Chicken Stir Fry

This is the best stir fry I have ever had. I love stir fries of all kinds, but this is the best! The recipe is from Shenli's mom, and I wrote it down when she taught me how to make it, but at the time I remember thinking "I know this is a terrible place to write it down, but I'm sure I will remember it later!" And...I have no clue where I wrote it down now. So I'm trying to recreate it from memory!

The cool thing about this stir fry is that you can make it with chicken for a full meal, or leave out the chicken (just start at the part where you put in vegetables), and have it as a delicious side dish for any other Asian meal! Also, I am not putting exact measurements for most of the things below. It can be made as big or small as you need, and you can use as much or as little of everything as you think tastes good.

Chicken Stir Fry
Recipe: Alicia Lund (adapted by Eliza Lund)

Chicken breast(s)
Corn starch, for chicken
Oil, for the pan
Minced garlic
Soy sauce (Alicia recommends Kikkoman for cooking, but La Choy for eating)
Oyster sauce
Sesame oil, optional
Cornstarch mixed with water (about 1 tsp cornstarch in 1 cup water)
Additional water
Vegetables - broccoli, carrots, pea pods, bell pepper (I prefer red), zucchini, etc. Anything is possible!

Cut the chicken breast into thin, long slices and coat with corn starch (about 1 tsp for 1 chicken breast - it doesn't have to fully coat the chicken). Heat 2-3 tsp of oil in a large fry pan to medium-high heat. Add the chicken and stir constantly to fry the chicken until it is cooked through.

Cut up the vegetables. Alicia cut up the broccoli into small pieces, but left the stems fairly long. The carrots get cut into thin thin slices, cut on the diagonal. Pea pods can be left whole or cut in half for smaller bites.

Add the vegetables, garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil to taste to the chicken. For enough food to feed two people, I usually use about 1 tsp soy sauce, and 1-2 Tbl of oyster sauce. I don't usually use sesame oil, but it will give it more depth of flavor. I also use about 1 clove garlic. But as Alicia taught me, tasting it is the most important, and you will get better at knowing how much sauce you need to get a good flavor. Also add the cornstarch mixed with water to thicken.

Stir fry the vegetables and chicken until the vegetables turn bright and the sauce thickens. The vegetables will still be crisp. If you need to, add more sauces for flavor, or more cornstarch/water to thicken, or more water by itself to thin the sauce. You want the sauce to be slightly thin still by the end. Once everything is to your liking, serve immediately with rice.

Here are some additional things that can be done, that I don't do every time. It just depends on if you need to:
-You can add the vegetables in order from what cooks slowest to fastest. Broccoli is considered a fast-cooking vegetable, by the way, since you want it to still be crisp.
-If the vegetables aren't cooking fast enough, you can put the lid on the pan and steam them for a bit. This will help the vegetables finish cooking without drying out the chicken or burning the sauce.