We’re taking the stress out of worrying about “what’s for dinner” this week and making this quick and easy Chicken Stir Fry recipe. It includes lots of chicken, tons of veggies, and THEE best sweet and savory stir fry sauce! It’s also perfect for using up vegetables that you already have on hand in your fridge or freezer. Not only is it great to add to your weekly dinner rotation, but it also makes a lot, so it’s perfect for meal prep! #winning
Why I Love Stir Fry Recipes
I make stir fry recipes quite often because it helps take away the mental stress of worrying about what to cook for dinner. They’re quick, easy to make, and super versatile so you can always switch things up. Just pick your favorite protein, a mix of vegetables, make a yummy stir fry sauce, and dinner is ready in about 30 minutes!
Ingredients For Chicken Stir Fry
Here’s what we used to make this easy chicken stir fry recipe:
- Chicken Breasts: I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts for this recipe, but if your budget is tight, you can also use boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead.
- Vegetables: This is where you can really be flexible. I used a combination of broccoli, carrots, red bell pepper, and onion for this stir fry. But feel free to choose different vegetables based on your budget, what’s in season, or what’s in your fridge. Sometimes I’ll use just one or two vegetables because that’s what I currently have on hand. Some other great veggie options are green beans, zucchini, mushrooms, snap peas, or different color bell peppers.
- Stir Fry Sauce: A good stir fry sauce will definitely bring the entire dish together. I used our same stir fry sauce from our Vegetable Stir Fry recipe as a base, because it’s sooo good, increased the measurements slightly to make it extra saucy, and added a touch of sriracha sauce for just a little kick!
Stir-Fry Recipe Tips
- Make the stir fry sauce first. Stir fry recipes cook fast, so you want the sauce to be ready when it’s time to add it to the skillet.
- Use a big wok or very large skillet. In order for all of the chicken and vegetables to fit in the skillet with enough space to cook fairly evenly, you’ll want to use a big wok or large skillet. We used a 12-inch skillet for this recipe.
- Don’t overcook the vegetables. You want the vegetables to just be tender-crisp and vibrantly colored. You can always cook them a little longer once the sauce is added at the end, but if you cook them too long in the first steps you’ll end up with limp vegetables that are a drab color.
What To Serve With Chicken Stir Fry
You can easily serve this chicken stir fry with a side of brown or white rice or give our Coconut Rice a try! And if you really want the full take-out experience, whip up some of our Vegetable Fried Rice to serve on the side.
Storing Leftovers
This chicken stir fry recipe stores very well in the fridge and works great for meal prep! You can make it on Sunday, divide it into equal portions, then store in meal prep containers along with your rice. This dish will stay good in the refrigerator for about four days.
Chicken Stir Fry
Servings 6 (about 1 cup each)Ingredients
Stir Fry Sauce
- 1/3 cup soy sauce ($0.44)
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.12)
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil ($0.20)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.20)
- 1.5 Tbsp cornstarch ($0.08)
- 1/3 cup water ($0.00)
- 1 tsp sriracha ($0.05)
Stir Fry
- 3/4 lb. broccoli (1.75)
- 2 carrots ($0.31)
- 1 red bell pepper ($1.33)
- 1 small onion ($0.32)
- 2 green onions ($0.22)
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1.5 lb. total) ($5.25)
- 3 Tbsp cooking oil, divided ($0.12)
Instructions
- Start by making the stir fry sauce. Combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, toasted sesame oil, garlic, ginger, sriracha, cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Set the sauce aside.
- Chop the broccoli into small florets. Slice the red bell pepper, onion, and carrots into similar sized pieces. Slice the green onions. Set all the vegetables aside.
- Next, cut the chicken breasts into small 1/2 inch sized pieces.
- Heat a very large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Once hot add 2 Tbsp of cooking oil and swirl to coat the surface of the skillet. Add the chicken and cook until browned on all sides. Be careful not to overcook the chicken. Once the chicken is browned, remove it from the skillet onto a separate plate and set aside.
- In the same skillet, add the remaining 1 Tbsp of cooking oil along with the carrots and broccoli. Cook and stir for one minute, or just until the broccoli begins to turn bright green.
- Next, add the red bell pepper and onion to the skillet. Continue to cook and stir for 1-2 more minutes.
- Give the stir fry sauce another brief stir. Now add the cooked chicken back to the skillet, then pour the stir fry sauce over the chicken and vegetables. Give everything a stir and allow the sauce to come up to a simmer, at which point it will start to thicken and turn glossy. Continue to cook for 1-2 more minutes or until it has reached your desired doneness.
- Remove the chicken stir fry from the heat, top with green onions and sesame seeds (optional) and serve!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Nutrition
How to Make Chicken Stir Fry – Step by Step Photos
Start by making the stir fry sauce. Combine the 1/3 cup soy sauce, 3 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 tsp toasted sesame oil, 2 cloves minced garlic, 2 tsp grated fresh ginger, 1 tsp sriracha, 1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch and 1/3 cup water in a small bowl. Set the sauce aside.
