Online I found a super simple two-step recipe that takes as little as seven minutes to cook, but a few substitutions and additions came into play.

The original chicken stir-fry was a good combination of chicken, red pepper, and mangetout – but some of these ingredients weren’t in my fridge.

Thankfully, even the creator of the recipe – Nick Nairn from BBC Good Food – said: “Feel free to adapt the recipe.” And so I did.

I wasn’t about to meander to the local shop, nor pop in the car and go to the nearest big shop; no, I was going to use what I had at home.

This meant I substituted red pepper and mangetout for mushrooms and broccoli, and I added in spinach and spring onions.

Original chicken stir-fry recipe

Ingredients

• One tbsp olive oil
• One garlic clove, chopped
• Two chicken thighs, thinly sliced
• Half red pepper, seeds removed, thinly sliced
• One tbsp soy sauce
• 30g mangetout, green beans or sugar snap peas
• 100ml chicken stock
• One nest of egg noodles, cooked according to the packet instructions

Method

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok and fry the garlic and chicken, until browned all over. Add the pepper to the pan and stir-fry for two to three minutes.

Stir in the soy sauce, mangetout and chicken stock. Continue to stir-fry over a medium-high heat for three to four minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Add in the cooked noodles and stir to combine.

My adapted recipe

Ingredients

• One tbsp olive oil
• One garlic clove, chopped
• Two chicken thighs, thinly sliced
• Half head of broccoli
• One tbsp soy sauce
• Handful of spinach
• Mushrooms
• Red cabbage (optional)
• 100ml chicken stock
• One nest of egg noodles, cooked according to the packet instructions
• Spring onions, to serve

Method

Beginning in the same way, with heated oil in a wok, I first cooked the mushrooms.

While the mushrooms were cooking, I boiled the kettle, then poured boiling hot water over half the head of broccoli in a colander.

The rest of the boiled water would be used to cook the egg noodles, according to pack instructions.

Then I chopped up florets and put them in the wok with the mushrooms; once cooked, I put this mixture into a bowl.

Now I added more oil to the wok to fry the seasoned chicken and garlic, until cooked, then added back in the mushrooms and broccoli.

The next step was to stir in the soy sauce, spinach, red cabbage and chicken stock; I continued to stir-fry on medium-high heat for four minutes. Then added in the cooked egg noddles.

My recommendations for next time include adding ginger – as the classic combination of garlic, soy sauce and ginger is a winner – and removing red cabbage.

Further improvements could be made, if you would like to share your top recommendations in the comments section.