Quick stir-fry with a ton of spices for great flavour!
I forgot to take a picture, so this picture will do until I make it again!
servings
4-8 (depending on the size of your eaters)
ready in
15 minutes
good for
Lunch or Dinner
About this recipe
This recipe was developed out of desperation. For over 20 years one of my all time favourite meals has been a chicken stir fry using the Sun Bird Thai Stir Fry seasoning pack that they suddenly stopped selling! After searching every store in the city and looking online, I realized I needed to find something close. It’s not perfect yet, so this recipe might change, but it’s pretty good the way it is. Please don’t be overwhelmed by the number of ingredients or steps. It really comes together very quickly and it’s too good to miss!
Ingredients
SPICES
- 1 tsp each
paprika
chili powder
black pepper
turmeric
garam masala - 1/2 tsp each
cumin
coriander
ginger
dry mustard - 1/8 tsp cayenne powder
SAUCE
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp peanut butter
(smooth or chunky) - 1 cup water
STIR FRY
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- 1 bell pepper (any colour)
- 1 shredded carrot
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 cooked chicken breast
- 3 cups rice cooked
- toasted sesame seeds
getting started
STEP 1
The key to making this recipe quickly is to have cooked chicken in your freezer. I usually buy two family packs to freeze. I cook one before freezing and freeze the other raw. This is the perfect recipe to use pre-cooked chicken in. Defrost a chicken breast in the fridge overnight. If you don’t have cooked chicken on hand, you can cook a chicken breast in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 350F.
STEP 2
Start cooking the rice. I use Jasmine rice, which is nice and sticky. Good for this recipe, but it’s also the rice I use for everything. The rice takes about 12 minutes to cook and does benefit from sitting for about 5 minutes after, so if you start with the rice, everything else will be done when the rice is ready.
making the sauce
Using a glass, two cup measuring cup, combine all spices with the corn starch and 2 tbsp of oil. I use canola oil. Any kind of mildly flavoured vegetable oil will work. Once the spices have combined with the oil, add the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and peanut butter. Combine. Add 1 cup of water and stir until combined.
pull everything together
STEP 4
Dice up the pepper, then peel and grate the carrot. While typing up this recipe I learned that a saute pan is the frying pan with straight sides and a skillet is the frying pan with angled sides. This recipe makes quite a bit of food, so you’ll want to use a saute pan. Heat oil in a saute pan on medium high heat. Add the diced peppers and carrot.
STEP 5
While they are cooking, you can cut up the chicken and green onions. You can use more chicken than I do. From a personal and cost perspective I prefer to have less meat and no one’s ever complained. If you have big teenagers, you might want to throw in some more meat. I like to cut the chicken pretty small, so everyone gets a lot of pieces with their meal. I cut the chicken breast in half length wise, then cut it into 1/2 inch strips and then those strips into 1/2 inch pieces. For the green onions, I wash them, trim the tops, and the slice them into 1/4 inch pieces, all the way down to the ends. The whites add some great flavour to this dish. By the time you are done cutting these up, the peppers and carrots will be ready for you to add these.
STEP 6
Since the chicken is already cooked the chicken and green onions only need to warm up in the pan. This takes about a minute. After that, stir up your sauce that has likely separated and pour it over the chicken mixture. Heat the sauce, stirring occasionally, until it starts to boil. Once it starts bubbling, the sauce should only need a minute or two to thicken, and then you can reduce the heat to low. If your rice is ready, then you can turn off the heat and you’re ready to serve.
serving
STEP 7
I have a lot of nice serving platters, but on a daily basis I don’t use them. Who needs the extra dishes? To serve this, I fluff up the rice and then portion it into bowls. I spoon the chicken stir fry over the rice and then top with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. The ones I use come from the International aisle at our local Superstore.