Chop 3/4 lb. of broccoli into small florets. Slice 1 red bell pepper, 1 small yellow onion, and 2 carrots into similar sized pieces. Slice 2 green onions. Set the vegetables aside.
Cut 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts into small 1/2 inch sized pieces.
Heat a very large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Once hot add 2 Tbsp of cooking oil and swirl to coat the surface of the skillet. Add the chicken and cook until browned on all sides. Be careful not to overcook the chicken. Once chicken is browned, remove it from the skillet onto a separate plate and set aside.
In the same skillet, add the remaining 1 Tbsp of cooking oil along with the carrots and broccoli. Cook and stir for one minute, or just until the broccoli begins to turn bright green.
Next, add the red bell pepper and onion to the skillet. Continue to cook and stir for 1-2 more minutes.
Give the stir fry sauce another brief stir. Now add the cooked chicken back to the skillet, then pour the stir fry sauce over the chicken and vegetables. Give everything a stir and allow the sauce to come up to a simmer, at which point it will start to thicken and turn glossy. Continue to cook for 1-2 more minutes or until it has reached your desired doneness.
Remove the chicken stir fry from the heat, top with green onions and sesame seeds (optional) and dinner is served!
Made according to recipe, but used bok choy instead of red pepper, and served with rice noodles. Everyone loved it! I wouldn’t have minded doubling the sauce.
Loved it! I substituted thinly sliced zucchini in place of the broccoli and it turned out great. The sauce was yummy as written but next time I think I’ll add some hot pepper flakes for just a little more heat. This recipe will definitely get added to my rotation. Thanks!
Absolutely delicious! Wonderful recipe! The sauce is restaurant quality. Thank you for an awesome recipe!
I printed this off to make on Monday next week for our Meals on Wheels clients, 47 of them, less the sriracha..I’ll be back to let you know how it was! I wanted something with lots of veggies, something fresh. I might add some snow peas also. I think I’ll make this for dinner tonight! I’m giving it 5 stars now, as I like the recipe, it has most of what I have on hand, and not a lot of prep!
Perfect! My wife and I loved it! Thank you!!
So easy and flavorful! I’m saving this recipe.
Very yummy and I loved the sauce! I used fresh peppers, onions, and carrots and a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables that included broccoli, peppers and mushrooms. It turned out great. Thanks!
Will make again.
This recipe doesn’t just have “a little kick”; it is extremely spicy. After eating this, my mouth was on fire!! The description of this dish is not accurate. I don’t mind a little spiciness, but that’s not what this was. Never making this recipe again!
Everybody has different tastes I didn’t think it was spicy at all …..so a as sane adult I adjusted the spice level. Just do that next time instead of crapping on someones hard work.
Or just…add less spice?
What do you consider spicy? Cottage cheese on cucumber slices?
I love the extra protein that the chicken adds to this recipe. Serve it with a Trader Joe’s Taiwanese scallion pancake and thank me later.
I’ve been looking for a good stir fry recipe, but the sauce is never quite right for my crew. Thanks for this delicious recipe! I am definitely going to make it again.
This was tasty, but I found it very salty. Will try again with low sodium soy sauce.
I made this but I took some liberties with the recipe because I am “doing” weight watchers. If you use a really good nonstick skillet, you can drastically reduce the cooking oil. I think I used 2 teaspoons , divided. I cooked 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms first in the pan sprayed with cooking oil. I used rotisserie chicken so I didn’t need to cook any chicken. I added 1/4 head of sliced green cabbage with the onions and red pepper because I needed to use it up. For the sauce, I only used 1 tablespoon brown sugar and powdered ginger along with everything else. It was so pretty and tasted great!
This is very tasty. I do have a couple of comments–boneless, skinless chicken breast is available in my part of NC for between $2.49 and $2.99 all of the time. A couple of years ago, it was $1.99. It’s the cheapest protein available here, and we love it. Chicken thighs, which DH won’t eat, are more expensive in this part of the world–probably because they get shipped out to places where customers prefer them.
I get tired of sriracha–a totally American product based on a Thai hot sauce which uses ripe jalapenos instead of whatever chilis are used in Thailand. When I made this stir fry, I used Lee Kum Kee brand Chinese chili garlic sauce, but I thought about Korean gochujang–another delicious option available in my local supermarket, which I will try next time. Lastly, Asian stir fries use similar sizes for all ingredients, meaning that diced chicken and small pieces of broccoli would be mirrored with similarly sized diced peppers and onions–or strips of chicken would pair with strips of pepper and onion. That’s a nitpicking thing which has nothing to do what American cooks want or with flavor, but I diced the veggies for this really yummy dish, based on what was drilled into me during decades old cooking classes.
I reduced the sugar to 1.5 T and slightly upped the spice.
Love your additions to this website, Marsha. Keep up the great work!
Can I substitute frozen broccoli for fresh?
Where has this been all my life.. I’m embarrassed to be at 50 years old and too intimidated to do stir fry. This recipe, the clear instructions and PICTURES, make it seem doable. Thank you thank you! I’ll finally take my never-been-used wok for a spin!
Yum! Enjoy!
I did, and it worked great. Just add it in later, not at the beginning with the carrots.