Joe’s Weight-Loss Chinese Chicken & Veggies (Updated, Even Easier Version)

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(Above: This dish is healthy, fast and fresh: just like you.)

[UPDATE JAN. 25, 2021: To make this dish even easier, buy a bag of frozen vegetables, preferably with mushrooms, onions, and broccoli. Birds Eye has a couple of good options for Asian vegetables that work well. If you use that, along with a store-bought rotisserie chicken, all you need to do is make brown rice and then mix everything together in a large frying pan. And if you use olive oil spray, you’ll not only save time, but calories too).

My friend Joe, who recently found out he is diabetic and lost more than 50 pounds, credits this dish with his success.

Using brown rice, instead of white, is healthier and has fewer calories.  You can also add other vegetables to it as you see fit. This dish is flavorful and doesn’t feel like you’re cutting calories when you eat it.

Joe is an artist, with a natural born talent for sketching people. You can see his work here. He’s available for commissions, and his prices are extremely reasonable. He lives north of Boston with his partner Karen and their two goldendoodles. He likes to cook and even makes his own dog food.

This dish is as easy to make as you like. Joe buys the brown rice (not fried rice) at a nearby Chinese restaurant and gets the chicken meat from a rotisserie chicken he buys at the supermarket. But if you want to save a few bucks (and know exactly what you’re eating) you can choose to roast a few chicken breasts and make the brown rice yourself.

You can also buy the vegetables already chopped up at the supermarket, but beware: there’s a huge markup on the price and I’m not sure the chopped veggies are as fresh.  A little slicing and dicing never hurt anyone and it’s a great way to build up your cooking skills, if you’re a novice cook.

Once you have your veggies chopped and your cooked rice, you simply fry it all with a little olive oil and add a little oyster sauce. What could be simpler (and healthier) than that?

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Joe's Weight-Loss Chinese Chicken and Vegetables

January 26, 2010

Difficulty: Easy

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By: Mark Micheli

Ingredients

• Cooked white chicken meat (about two breasts) cut into 1-inch pieces. You can roast your own by drizzling a little olive oil in a roasting pan, and adding salt and pepper on the breasts. Then cook for about 30-45 minutes (for bone-in breasts) at 350 degrees. When done, cut 1-inch pieces off the bone. Or you can simply buy a cooked chicken at the supermarket and cut the white breast meat off it.
• Cooked brown rice. (About 4-6 cups)
• Onion (1 whole, chopped)
• Scallions (2 bunches, about 8-10). Cut off the roots and then cut them where the stalks are light green and throw away the leaves. Then slice the remaining ends into tiny discs.
• Mushrooms (About 8 ounces, cut into quarters)
• Broccoli (about 2-3 cups of florets, cut up into bite size pieces)
• Extra virgin olive oil (just enough to coat a frying pan to cook the onions and scallions, and just enough to coat a roasting pan if you’re roasting your own chicken breasts)
• Oyster Sauce (A few tablespoons, to your taste. Available at most specialty shops or in the Chinese ingredient section of some supermarkets. Make sure it does not contain any high glucose corn syrup. Joe uses Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce. I tried the Yummy House brand which has more fish flavor and has only 5 calories per serving to Lee Kum Kee’s 25 calories.)

Directions

• Step 1 Drizzle a few teaspoons of the extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom of a frying pan. Add the onions and scallions and cook until translucent.
• Step 2 Then add the mushrooms and broccoli and cook until the mushrooms are golden brown and the broccoli is tender, but not wilting.
• Step 3 Add the chopped chicken and stir.
• Step 4 Add the oyster sauce and stir.
• Step 5 Add the brown rice and stir.
• Step 6 Cook until heated well through (about 5 minutes) and serve.