Stir-Fried Chicken Strips with Vegetables in Wholemeal Wrap

This feels like I am cheating on my thesis, but for the sake of food, it outranks a thesis anytime!

Okay, getting along. On a bid to stay healthy, I turned to a healthier carbo option: the wrap! Not just any wrap, it's a wholemeal wrap. Mind you, wholemeal isn't bland. In fact, with the right ingredients, you could have a great tasting dish using wholemeal.

So this dish is called Stir-Fried Chicken Strips with Vegetables in Wholemeal Wrap. Continuing the simple sandwiches series, this dish is a version of a sandwich only using a different kind of bread to sandwich the filling. And for those who want to watch their diet, this is possibly a good alternative to the usual white bread that you are used to. 

So what are the ingredients:

1 wholemeal wrap

1 portion of chicken breast

10 to 15 French beans

1 medium sized carrot

1/2 medium sized yellow onions

2 red chillies

1 red bell pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Marinade for chicken breast:

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp cornstarch / cornflour

1 tsp soy sauce

a dash of finely ground black pepper

Method:

1. Firstly, slice your chicken breast into strips. Then in a bowl, mix the chicken breast with the marinade and leave for the marinade to sip into the meat.
2. Whilst waiting for the chicken to absorb the marinade, prepare your vegetables. Julienne all the vegetables into long strips measuring about 5 cm.
3. Prepare a frying pan over high heat and add in the onions and oil first. Stir until onions turn translucent and emits fragrance before adding salt and chicken. Reduce to medium heat before continuing to stir fry. When chicken is 3/4 cooked (this means you can see only lines of pink along the strips), add in the carrots and beans first as this take longer to cook. When it is just about turning colour, add in the bell peppers and continue stir frying. Lastly add some pepper for additional taste.
4. On a separate pan, heat it up with no oil. Next place the wrap just to give it a quick heat up before lining it on your cutting board. You can opt to spread some butter here but since the filling already contains oil, then there is no need. However, if you are like me who likes a huge spicy boost, I spread chilli sauce.
5. Next lay filling nearer to one edge of the wrap. Be careful when wrapping the filling as it needs to be tight in order for the filling to encased by the wrap and not for it to fall out. Like spring roll pastry, wrap it up by first lifting the edge to cover the filling and then tuck it underneath the filling. Next, bring it in ensuring that is no space for the filling to move. Then fold in the sides using your remaining fingers before continuing to roll it up. You can choose to hold the wrap with a toothpick or leave it as it is.
6. Now you have a perfectly good home made wrap!

For those who much prefer raw vegetables in your wrap rather than cooked ones, then no problem. Replace the vegetables with iceberg lettuce or rommaine lettuce. Be sure to slice the vegetables thinly. Alternatively, you can use the iceberg lettuce leaf as a liner as well for the wrap. How? After placing the wrap on the cutting board, add a lettuce leaf or two if it is not big enough on the wrap before spooning in your filling. If you want some sauce, then mayonnaise is great combo. After that spoon in the chicken and wrap it up! 

A great meal for those who want a more fulfilling one yet not too big and at the same time you can do so much with the filling to make it even more delicious. Other kinds of filling can be deep fried chicken strips, salmon fillet, prawns and even pork or beef. Take it from me, this is certainly easy and there is no need to run out to the store to get ingredients. Just use what you have in the fridge! No wrap, use up your baguette. 

Exploring more about the sandwich phenomenon,

The Innovative Baker