Chicken Stir Fry
Chicken Stir Fry is an easy dinner idea, made with chicken, vegetables and a delicious stir fry sauce. This stir fry recipe is perfect for a weeknight meal.
I love making stir fry for dinner because it’s a complete meal, with protein and veggies, served over rice. This chicken stir fry has become one of my family’s favorite dinners. It’s easy, relatively quick, and full of healthy vegetables.
The key to a good stir fry is a flavorful sauce. In this recipe, I use my best stir fry sauce. You can mix it up in ten minutes or less, and it’s so tasty with fresh ginger and garlic. This homemade sauce is so much better than anything you might buy at a store or restaurant.
This chicken and broccoli stir fry also has carrots and bell peppers to add lots of color to your meal. The more colorful veggies you can work into your diet, the more nutrients you get. Not to mention that all of those veggies are just plain delicious when they’re coated in the irresistible sauce!
To truly have the best stir fry, serve it over fluffy rice. I recommend my perfect stove top brown rice, Instant Pot white rice or Instant Pot brown rice. The rice will soak up any extra sauce – yum! Quinoa or cauliflower rice are other good options for serving with stir fry.
How to make Stir Fry
When you make a stir fry, my best tip for success is to prep all of your ingredients before you start cooking. Once you start adding ingredients to your hot skillet or wok, the recipe moves very quickly and you won’t have time to chop ingredients or make the stir fry sauce.
- Make the Stir Fry Sauce: In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the sauce ingredients: chicken broth, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, fresh ginger, garlic and cornstarch. Set aside.
- Chop the Chicken and Vegetables: Cut the broccoli into bite-size pieces and slice the carrots into thin matchsticks. Put the broccoli and carrots in the same bowl, since you will add these to the stir fry at the same time. Slice your bell peppers and put them in a separate bowl. Slice the green onions and set them aside. Once the vegetables are chopped, cut your chicken breasts into 1-inch cubes.
- Brown the Chicken: Heat some olive oil in a large skillet or wok. When the pan is very hot, add the cubes of chicken and cook until the chicken begins to brown and is almost cooked through. Transfer the chicken to a clean plate. The chicken will finish cooking when you add it back to the skillet with the sauce.
- Stir Fry Vegetables: Add more oil to the pan, along with the broccoli and carrots. Cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes. Then add the bell peppers to the pan and stir fry for a few more minutes, until the vegetables are just starting to become tender.
- Add the Sauce: Return the chicken to the pan with the vegetables. Stir in the sauce and cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens. This will take 2 to 3 minutes.
- Serve Over Rice: Finally, stir in the green onions and serve your stir fry over rice. Enjoy!
Recipe Variations
- Instead of chicken, try shrimp, extra firm tofu or chickpeas.
- Stir fries are great “clean out the fridge” recipes. You can use up whatever vegetables you have on hand. Try mushrooms, zucchini, red or yellow onions, spinach, sugar snap peas, snow peas, green beans, asparagus, water chestnuts or baby corn. Some vegetables cook more quickly than others, so add them to the pan in batches, adding the most firm veggies first.
- Make it spicy by adding crushed red pepper flakes, sriracha or sweet chili sauce to the stir fry sauce.
- To make this recipe gluten-free, use gluten free tamari or gluten free soy sauce instead of regular soy sauce.
Chicken Stir Fry Recipe Tips
- You’ll brown the chicken first, and you want to cook it until it’s almost but not quite cooked through. It will finish cooking when you add it back to the pan with the stir fry sauce. Try not to over-cook the chicken or it will become tough.
- Cut the broccoli into small bite-size pieces so that it will only take a few minutes to become tender. You’ll also want to cut the carrots into thin matchsticks.
- Cook the vegetables until they are just crisp-tender. You want them to have a little crunch to them, not be mushy.
- To make 4 cups of cooked rice, you’ll need to cook 1 1/3 cups of dry rice. I usually cook 2 cups dry rice so that I have some extra to serve with leftover stir fry.
For a vegetarian meal, try my vegetable stir fry next.
Chicken Stir Fry
Ingredients
Stir Fry Sauce
- ½ cup low sodium chicken broth
- ⅓ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Stir Fry
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1-inch cubes
- ¾ pound broccoli cut into bite-size pieces (about 4 cups)
- 2 large carrots sliced thinly on the diagonal
- 2 bell peppers cut into thin slices
- 4 green onions white and light green parts only, sliced
For Serving
- 4 cups cooked rice
Instructions
- Combine all stir fry sauce ingredients in a small bowl or jar. Whisk together and set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.
- When the pan is hot, add the cubed chicken and cook until browned and almost cooked through, about 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer the chicken to a clean plate.
- Add the remaining tablespoon olive oil to the pan. Add the broccoli and carrots and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes. Add the bell peppers to the pan and continue stir frying the veggies until crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Whisk the stir fry sauce to recombine. Add the chicken back to the pan, followed by the sauce. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and sauce has thickened.
- Stir in the green onions. Serve stir fry over cooked rice.
Notes
- To make your stir fry spicy, add crushed red pepper flakes, sriracha or sweet chili sauce to the stir fry sauce, to taste.
- The stir fry sauce can be made up to one week ahead and refrigerated in an airtight container. The vegetables can be washed and chopped up to two days ahead, and stored in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them.
- Nutrition information does not include rice.
Nutrition
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Easy to make and so delicious!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the stir fry, Mary! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂
This was so good!! I added sugar snap peas to it as well! My kids ate it and said it was amazing! We served it over stir fried cauliflower rice blend! This is definitely a go to. That sauce was super yummy! And as a time saver, I used the frozen Dorot cubes of garlic and ginger I blended the sauce in my magic bullet and it was so easy and delicious! Thanks for an amazing recipe!!!!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the stir fry!
Yum!! We loved this and it was so simple and quick. Delicious!
I’m happy to hear that! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.
Stir fry sounds amazing…Will try! How long is brown rice cooked? Never seems done.
Thanks! Here is how I cook brown rice on the stove, and here is my Instant Pot brown rice recipe. I hope that helps!
One of the nicest stir fry’s I made , thank you ( had it with noodles instead of rice )
A delicious, quick and easy recipe!
I’m a college student who is learning how to cook while quarantined at home and this recipe was DELICIOUS and so easy! I made this recipe for my whole family using our stir-fry wok and they loved it! The stir fry sauce was amazing… Thanks for the recipe!
When do I add the low sodium chicken broth?
In step one of the recipe, you combine all of the ingredients for the stir fry sauce, which includes the chicken broth. (The chicken broth is listed under “Stir Fry Sauce” in the Ingredients list.) I hope that helps!