the chicken less spiced

There must be a near-infinite number of ways to prepare chicken. At least in one's lifetime. So here's another one: Spicy Basil Chicken. I actually found this by accident; I was just looking for different ways to prepare snow peas when I came across the other parts of the recipe.

The recipe gives you the option of omitting the spice (chili sauce) altogether, so I did. I've always had a sensitive stomach, and my aging parents can't eat like they used to, either. I also didn't want to buy fish sauce just for this recipe but I intend to get around to it--I'm pretty sure I have enough recipes now to justify that purchase. But for a soy sauce-based alternative, the chicken was pretty good. I would never have thought of basil as a complimentary herb. It's like two different flavor worlds, you know? And the rice on it's own was too strong of a citrus burst; you really need to have a little bit of everything in every bite. I admire chefs--even magazine chefs; they're qualified!--and their ability to put seemingly disparate elements together.

And speaking of preparing snow peas, I learned how to trim them yesterday. It really wasn't that hard, just snip and peel. Thanks, Google, for that emergency lesson.