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What Is Happy Family?
A typical family dine-in experience at any Chinese restaurant is usually paired with dishes consisting of meat, vegetables, and seafood of some sort.
And that is exactly what the dish Happy Family is! It is a popular Chinese stir-fry dish with colorful vegetables (broccoli, water chestnuts, baby corn, bamboo shoots, mushroom, carrots, etc.), meats (beef, pork/BBQ Pork and chicken) and seafood (shrimp, lobster/crab meat and scallops) cooked in a simple brown sauce.
This is one of the dishes that you would find in many popular Chinese-American restaurants today.
Main Ingredients for Happy Family
- Onions
- Bell peppers
- Canned vegetables
- Pork, chicken, and beef
- Mixed seafood
- Dry sherry wine
- Chicken broth
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Happy Family Chinese Food Healthy?
Yes, this dish packs a lot of protein, which is good for you. The additional vegetables allow you to gain extra nutrition as well.
How Many Calories?
There are 308 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
This dish is best served as an entree. For a wholesome Chinese meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Happy Family
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 1 cup cut onion (green and red bell peppers)
- 2 cups mixed vegetables (broccoli florets, sliced carrot and trimmed sugar snap peas/snow peas)
- 1 1/2 cups canned vegetables (straw mushroom, bamboo shoot sliced, young baby corn and water chestnut sliced)
- 1 cup meat (pork/BBQ pork, chicken breast, and beef(sliced))
- 1/2 cup mixed seafood (peeled and cleaned shrimp, lobster meat/crab meat and sea scallops)
- 3 cloves garlic (peeled and minced)
Marinade:
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1 teaspoon dry sherry wine or any Chinese cooking wine
- 1/2 teaspoon corn starch
Brown Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 3 dashes ground white pepper
- 2 tablespoons dry sherry wine or any Chinese cooking wine
- 1/2-3/4 cup chicken broth mixed with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch
- salt and sugar to taste
Instructions
- Marinade meat and seafood with a little salt, pepper, sugar and a dash of cooking wine. Set aside. In a bowl, mix all the seasoning ingredients for the Brown Sauce and set aside.
- In a wok, heat 2 tablespoon oil to smoky hot, stir-fry onions and peppers until lightly charred, add in minced garlic, briskly stir-fry until fragrant, toss in the broccoli florets, carrots, and continue stir-frying for about 2 minutes, dash a little salt and pepper, mix well and dish up. Set aside.
- Lightly clean up wok with damp paper towel. Heat up wok with remaining 1 tablespoon oil, stir-fry shrimp, lobster/crab meat for 1 minute, toss in sliced beef and pork/BBQ pork and continue to stir-fry for another 1 minute, or until lightly browned.
- Toss in the mixed canned vegetables, stir well, add in the Brown Sauce seasoning, pour in the chicken broth and continue to stir-fry until vegetables are tender enough to your liking, meat and seafood is thoroughly cooked. Adjust salt, sugar, or other flavorings as per taste. Dish up and serve with hot steamed rice.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Love to cook too. Thank you for the recipe.
Love to cook!!! Tried this recipe and came out ok but bitter. Don’t know what I did wrong…., is 1 1/2 tablespoon of thick soy sauce a little too much?
Yummy my family loved it