Radagast & SO's Chinese Takeout Chicken Stir-fry

I can't let two weeks go by without an end-of-the-week recipe blogging post, so here's a recipe for the week.

We loosely based this dish on a recipe from Ken Hom's Quick & Easy Chinese Cooking, and were pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. This dish has a garlicy, savory, slightly sweet flavor and just the right amount of sauce to flavor some steamed rice. The name of the recipe comes from our observation that this tastes somewhat like a typical Chinese takeout dish (except fresher).

Some oil for the pan (~2-3 tablespoons)
8 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed with a garlic press
1 pound chicken (we used boneless skinless thigh meat), sliced
1 large yellow onion, cut into 16ths
1/2 pound green beans (we used defrosted frozen beans)
1/3 cup oyster sauce (find a brand that has oysters as the first ingredient)
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons sugar
4 teaspoons sesame oil

0. Start some rice cooking.
1. Get all ingredients prepared (as above). Mix the oyster sauce, water, sugar, and sesame oil in a cup or bowl.
2. Heat up the oil in a wok or frying pan until almost smoking.
3. Add the garlic and stir until it just starts to brown (a few seconds).
4. Add the chicken, and stir-fry until it is nearly cooked (~3 minutes?).
5. Add the onions, and continue cooking for a few more minutes (~2 minutes?).
6. Add the green beans, and cook until the vegetables are almost done to your preferred texture, and the liquid has almost all evaporated (~3 minutes?).
7. Add the sauce mixture, and cook for a minute or two longer.
8. Serve over steamed rice.

This recipe is very flexible, and we've made many variants on it. Instead of chicken we've used tofu or no meat/protein at all, this was the first time we made it with onions, and we've also used green onions and/or snow peas as vegetables.

Hom, K. 1990. Quick & Easy Chinese Cooking. Chronicle Books, San Francisco. p. 106.