I admit that this meal was a complete shot in the dark. I had nothing planned for dinner, I was tired of having the same meals on rotation and I had never made a Paleo version of a stir fry that made the cut. I had chicken and a few veggies in the fridge and less than 30 minutes. So I figured I had nothing to lose. I will give you the tweaked version, mine had a couple of minor fixable issues but what I’m giving you here is the best paleo stir fry I’ve made to date. The sauce is not a typical thick sauce, I make things to suit my tastes and I’m just not a fan of thick stir fry sauces!
Although the meal came out great, I sort of forgot that I meant to have more carbs with dinner since I was planning to do speedwork the following morning. There is definitely more planning involved nutritionally being a runner who eats paleo, and I haven’t yet nailed down a formula, especially since I’m pretty new to speedwork. I found that while marathon training my pace was slow enough to be fine with varying amounts of carbs on most days. I’ve increased carbs before races and long runs with success, but don’t put as much thought into it during typical training runs. Speedwork is a whole new ballgame though. My plan was to run 5x 800 at 6:45 pace with 400 jogs in between, and no doubt my muscles have to step their sh*t up to manage that. I wound up having some bananas and berries later on, you can see how the track session went here. Okay back to the stir fry!
Ingredients (Meat and Veggies):
- 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, divided in half
- 2 broccoli crowns, florets chopped off
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 yellow pepper, sliced
- 1 red pepper, sliced
- 2 med carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 tbsp water
For the Sauce
- 3-4 tbsp coconut aminos (you can get this at a health food store or use gluten-free soy sauce if you’re cool with it)
- 2-3 tbsp sesame oil
- 1-2 tsp raw honey
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 3 tsp powdered ginger
Directions:
- Cut the chicken thighs into 1-2 inch cubes and sprinkle with garlic and onion powder. Heat 2 large pans over med-high heat.
- Add the coconut oil to both of the hot pans, let it melt, and then add the chicken to one pan and all the veggies including garlic) to the other.
- To cook the chicken, stir occasionally and let cook about 7 minutes, or until just no longer pink. Once done, remove the pan from heat and set aside.
- While the chicken is cooking, stir the veggies and add the 2tbsp water. Cover and cook about a minute until they soften a little.
- Uncover the veggies and stir in the coconut aminos, sesame oil, honey, orange juice, and ginger (you can mix sauce ingredients beforehand and stir in the mixture)
- Stir and continue cooking another minute so the veggies become tender-crisp, but keep a close eye on the to make sure you do not overcook (I’ve made this mistake too many times to count!)
- Add the chicken along with all the pan juices to the veggie mixture, and toss everything together to coat.
- Taste it! This is the time to add any extra spices or coconut aminos if you want more flavor. Or let people in your family add on their own. I find that everyone has different salt preferences in my house!
- Enjoy and tell me what you think 🙂
stir fry is my favorite meal to cook! love it 🙂
I love how quick they are to make! I need to do them more often.
That looks great – and much like some of the things we love to cook up (but we have to be careful due to Lisa’s nut allergy).
Question – I know brown rice is one of those ‘non-Paleo’ things that many Paleo people eat. Since Lisa tolerates it well (unlike gluten) we do eat it. How about you?
Brown rice is still one of those things that irritates my GI tract (especially the night before a long run), but it seems that I can tolerate white rice pretty well although I’m not a huge fan of it so I don’t make it often. But I would not specifically avoid it the way I do wheat and other grains. Does that make sense? Funny because for years I ate whole grain pasta, rice, and cereal, and breads with every meal and would blame fats and dairy for my GI issues.
Thanks – that makes perfect sense! I tend to think of rice as generally well tolerated, but then again Lisa has so many tolerance issues maybe I just assume that if she can eat so can everyone else ! 😀
And what you say about blaming fats and dairy makes perfect sense – because that is what we were all told. The power of the marketing of the processed food industry is just insane and insidious … and we are the ones who pay the price.