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One pan pantry staple stir fry

Here it is! My simple weeknight stir fry that uses classic pantry staples, and can be prepped and cooked in 3 minutes or less. You likely have most of this already, and if you don’t, maybe plan to keep these ingredients around for whenever a simple stir fry would hit the spot. The key to perfect, flavorful stir fry: cooking ingredients on HIGH heat. Follow my simple guide here when it comes to ingredient prep and organization, making a tasty sauce, and adding in the components methodically to build great texture and flavors to make this one-skillet dish that will please the whole family (or just you - it makes the best leftovers). Enjoy!

Vegetarians: sub chicken for tofu!

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Level: Easy

Ingredients - serves 3-4

  • 1 pound of boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into thin strips

  • 6 oz. stir fry noodles, such as dried asian or rice noodles, cooked as package describes

  • 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

  • 1/2 onion, cut into thin strips

  • 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin rounds

  • 4 cloves of minced garlic

  • 4 green onions

  • 2 eggs

  • 3 tbsp. olive oil or toasted sesame oil

  • 1/3 cup soy sauce

  • 1 tsp. ground ginger

  • 2-3 tsp. sriracha sauce

  • 1 tbsp. rice wine or white wine vinegar

  • 1.5 tbsp. honey

  • Optional for plating: more cut green onion, sesame seeds, or cilantro

 

  1. Prep all ingredients as described in the ingredients list. For the green onion, cut the white parts into small, thin rounds. For the greens, cut them into inch long strips. Keep the greens separate from everything else. Otherwise, organize prepped ingredients as follows: in one bowl, the green onion whites, garlic, carrot, pepper, and onions. The chicken strips should be in another bowl, and the green onion greens set aside from it all.

  2. Make the sauce: whisk together the soy sauce, sriracha (tailor amount to how spicy you like food), ginger, and vinegar, and honey.

  3. Put it all together. You will want to use your LARGEST skillet for this. Heat up 3 tbsp. of oil over HIGH heat. High heat is key here. Let it get nice and hot for a couple of minutes, and make sure the chicken is nice and dry by patting it with a towel. Season lightly with salt, and add to the hot oil. Stir to coat, and immediately lay it in a flat layer so it can brown. Let sit and brown for a couple of minutes, stir, and flatten out again to brown on another side. Repeat this once more.

  4. Still on high heat, add the bowl with all of the veggies and garlic (NOT the green onion greens). Stir in with the chicken and let cook until veggies are lightly seared.

  5. Turn the heat down slightly to medium high. Push the chicken and veggies to one side of the skillet, piling it up if needed, all to create room to cook the eggs. Crack the eggs in the open and clear spot. Let the bottoms cook until they turn white, then begin to scramble on their own. Once the eggs are fully cooked, stir them gently into the chicken and veggies.

  6. Add the bowl of sauce. Stir to coat everything in the sauce.

  7. Add the noodles (previously cooked as packaging describes). Stir gently to fully coat and let the sauce soak into the noodles to flavor them. Once all of the loose liquid has absorbed into the stir fry. Remove from heat, and serve hot.

    Plating: Top with more fresh green onion, some sesame seeds if you have them, or even fresh cilantro. Enjoy!