Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry

Stir Fry is a wonderful combination of flavors when it's done right. The sauce should add to the veggies and meat, not over power them. It shouldn't be too sweet or too spicy. Another great thing about stir fry is that you can really use just about anything in them. This one uses chicken for the protein but shrimp would work really well too. This stir fry uses just some peppers, snow peas and mushrooms but the veggie combo's are endless! Christi took the sauce and used it with just some chicken and broccoli. Jessica left out the mushroom and added in some carrots. Stir fry is a dish that's pretty hard to mess up too. The only big mistake you can really make is to not have the pan hot enough. If it's not super hot, the veggies can get mushy and the chicken won't brown evenly before becoming over cooked. A wok and the right oil helps with this, but I've make plenty of stir fry's in a regular sauté pan and plain veg or canola oil. 


*Note* The recipe for the sauce makes a lot. Use as much or as little as you'd like in your stir fry. I used about half and my stir fry was nicely sauced. You can always freeze the rest and use it at a later date.

What You Need:

Sauce:

3tbs oil

1 ½ tbs minced ginger or 1 tsp dried

4 cloves garlic, minced

½ c water

½ c ketchup

¼ c soy sauce

¼ c rice wine vinegar

2 tbs agave or honey

1 tsp Sriracha (more if you like it spicy, red pepper flakes work as substitute)

1 tbs cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbs water

Stir Fry:

1lb chicken, cut into bite size pieces

1 tbs cornstarch

3tbs high temp oil such as peanut or almond

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 bell peppers cut into bite size pieces

2 c snow peas

8oz mushrooms, cut into quarters

A bunch of scallions, chopped, for garnish

Rice

What To Do:

In a small sauce pan, heat the oil over medium heat and sauté the garlic and ginger for just a few seconds. You want them to get fragrant, but not browned. Add in the water, ketchup, soy, vinegar, agave or honey and the Sriracha. Turn heat up and bring to a boil. Once boiling, stir in the cornstarch mixture and stir until thickened. Turn off heat and set aside.

Toss the chicken with the tablespoon of cornstarch, set aside while you cut up all the veggies. Heat the oil in a wok over high heat. Once the oil is super hot, toss in the chicken and cook until nicely browned. You want to make sure the wok is super hot so that the cornstarch creates a crispy crust on the outside of the chicken, while the inside stays moist. Remove to a plate. Toss the veggies into the wok and stir them constantly until they start to soften. You don’t want to cook them until they’re completely soft unless you like it that way. Turn the heat to low and add the chicken back in. Add in as much or as little of the sauce as you’d like. I added in about half of the sauce and put the rest in the freezer for next time. Serve over rice and sprinkle the scallions over the top.

Christi (wife and mom to 3) said: 

I was in a bind and didn't have a lot of veggies on hand so I adapted this to what we had.  I'm glad stir fry is so flexible!  I made the sauce straight from the recipe.  I poured it over rice, chicken and broccoli and served it up.  This stir fry sauce had a great flavor to it.  It didn't have too much ginger in it and it wasn't too sweet.  It had a perfect blend of sweet and spicy.  Very delicious!

Jessica (college student on a budget) said:

Recipe Changes:
No scallions or mushrooms.
Used carrots and red pepper flakes (in sauce).
My take:

If I had to change one thing about the way I prepared this dish, I would have pre-measured my ingredients.  There are a lot of them, but each one of them adds something special to this dish and makes the flavor so rich and savory.  I prepared this recipe for my boyfriend and I and both of us love Chinese food, so we were tough critics.  We honestly had no complaints!  It was so nice to sit in the comfort of my own home dining on a delicious Chinese dish!  Thank you, Erica, for making ME seem like a Goddess of Cooking!