Chicken & Vegetable Stir Fry

I had some fresh vegetables in my fridge that I needed to eat up so I ended up making a chicken stir fry. It was brilliant because I ended up using a lot of the vegetables that I had, with perfect portions and it was delicious. Don't you love when things just work out? Stir fries are great for putting left over vegetables to good use. I had some red bell pepper, green bell pepper, red cabbage, carrots, shallots, scallions, sesame seeds and cilantro. All I needed was the chicken. At first I was planning on getting chicken thighs and making my own marinade but my butcher shop was temporarily out of boneless thighs at the moment when I strolled in. They did have some boneless chicken breasts that were already in their own in-store made Asian marinade. From what I could figure the marinade had ginger, garlic, chili, soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. I got two of the marinated breasts and I kicked it up with some added sriracha sauce, extra soy sauce and a few tbsp of corn starch. The corn starch acts as a thickening agent to the sauce and keeps the chicken juicy. Then I massaged everything in the bag until well combined and coated. 

In a wok over medium-high heat I browned the marinated chicken, which I had cut into slices, before adding the bell pepper, cabbage, carrot and shallot (with a pinch of seasoning). After sautéeing for five minutes I added garlic and stirred that for a couple of minutes. Then I added some sesame seeds and oyster sauce and continued to sautée until the chicken was coked through but the vegetables still maintained some crunch. Including browning, the chicken should take about 10-12 minutes to cook through in the wok so long as the slices are bite sized. If you're unsure, check a piece of chicken by cutting it in half and check for doneness.  Before serving, taste for seasoning. Your stir fry may need more salt, pepper or maybe even a little sugar.

    

I served the stir fry with fluffy rice and garnished with thin slices of scallion and torn up pieces of fresh cilantro. There are so many different kinds of chicken stir fries you can make. This is only one variation but it's simple, scrumptious and worked out fantastic for me since it used so much of what I already had in my kitchen. Feel free to be creative but I hope this has inspired you to try a similar dish of your own. Next time you have veggies sitting around in your crisper that you're not sure what to do with, consider a tasty stir fry for your next meal!


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