Velvet chicken with snap peas and lemon-ginger sauce. J. Kenji López-Alt hide caption

Velvet chicken with snap peas and lemon-ginger sauce.

How do you make the perfect stir-fry chicken without drying it out? Today, we answer that question with cookbook author and chef J. Kenji López-Alt and science! Host Emily Kwong talks to Scientist-In-Residence Regina G. Barber about velveting, a technique used to seal in moisture during high heat cooking. Then, some listener mail! If you're hungry for more food-based episodes, check out our TASTE BUDDIES series. Let us know what you find delicious and science-y at shortwave@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Berly McCoy, edited by Gabriel Spitzer and Gisele Grayson, and fact checked by Margaret Cirino. The audio engineer was Gilly Moon.