Easy Chicken Stir Fry with Vegetables

This easy chicken stir fry with veggies is a delicious and healthy skillet dinner. The chicken thighs are marinated in simple Chinese marinade and then you can use whatever veggie you have on hand. This inexpensive dish is perfect for busy weeknight dinners and is a great way to work more vegetables in your diet.

You might also like this keto Asian spinach stir fry dish.

I’ve decided that I’m going to make a stir fry of some sort every week. My family likes them, they are easy to prepare and relatively inexpensive so that seems like a good plan. Plus it’s a good way to work a lot of vegetables into your diet.

Today I made an easy chicken stir fry with vegetables that I had on hand and it was delicious and healthy so I will keep this recipe in the weeknight meal rotation. I used chicken thighs because it’s family likes them and they are very inexpensive so I usually have some in the freezer for dishes like this.

The homemade stir fry sauce doubles as a marinade in this chicken stir fry recipe so you use half to marinate the meat and the other half goes in the stir fry. And lastly I used lots of vegetables so this dish was colorful, healthy and filling.

Recipe ingredients I used and substitutions.

I have quite a few Asian condiments and stir fry sauces in my pantry and refrigerator. So for this recipe I used chicken thighs, fresh vegetables, olive oil and corn starch. And for the simple sauce and marinade I used soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, sweet bean paste, fresh garlic cloves and brown sugar.

Chicken
I used boneless skinless chicken thighs because my family like them but you could also use boneless skinless chicken breasts. I also kept mine whole and did not chop them up into chicken pieces with the rest of the stir fry.

Asian Ingredients
Most people have soy sauce and maybe even sesame oil. I bought mine at Aldi and I know they have these at most grocery stores. The same goes for hoisin sauce and rice vinegar. Just look in the Asian section of the store.

Also coconut aminos are a good substitute for regular soy sauce if you are soy free. You could use low sodium soy sauce as well. However the sweet bean paste was something I bought in an Asian grocery store. You can just use more hoisin sauce if you want to substitute.

Brown Sugar
Originally I used coconut sugar for this recipe but since most of my recipes are low carb I ended up using Swerve brown sugar sweetener. You can use regular brown sugar or coconut sugar if you have them.

Vegetables
I used a combination of yellow onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, carrots and broccoli florets for my chopped veggies. You can use any combination of these or even snow peas, zucchini, green beans, sugar snap peas, baby corn, edamame, water chestnuts, etc. I do recommend the broccoli though because it soaks up the flavor from the marinade.

You could use frozen vegetables instead of fresh veggies if you want. Just microwave them according to the package directions.

If you want to play around with the flavor of the sauce, you can add hot pepper flakes for some heat. You can also try some fresh ginger. I like to buy the ginger paste at Aldi and use it often in these kinds of Chinese dishes.

How to make this easy chicken stir fry with vegetables.

Step 1: Get out a medium bowl and add the marinade ingredients. Mix well and set aside. Take the raw chicken thighs and place in a large ziplock bag. Pour in half of the marinade and save the rest for the sauce. Place the chicken in the refrigerator and marinade a few hours.

Step 2: Chop all the veggies into bite sized pieces and place in a microwave safe bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of water, cover and microwave for 3-4 minutes. 

Step 3: Get out a large saute pan or wok if you have it. Heat to medium high heat and when it’s hot add a tablespoon of oil. Take the chicken out of the ziplock bag and place in the hot skillet. Turn the heat down to medium heat and brown the thighs for about 4 minutes on each side.

Step 4: Take the chicken out of the pan and set aside on a plate. Add a tablespoon of water to the hot pan and scrap up the brown bits if there is any. Add the vegetables and most of the marinade. Leave a tablespoon or so in the bowl and whisk in the cornstarch. Then pour that in the pan with the veggies.

Step 5: Let the vegetables and sauce cook for 5 minutes then add back the thighs. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender.

We ate this as is because I like to keep my carbs low. It was like a healthy chicken and veggie dinner. However normally we would eat this over white rice or brown rice. If you want you can garnish with chopped green onions, fresh cilantro leaves or even sesame seeds. 

If you want you can garnish with chopped green onions, fresh cilantro leaves or even sesame seeds. Store leftovers in an airtight container. Please scroll down to view the printable recipe card.

One thing to note about this vegetable stir fry recipe is that there is not over abundance of sauce. It was fine for us but I could see where someone might want more of this flavorful sauce to cover their rice or whatever they might be serving with the chicken and vegetables.

You could simply double the sauce ingredients if that sounds like you. My husband and son didn’t seem to mind though.

More easy and healthy one pan dinners to try.

There is nothing more convenient than a one pan or skillet dinner. Here are a few more of my family’s favorite recipes to try.

• Roasted Chicken Thighs with Garlic and Sage
• Kielbasa Skillet Dinner with Potatoes & Peppers
• Spanish Chicken and Rice
• Cajun Stir Fry with Shrimp and Sausage

I hope you give this easy chicken stir fry and vegetables recipe a try.  We really liked it even without the rice. It’s colorful as well as flavorful and didn’t take much time at all. Enjoy!