Monday, September 9, 2013

Tasty in a Pinch - Chicken Thai Peanut Stir Fry



You know what's hard? Consistent blogging! It's not for a lack of things to write, I promise. It's just plain exhaustion. Last week coming off the holiday was essentially like cramming five days worth of work into three!

So in the spirit of preserving free time, precious sleeping hours, and having just promised my cousin I'd share this recipe, here is a quick and easy recipe that remains one of our fail-safes for weeknight dinners.

Chicken Stir Fry with Thai Peanut Sauce 

For the stir fry:
Appox. 2 tbsp. olive oil
2 chicken breasts diced
1 bag frozen stir fry veggies
Any leftover vegetables needing use (in my case half a red pepper)
1 1/2 cups of white rice 

Coat a large skillet with your olive oil and turn on low to heat. Dice the chicken into your preferred size of bite-sized pieces and sauté in oil on high until cooked through. Dice any desired fresh veggies and add to skillet along with the bag of frozen stir fry veggies. At this point, I turn the heat to low again and half cover the skillet to allow the veggies to thaw and steam out. This is also a great point to start your rice. Cook rice according to package directions (I used 1 1/2 cups rice with 3 cups water and 2 tbsp. butter.)


So far super easy right? Now for the sauce:

Thai Peanut Stir Fry Sauce 
3 heaping tbsp. (I use a dinner spoon) of creamy peanut butter
3 tbsp. water
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. ginger powder or to taste
Dash of Cayanne or Crushed Red Pepper

Scoop your peanut butter with a standard dinner spoon or table spoon into a shallow, microwave safe bowl. I do heaping scoops because peanut butter is delicious! To soften the peanut butter, place bowl in microwave and heat for about 45 seconds.  Add additional ingredients to warmed peanut butter and whisk with your spoon until smooth. 


I did not create this sauce recipe, but I have altered it many times based on taste and what I have available in my spice cabinet. It's also great made with fresh garlic and fresh ginger! You can find the original sauce recipe here.

Pour the sauce over stir fry mixture, keeping the heat on low until the sauce coats all of the chicken and veggies. While this is a thick sauce, it spreads well over your stir fry and doesn't overwhelm your food. I often add sesame seeds to any stir fry, why not?


You are now ready to serve over rice! 

Enjoy!
Joelle