Chicken & Asparagus Stir Fry with Ginger Honey Sauce

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 lb asparagus, trimmed, rinsed, and cut into bite-sized pieces

1/2 pound sugar snap peas

2-3 large carrots, peeled and julienned or peeled into ribbons

your favorite steamed rice-basmati, jasmine, long grain, brown, etc

Sauce:

3-4 Tb honey

2 Tb soy sauce

4 Tb rice wine vinegar

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 cup olive oil/vegetable oil

1/4 cup chicken broth (or water, but broth adds more flavor!)

2 cloves garlic, peeled

a nice, fat, 2-3 inch long chunk of fresh ginger, peeled

1 tsp cornstarch

Start your rice steaming, trim and dice your chicken,place the chicken in a bowl, and set aside.

Combine all sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Pour into a small saucepan, bring to a boil, and lower to a strong simmer. Simmer until the sauce turns dark and a little bit clear. It may thicken a bit on it's own, if it doesn't, remove a few tablespoons, stir the teaspoon of cornstarch into it, and pour the mixture back into the sauce. Stir till it thickens and set aside.

Pour half of the sauce over the chicken. For strongest flavor, let sit for a while. Otherwise you can start stir-frying! Heat a large frying pan on highest heat and add half of the chicken, with sauce. Stir nearly constantly until chicken is fully cooked and has nice little browned spots on it. Remove chicken to a large bowl and set aside. Repeat with the second half of the chicken. Keeping the pan HOT, add a tablespoon of oil and the asparagus, stirring until bright green and cooked, but still crisp. Remove from pan, add to the cooked chicken. Repeat with the carrots (if they're in ribbons, they won't take long to soften!) and the peas.

Serve veggies and chicken over rice, with extra sauce on the side to pour over. Top with diced green onions. and red pepper flakes. (optional)