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My tasty chicken and veggie stir fry – a quick mid-week meal with a kick of chilli heat that you can get on the table in less than 20 minutes!
“Outstanding, absolutely delicious…my only substitute was home ground chillis. I will certainly make again. Thank you for this great recipe”
Nicky’s Notes
It’s very easy to fall into the stir fry trap – a few veggies, maybe some meat and a jar of stir fry sauce.
We all do it, but it can get boring very quickly! Sauces from a jar have their advantages, but making your own sauce can be just as quick and you can easily change it up to make an endless number of variations
This is a sweet and spicy version – made using sweet chilli sauce, chillies and brown sugar – plus a few other goodies. If you don’t want too much heat, then leave out the fresh chillies – my kids still eat every bite even with a little sweet chilli sauce!
Table of Contents
Ingredients for Chicken Stir Fry
Note on the chicken
You can use either for this recipe. Coating the chicken in the cornflour helps to keep the chicken juicy and tender, so go with your own preference.
I use chicken breast for this recipe because I find chicken breast generally less fiddly to slice up.
Ingredient swaps/additions
You can use whatever you’ve got in that will cook relatively quickly over a high heat. Such as:
Baby corn, beansprouts, bamboo shoots, tender stem brocolli, strips of carrot, asparagus, strips of cabbage (white or green), leeks, radish or courgette (zucchini).
🧑🍳 Abbreviated Recipe
***Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card below***
Toss the chicken in cornflour, salt and pepper, then stir-fry in hot oil until lightly browned and cooked through. Add the sugar snaps, peppers and garlic, then pour in the soy, rice vinegar, brown sugar, sweet chilli and ketchup and keep tossing on high until glossy and hot. Finish with spring onions and chilli for the last minute so they stay lovely and crunchy.
Sauce Variations
- You could add a little more sugar, plus the juice of a lime for a tangy-sweet sauce.
- Try adding pineapple chunks and juice, a tablespoon of malt vinegar and sugar and an extra squirt of ketchup for a quick sweet and sour stir fry.
- Add hoisin and oyster sauce for an earthier sweet/salty flavour
- Pile in the veggies and watch the kids eat them up with no complaints! So much tastier than take-out!
What to serve with chicken stir fry
- Boiled Rice – check out my full post on how to boil rice
- Special Fried Rice or egg fried rice
- Just leave the chicken out of my Lo Mein recipe for a lovely noodle side dish
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you’ve tried my recipe then please rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing your thoughts and add-ons to my recipes!
📺 Watch how to make it
Quick Chicken Stir Fry Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breast fillets sliced into bite-size pieces
- 2 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch
- pinch salt
- pinch pepper
- 2 tbsp oil (I use avocado oil)
- 85 g (1 cup) sugar snap peas/snow peas
- 1 yellow pepper deseeded and sliced
- 1 red pepper deseeded and sliced
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Chinese rice vinegar
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
- 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 bunch spring onions/scallions chopped
- 1 small red chilli deseeded and sliced
To serve:
Instructions
- Place the chicken onto a plate, add the cornflour, salt, and pepper, and toss together to coat the chicken.3 chicken breast fillets, 2 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch, pinch salt, pinch pepper
- Add the oil to a wok and heat on high. When the oil is very hot, add in the chicken and fry for 5-6 minutes – turning a couple of times until lightly browned.2 tbsp oil
- Add in the sugar snap peas and peppers and fry for a further two minutes85 g (1 cup) sugar snap peas/snow peas, 1 yellow pepper, 1 red pepper
- Add in the garlic, soy sauce, Chinese rice vinegar, brown sugar, sweet chilli sauce, and tomato ketchup. Continue to heat on high, tossing everything with a spatula, until heated through. Check the chicken is cooked by taking a large piece and slicing it in half. If it’s no longer pink in the middle, it’s cooked.2 cloves garlic, 4 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp Chinese rice vinegar, 3 tbsp brown sugar, 3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce, 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
- Stir through the chopped spring onions and the chopped chilli, and heat for one more minute until they’re hot, but still crunchy1 bunch spring onions/scallions, 1 small red chilli
- Serve with rice or noodles.boiled rice or noodles
Video
Notes
Sauce Variations
- You could add a little more sugar, plus the juice of a lime for a tangy-sweet sauce.
- Try adding pineapple chunks and juice, a tablespoon of malt vinegar and sugar and an extra squirt of ketchup for a quick sweet and sour stir fry.
- Add hoisin and oyster sauce for an earthier sweet/salty flavour
Chicken thighs or breast?
You can use either for this recipe. Coating the chicken in the cornflour helps to keep the chicken juicy and tender, so go with your own preference. I use chicken breast for this recipe because I find chicken breast generally less fiddly to slice up.Vegetarian version
Swap out the chicken for quorn, mushrooms or tofu for a vegetarian alternative.Veggie swaps/additions
You can use whatever you’ve got in that will cook relatively quickly over a high heat. Such as: Baby corn, beansprouts, bamboo shoots, tender stem broccoli, strips of carrot, asparagus, strips of cabbage (white or green), leeks, radish or courgette (zucchini). Nutritional information is per serving – without rice.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This post was first published in March 2016. Updated in May 2020 with new photos, video and recipe tips. Updated since with additional improvements and for housekeeping reasons.
🥢 More Stir Fry Recipes
Can I make it vegetarian?
- Yes, simply swap out the chicken for quorn, mushrooms or tofu for a vegetarian alternative.
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Another lovely and easy recipe- thank you! Even my almost 3 year old ate this. I used lazy chilli 1/4 teaspoon so just a little kick but delicious. Beats any boring stir fry
id like to make this recipe is there something else i can substitute for sweet chili sauce my wife isn’t a fan of sweet foods that won’t effect the meal we like spicy
Very easy to cook and enjoy the video is a great help yummy 😋
I made this stir fry at the end of last week,I’m doing it again now because it’s so easy and tastes 1000 times better than using shop bought sauce.
I can’t wait to try more of your recipes very easy to do and taste great thank you 😃🥰😗
Hi, I am soooo happy to finally have a recipe that I love. I am from SA and due to Covid lost my job. I have started to make home cooking meals for customers… can’t wait to dish up for them today. I love the colors an flavor. I only swap the green peas for young green beans… wow its amazing. I can’t wait to do the next recipe. Thanx so much. Ronél Nothnagel. South Africa
The best and easiest tasty chicken stir fry ever. The sauce is so yummy and this is a million times nicer than the already prepared stuff in the shops. Thank you for sharing this
Can you freeze this recipe?
I made this last night, very tasty. I used half of the sauce mix as i thought it was enough. I will definetly make this again. I cooked 250 gms of mushrooms and 3 cloves of garlic to add in with the sauce, Yum ! A winner..
We loved this recipe thank you!
If you wanted to swap chicken with prawns when would you add these in? Would you still coat in cornflour?
Very quick & easy and so delicious……As good as a Chinese take away!
Will definitely be making this again!