Garlic Bok Choy Stir Fry
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Stir-fried garlic bok choy is a healthy and delicious side dish for just about any meal! You can make this easy recipe in 10 minutes with only 4 ingredients. Fresh bok choy is cooked with amazing garlic flavor using a few essential tips for perfect results every time!
Bok choy is one of my favorite veggies and I have served it as a side dish with chicken, beef, salmon along with rice or noodles. A simple stir fry is the best way to enjoy this leafy green vegetable, and it comes together in less than 10 minutes!
While I like cooking it with garlic and oil, you can add in your favorite spices or sauces. As it cooks so fast, I always get everything else prepared first and when dinner is almost ready, just quickly stir-fry this dish for a few minutes. Plus, it’s low-carb, gluten-free and dairy-free!
Bok choy or pak choi (上海青) is a type of Chinese cabbage and it’s in the cabbage family with high amounts of nutrients and vitamin. It tastes best when the leaves are slightly wilted while the bottom is still crispy and crunchy. Depending on the size of your bok choy, you can cook them whole if your bok choy is small, about 3 inches, or you can chop it down to bite-size chunks.
THE SECRET TO PERFECT GARLICKY FLAVOR
For this recipe, I use cold oil method to bring out the best garlicky flavor and avoid burning the garlic in the wok or pan. When you add in minced garlic to a hot wok, it can easily get burned and become bitter. Although some recipes call for slightly burned garlic, the bitter flavor doesn’t go well with bok choy.
To avoid the garlic from burning, the secret is to add the minced garlic to the wok while the oil is still cold. Then slowly heat up the oil, during the process, the oil soaks up the garlic flavor gradually and the garlic will be cooked perfectly without burning.
HOW TO COOK BOK CHOY
Bok choy is delicious and crispy when properly cooked. It’s important to stir-fry them on high heat for a short time so that they won’t be overcooked and become wilted.
- Rinse the bok choy with cold water to remove any dirt. If your bok choy is quite big, you can separate out the leaves, but keep the center part (baby bok choy) intact. The center of each bok choy is the most tender and delicious part. Pat dry.
- Add minced garlic to cold oil. Place over medium heat. When the oil begins to bubble, add in bok choy.
- Increase the heat to high, and stir until the green leaves start to wilt and white bottoms begin to soften, about 5 to 8 minutes.
- Season with salt and serve.
Note: Raw bok choy sometimes may seem too much before cook, but they cook down quite a bit.
WHAT TO SERVE WITH BOK CHOY
We love serving bok choy with protein and starch such as:
Garlic Bok Choy Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1 pound bok choy, rinsed
- 1 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Rinse the bok choy with cold water to remove any dirt. If you use regular bok choy instead of baby bok choy, you can separate out the leaves, but keep the middle part (baby bok choy). Pat dry and set aside.
- Finely mince garlic.
- Place a wok or pan on the stove. Add oil and minced garlic. Turn the heat to medium.
- Stir-fry the garlic until aromatic and oil start to sizzle.
- Add the bok choy and increase the heat to high. Quickly stir-fry for about 5 to 8 minutes until the green leaves start to wilt and white bottoms begin to soften.
- Season with salt and serve immediately.
Notes
- Use baby bok choy if you can find some. They are more tender and taste better than larger bok choy.
- If your bok choy has thick stems on it, you need to trim them off.
- To avoid minced garlic from burning, add them to the wok while oil is still cold.
- Avoid overcooking bok choy. Just remember that bok choy will continue to wilt and soften after being removed from the wok.
- You can add some protein such as chicken, beef or shrimp to turn this recipe into a main dish.
Please read our nutrition disclaimer.
MORE RECIPES USING BOK CHOY
TOOLS USED IN THIS BOK CHOY RECIPE
- Wok: if you have a work in your kitchen, I recommend using it for this recipe. If not, any large pan will work.
- Tongs: I used tongs as it’s easy for tossing and flipping bok choy.
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Super tasty and healthy. My husband said it was a keeper 🙂
Hi Sally, That’s great to hear and thanks!
This was the first time I ever tried bok choy and it was delicious! I used corn oil instead of vegetable only because I didn’t have that oil. I still thought it was good and even shared it with my family. Everything was quick and easy to follow. Thanks for the delicious recipe.
Hi Ebonie, So awesome to hear that! It really is an underrated vegetable and super-nutritious. Glad you enjoyed!
I really liked this. Instead of salt, I added 1/2 Tsp of chicken bullion and about a half of a 1/4 C of water. I used canola oil 1TB to start the garlic . I used baby boc choy and cit it into about 2″ pieces. I stirfried the white parts first till almost where I wanted them then added the green parts. I essentially followed your intructions otherwise. I truly enjoyed this. Your instructions on how to cook the boc choy were invaluable to me. Thank you. By adding shrimp or chicken or both an using a broth with chicken with some soy sauce and a small bit of corn starch mixed into chicken or shrimp or crab broth it would go good with brown rice I think. I’ll let you know. This was very good, and healthy. thank you again
Hi Donald, Thanks so much for your detailed comment! Sounds delicious the way you made it, and some restaurants separate the whites and greens the same way. It’s so true that bok choy is a healthy vegetable. Glad you enjoyed and hope you’ll try some other recipes too 🙂