little bit embarrassing, I think.

(girls laugh) - See how pretty that is.

Don't they?

You should smell them too.

This is the kind of color we're looking for.

I'm being impatient, but then again, I want to make sure that I have a tray of waiting egg rolls when they walk in the door.

Okay, just turning it a little bit more.

Boy, I'm just about there.

Woo-hoo!

These are nice and crispy, so, just drain them a little bit.

Whoa, those are good.

Geez, you know.

I wonder where they are?

What are they doing?

Did they take a detour?

- Pulling in.

- Here we go.

- Here we go.

- Well, where have you been?

- [Heather] You're done already?

- [Sara] I mean, excuse me, I have been done.

I paused this when I was done, 24 minutes, 18 seconds, and you guys have been gone for half an hour.

- [Heather] Well, we tried really hard.

- Yeah we did.

- [Sara] Well I don't know.

Okay, so let's see your egg rolls.

I'm sure they're delicious, but, we're going to try mine too.

Look at this.

Aren't you impressed?

- [Heather] Very.

- [Yang Li] They look really good.

- [Sara] I mean, don't they look like the real McCoy?

They're probably not as big as yours.

These are little guys.

Oh yeah (laughs).

That's the big one.

Well we can all chow down anyway.

So-- - Yours look delicious, Sara.

- Yeah, you can try my dipping sauce too.

Go ahead ladies.

Chow down.

Me too.

- [Heather] All right.

- [Yang Li] All right.

- [Sara] Thank you so much for doing this challenge with me.

I'm sorry you lost.

I'm not sorry I won.

- [Girls] (laugh) - Any rate, I'm Sara Moulton here with Heather and Yang Li and thank you for joining me on Sara's Weeknight Meals.

And we'll see you next time.

Pretty good, huh?

- [Heather] Mmm hmm!

Oh yeah, they're great.

Beautiful colors in there.

- [Sara] Yeah.

- [Heather] In yours.

- [Sara] Yeah.

Well those were, you know, fresh.

I mean, I'm sure there's fresh vegetables in here too.

But I may have more.

Sara's Weeknight Meals continues online.

For recipes, helpful tips, messages, and lots more visit us on the web at saramoulton.com forward slash weeknight meals.

And go to our YouTube Channel, Sara's Weeknight Meals TV.

- [Voiceover] Subaru builds vehicles like the versatile Subaru Forester, with symmetrical all-wheel drive and plenty of cargo room.

A recipe made for whatever the day brings.

Subaru, a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- [Voiceover] Family-owned and Indiana-grown, Maple Leaf Farms is a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals, providing a variety of duck products for home kitchens.

Maple Leaf Farms duck helps inspire culinary adventures everywhere.

Maple Leaf Farms.

- [Sara] And thanks to the generous support of