Chicken and Broccoli with Cherry Sweet and Sour

Did anyone notice that I snuck cherry week into foodiefights? That’s right, the next battle is Rye-Cherry. Cherry week is taking the internet by storm! I’ve seen cherry sauce on Chinese restaurant menus before, so I just kinda went for it in this recipe. It turned out to be a tasty sweet and sour, with an underlying cherry flavor.

This was the first cherry recipe I did that week.

To pit them, I first tried to do it the way I pit olives by crushing them with a knife and easily removing the pit.

Later I just started squeezing the pit right out without bothering with the squish. I SWEAR I wasnt thinking inuendo when I made this picture, but it’s too late to go back now! I’m having trouble remaining PG on cherry week.  I wonder if this is where that phrase came from…

The paste first, then cherries and sugar, then blend.

Into chicken and broccoli. Notice the sauce is a little chunky? I smoothed it out a bit with a slurry of cornstarch and water. Cornstarch thickening isn’t really my thing normally but sometimes it’s just the way to do it.  Some lime juice here too.

It really lost the color, but didn’t loose the flavor!

5 cloves garlic
3 seeded jalapenos
2 inches of ginger

Make a paste, fry 3 min, add:

2 cups pitted sour cherries
salt
pepper
1/4 cup of sugar
Splash of water

Stir and simmer 20 min. Blend till smooth.

Thin sliced chicken about 2 lbs
Head of broccoli, chunked up

Cook 5 minutes with oil in a skillet. Add the cherry sauce. Simmer 10 minutes.

A few tablespoons of cornstarch and equal parts water mixed.
Juice of a lime.

Remove from heat and add some of the cornstarch mix to smooth everything out. Add a little at a time till desired smoothness. Also add the lime.

Serve with some rice.