An easy chicken stir-fry that uses what you already have in the pantry to make a tasty, healthy meal. None of those special sauces here. Just follow these easy step by step photo instructions.
Editor’s Note: Originally Published December 17, 2011. Republished with expanded discussion and options along with updated photos.
This Chicken Stir Fry Recipe is so much better than takeout! It is a great base recipe to use what you have on hand and no special sauce.
The recipe is based on one from Allrecipes. I did a little simplification and used chicken broth to replace some water and bouillon.
My Rating:
It’s is a solid 4. I just don’t do Chinese often.
Pro Tips: Recipe Notes for Easy Chicken Stir Fry
What is Stir Fry?
Stir fry is what we call an ancient Chinese cooking technique that uses a small amount of very hot oil in a wok to quickly cook ingredients that are added while being stirred. So it is very similar to sauteing.
While stir-frying is a very old Chinese technique, it has now spread across the world and has been known in the west as stir fry since the middle of last century.
There are not a lot of rules about what we put in stir fry so it is a good way to use up some of your “must go” ingredients.
The Chicken
I used skinless boneless chicken breast, but thighs would be good here. Other meats or fish would also work well. Or skip all the meat if you want.
The Veggies
Go wild here. Again add what you want. One medium head of broccoli will produce about 2 cups when trimmed.
The pictures are for a double batch. I had a lot of chicken and broccoli and was going for leftovers, which were very good. I also had company to help eat it all.
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The pictures are for a double batch but discussion and recipe is single batch.
Trim and slice about 1 pound of skinless boneless chicken breast into thin slices or cubes.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat and add the chicken when hot. Stir frequently.
Combine soy sauce, ground ginger and garlic powder in a small bowl. Mix well.
The pictures are for a double batch but discussion and recipe is single batch. Sorry for the poor picture.
After chicken is cooked for about 5 minutes, add the soy sauce mixture and continue to cook until tender (about 6-8 minutes) and break into bite-size pieces with a wooden spoon.
The pictures are for a double batch but discussion and recipe is single batch.
While the chicken is cooking, chop two stalks of celery, two medium carrots, and a medium onion. Prep 2 cups broccoli florets.
The pictures are for a double batch but discussion and recipe is single batch.
Add all the veggies to the pan. Add an 8 oz can of drained water chestnuts if you want. Stir and cook about 5 minutes.
While the dish is cooking mix 8 oz of chicken broth with 2-3 tablespoons cornstarch until dissolved. After about 5 minutes of cooking, add the chicken broth/ cornstarch mixture and stir continuously until thickened and veggies are tender. About 5 minutes. Longer for a double batch.
The pictures are for a double batch but discussion and recipe is single batch. Sorry about the poor picture.
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Easy Chicken Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1 pound skinless boneless chicken breasts - cut into thin slices or cubes
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 stalks celery
- 2 carrots - medium
- 1 onion - medium
- 2 cups broccoli florets
- 8 oz water chestnut - drained optional
- 8 oz chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
Instructions
- Trim and slice about 1 pound of skinless boneless chicken breast into thin slices or cubes. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat, and add the chicken when hot. Stir frequently.
- Combine two tablespoons soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder in a small bowl. Mix well.
- After chicken is cooked for about 5 minutes, add the soy sauce mixture and continue to cook until tender (about 6-8 minutes) and break into bite size pieces with a wooden spoon.
- While the chicken is cooking, chop two stalks of celery, two medium carrots. and a medium onion. Prep 2 cups broccoli florets (about one medium head)
- Add all the veggies to the pan. Add an 8 oz can of drained water chestnuts if you want. Stir and cook about 5 minutes.
- While the dish is cooking, mix 8 oz of chicken broth with 3 tablespoons cornstarch until dissolved. After about 5 minutes of cooking, add the chicken broth/ cornstarch mixture, and stir continuously until boiling and veggies are tender. About 5 minutes. Longer for a double batch.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- This is just a basic recipe to get you started. Add or subtract what you want.
- I used skinless boneless chicken breast, but thighs would work well. Also, change it out for different meat or fish. Add a bit more or less. Skip the meat if you want.
- All amounts of meat and veggies are just for reference. Adjust to what you have or want.
- Two cups of broccoli is about a medium head of broccoli.
- Don't suggest frozen veggies unless thawed first.
- Snow peas, green pepper, and onion are some suggested additions.
- Good in refrigerator for a few days. But due to the corn starch, the texture will be a bit different, and I do not suggest freezing.
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Nutrition is generally for one serving. Number of servings is stated above and is my estimate of normal serving size for this recipe.
All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
Originally Published December 17, 2011
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Sb
This is a keeper. Love the way the soy sauce mixture flavored the meat, though I did precut the chicken instead of breaking it up in the pan. I also added a scrambled egg, fish sauce and sesame oil. I plan to try a beef version of this.
Anner
Awesome, easy recipe! Doubled it for my family and they loved it! Liked that all ingredients were already in the cupboard, no time to speclalty shop after work!
Katie
This is an old post but I just wanted to say that this is one of my family’s favorites! Since finding the recipe I’ve made it countless times. The only things I change up is adding more soy sauce and we usually do the frozen stir fry mix. I’m not a cook at all so this really has helped me with an easy fix for dinner! Thank you!
DrDan
I leave all my older posts open for comments so readers can still contribute and ask questions. It helps everybody.
Thanks for the note
DrDan
Rebecca
Looking forward to trying this soon!
DrDan
Thanks for the comment
DrDan
maribel gomez
This looks delicious. I’m going to try this. I hope it taste as it looks. I like trying different variety of recipes. Thank you
DrDan
Thanks for the note. I like the taste and many have told me this is a favorite.
Hope it works well for you.
DrDan
maribel gomez
Thank you, I loved it but family always a critic. They said a little tad bit on the ginger but, their going for leftovers today. Yeah for me. Definitely do over for my house. Thanks
DrDan
My wife is not a ginger person so I leave it out sometimes or at least cut it in half. But the recipe lacks a little Chinese taste without it.
Thanks for the note
DrDan
Melissa McKinney
Made this last night and was delicious, also added snow peas, green pepper and onions. Will for sure make again and again!
Dan Mikesell
The additions sound great. I just used what I had on hand at the time but the variety of what you could add is endless.
Allen Harris
This looks very tasty! I love how you’ve mixed the ingredients! I would like to cook this so that I can taste this interesting recipe. Anyway, thank you for sharing!
Easy Stir Fry
Dan Mikesell
Thanks. I like cooking with fewer ingredients like this. It gets down to the soy, garlic and ginger which is what my “American” taste wants. It is not “weekly” just because I have so many other things I love and I tend to make General Tso Chicken when I want Chinese.
Saryna
This is amazing and absolutely delicious! Im usually not a huge fan of soy sauce, but because of the ginger it makes it the perfect and I ended up adding more then recommended because I love a good sauce. I know it says up there that this isnt something that would be put into a weekly rotation, but it will be for me because its that good. I love that I can add more veggies to it as well so it an easy, quick and yummy way for me to use up my veggies at the end of the week. Again, this dish is simply amazing and extremely delicious. I highly recommend it!
Try It With Carmella
i’m just serving it over rice!
Try It With Carmella
doing this right now and it looks great! thanks
Unknown
I made this yesterday because I had a spare bag of stir fry veggies that was about to go to waste. It was darn tasty! The only thing I was missing was the ginger and I could definitely feel it missing, but still, it was very, very good. Very easy to make, very simple, very tasty. I’ll cut down on the soy sauce just a wee bit though, maybe by a tsp or two. Thanks for the recipe!! I’ll be making it again today for my whole family.