Rainbow Chicken Stir Fry

5 from 22 votes

Recipe video above. This is a big, colourful chicken stir fry designed to bring a little cheer and colour in your life, and give you a big veggie hit. Much needed in my life right now!

There’s lots of little bits in this (it’s part of the fun) so it’s probably easier to eat with a spoon - unless you’re a chopstick master. Highly adaptable - use any veg you've got - and super quick 8 minute cook so make sure you've got everything chopped and ready to toss in the wok.

Course: Mains, Stir Fry

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese

Keyword: rainbow chicken, rainbow stir fry

Servings: - 5 people

Calories: 394cal

Author: Nagi

Ingredients

Sauce:

4 tsp cornflour / cornstarch
1 cup water
1 tbsp oyster sauce (can sub with vegetarian oyster sauce)
2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Note 1)
2 tbsp light soy sauce or all-purpose soy sauce (Note 2)
Pinch white pepper (or black pepper)

Chicken:

350g/ 12 oz boneless chicken thighs , each cut in half then into 1 cm /0.4" strips (Note 3 for breast)
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Note 2)
Pinch white pepper

Rainbow stir fry (Note 4 for veg substitutions):

2 tbsp peanut oil , or vegetable or canola oil
4 garlic cloves , finely minced with a knife
3 green onion stems , cut into 4 cm / 2" lengths, white part separated from green part (or 1/2 onion sliced)
1 cup sugar snap peas or small snow peals , strings removed (Note 5)
1/2 each red and yellow capsicum (bell pepper), deseeded, cut into 1 cm /0.4" strips
3 baby bok choy , leaves cut off stems, big stems cut lengthways - or any other Asian greens
3/4 cup unsalted roasted cashews (or almonds)
3/4 cup frozen edamame beans - use frozen (ie. shelled)
1 1/2 cups purple cabbage , cut into 5 x 1 cm /0.4" strips - or any other type of cabbage, baby spinach etc
2 tbsp sesame oil (for finishing)

Serving:

White rice - or any other rice of choice

Instructions

ABBREVIATED:

Cook chicken until mostly cooked, add garlic and white part of green onion towards end. Add first: capsicum, bok choy stems, cashews and edamame (1 min). Then bok choy leaves, cabbage and green part of green onion (30 seconds). Add sauce, thicken, then finish with sesame oil. Serve!

FULL INSTRUCTIONS:

Sauce - In a jug, mix cornflour with a splash of the water until dissolved. Mix in everything else except the remaining water until dissolved. Then add remaining water.
Chicken - Toss chicken with Chinese cooking wine and pepper.
Cook - Heat the oil in a large 30 cm / 12" non stick skillet over high heat (Note 6 on cooking vessel). Add chicken then stir constantly until mostly cooked, about 2 minutes.
Add garlic and the white part of green onion, cook for 1 minute.
Add the capsicum, bok choy stem, cashews and frozen edamame. Cook 1 minute.
Add bok choy leaves, cabbage and green part of green onions. Toss with two spatulas until slightly wilted (~30 seconds).
Sauce - Add the sauce, stir and let it simmer until it becomes glossy and thickens so it coats everything beautifully, about 1 minute.
Sesame oil - Add sesame oil, toss through, then serve over rice.

Notes

1. Chinese cooking wine brings depth of flavour into any otherwise simple stir fry sauce. Without, the sauce lacks flavour. Find it at large regular grocery stores these days (it's cheap and lasts "forever"). Substitute with Mirin, cooking sake or dry sherry. For non-alcoholic, skip it and use low-sodium chicken stock instead of water for the sauce, and use soy sauce instead for the chicken.

2. Light soy sauce makes the sauce a paler colour so the vegetable colours are brighter. All-purpose sauce and tamari are slightly darker but flavour wise will work just as well. Do not use dark soy sauce or sweet soy sauce (kecap manis), these are far too intense. See here for more about different types of soy sauce.

3. Chicken thighs stay nice and juicy in stir fries so it's my preferred cut. To use breast or tenderloin which are much leaner, I recommend tenderising - see directions here (it's easy, and so worth it). To use pork or beef, I also recommend tenderising - directions here (it's for velveting beef but the same recipe applies to pork).

4. Vegetable alternatives - You can really use any vegetables you want / have, just add them in based on how long they take to cook. Quantity - use 7 - 8 cups (packed) in total if half the add ins wilt a lot (cabbage, bok choy, green onion, in this recipe) or 5 cups of hard non-wilting veg (like carrots, zucchini, broccoli).

5. Sugar snap peas - Remove the string that runs along both seams on the pod and snap the stem end off. Use whole. For snow peas, the string only needs to be removed along one side. Use small ones whole, cut large ones in half diagonally.

6. Cooking pan - I use a large 30cm/12" pan so everything can be cooked in one go. If your pan is smaller or you're using a wok, you'll need to cook in batches, else the pan is too crowded and everything will go watery and stew rather than sizzle. Cook as follows: Fully cook the chicken through, adding the garlic and white part of the green onion towards the end. Remove from pan / wok. Cook vegetables in the order specified, add the sauce, once thickened, toss the chicken back in. Serve.

Leftovers will keep for 3 days in the fridge but the sauce gets a little thinner due to water extracted from the vegetables. Not suitable for freezing.

Nutrition per serving, assuming 5 servings (excludes rice). 107 calories per serving is attributable to the cashews, so exclude these to significantly reduce the calories.

Nutrition