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Summer Vegetable and Chicken Stir Fry

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Summer vegetables and chicken are quickly cooked until tender crisp and then coated in a delicious stir fry sauce.  Dinner is ready by the time the rice is done cooking!

Dinner plate with stir fried chicken and vegetables in light sauce served over a bed of rice.

This flavorful dinner is quick and easy.  In fact, chopping the vegetable might be the most time consuming part. 

Start when you put the pot of rice on and dinner will be done and on the table before you know it.  This simple recipe is a great way to get your family to eat their vegetables and enjoy them too!

You’d think with all of these zucchini recipes, that I had a huge garden full of them.  In fact, we haven’t planted them in at least 5 years.

Don’t get me wrong, we love them.  When we moved to this house we went from a large garden in the backyard to just using the raised beds that were here when be bought the place.

We had to cut down on what we were going to plant and while we enjoy growing and eating zucchini, they take up a lot of space.  So we opted for more plants that grow vertically and greatly reduced the number of plants.

In the last couple of years we have been tearing out those old raised beds and built beds closer to the house.  They are even smaller yet, but seem to be just about right for our current schedules.

Each year we tend to get a little bit better about choosing what and how many to plant.  This is by far our most judicious year as far as number of plants, but we still have plenty of produce.

Our strawberries are always the first thing to come in.  This will be the last year for that patch.  The boys were busy building a new patch and tearing out the old one.

So we will likely miss a harvest next year but will hopefully be back in the swing of things the following year.  After that our giant blackberries start ripening.

This year we enjoyed some blackberry ice cream, blackberry crisp and plenty of blackberry smoothies.  We also have a couple of gallons of berries in the freezer to be made into blackberry pies or other fun desserts this winter.

close up of chicken and veggies cooking in pan.

This year we only planted 3 tomato plants.  Usually we squeeze to many in and they stifle one another, so this year we thought we’d really limit what we planted and see how it went.

Well it went BIG! Our three little plants filled more than half of a 4’x6′ bed. They grew over seven feet tall before my husband trimmed off the tops.

We know from experience that those top branches will only bend and break once they start producing fruit, so we didn’t want the plants to waste too much more energy growing up there.

Those three plants are each in the largest cages we can find, plus there are auxiliary cages around them to help support them. Then there is some wire mesh that is usually used for concrete suspended on poles around it all to give them even more support.

We’ve lost some huge plants right as the fruit was beginning to come on in wind storms before and my husband was bound and determined to get those fresh off the vine slices of tomato on his sandwiches this year.  So we basically have the Fort Knox of tomato gardens.

We also have our own broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots, beets, sweet peppers, jalapenos and our spring spinach crop came and went and soon it will be time to get a fall crop in.

All of that to say we rely on family and friends for zucchini. (Whew! I sure know how to take the long way around sometimes, don’t I?!)

Luckily as you have heard a lot lately, my brother has a HUGE garden planted this year. Even luckier yet he lives across the street, so it is easy for extra produce to find its way to our house.  So armed with plenty of squash, homegrown broccoli and carrots, it seemed like a stir fry was in order.

Of course if you don’t have such easy access to all of this fresh produce, you can certainly find plenty at your local farmer’s market.  There is just something about knowing your food is that fresh and local that makes it even more special!

rice topped with chicken and veggie stir fry.

The fun thing about making a stir fry is how customizable they are.  If you don’t want to use chicken, you can always sub in beef, pork or just leave it all vegetables.

If you don’t like mushrooms, leave them out. If you like it spicy, make it spicy! We like a mild stir fry and my husband and I add sriracha if we are feeling spicy.

That way little dude will eat it without complaint.  His pallet is still a little sensitive to spice and he doesn’t enjoy the burn like his dad does!

All of this fresh produce talk has me wondering what all you guys grow in your gardens or what your favorite farmers’ market finds are. Tell me all about it! 

rice topped with chicken and veggie stir fry.

Summer Vegetable and Chicken Stir Fry

Carlee
Summer vegetables and chicken are quickly cooked until tender crisp and then coated in a delicious stir fry sauce.  Dinner is ready by the time the rice is done cooking!
4.88 from 8 ratings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Poultry
Cuisine American
Servings 4 Servings
Calories 428 kcal

Ingredients
 

Sauce

  • cup soy sauce
  • ¼ cup water or chicken stock
  • 3 Tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 3 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 5 cloves garlic finely diced
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoon sesame oil
  • optional: pinch of red pepper flakes

Meat and Veggies

  • 2 Tablespoons cooking oil
  • 2 small zucchini
  • 2 pattypan squash or yellow summer squash
  • 4 carrots
  • 1 small head broccoli
  • 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast

Instructions
 

  • In a small saucepan, whisk together the sauce ingredients.
    1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup water or chicken stock, 3 Tablespoons light brown sugar, 3 teaspoons cornstarch, 5 cloves garlic, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 2 teaspoon sesame oil, optional: pinch of red pepper flakes
  • Cook sauce over medium-low heat stirring frequently until it thickens to about honey consistency. Remove from heat and set aside.
  • Chop vegetables into large bit sized pieces.
    2 small zucchini, 2 pattypan squash or yellow summer squash, 4 carrots, 1 small head broccoli
  • Cube chicken into just shy of one inch cubes.
    1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
  • In a wok or large pan, heat the oil over medium to medium-high heat.
    2 Tablespoons cooking oil
  • Add the chicken, stirring every so often until browned on all sides.
  • Add the carrots and continue to stir and cook for a 2-3 more minutes.
  • Add the broccoli and squash and continue to cook and stir until the vegetables are all cooked to your liking and the chicken is cooked through.
  • Spoon all of the sauce over the chicken and vegetables. It may not seem like enough at first, but it will draw out some liquid from the vegetables. Cook and stir until coated.
  • Serve over rice.

Nutrition

Serving: 1ServingCalories: 428kcalCarbohydrates: 31gProtein: 43gFat: 15gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 98mgSodium: 1375mgFiber: 6gSugar: 17g
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Recipe Rating




Shirley

Sunday 20th of August 2017

Another yummy recipe! So glad you share with us at Merry Monday Carlee. I'm Featuring this recipe among my Features this week! Pinned and scheduled to share on my FB.

Carlee

Monday 21st of August 2017

Thank you so much, Shirley! Have a great week!

annies home

Sunday 20th of August 2017

this is great for summer and using up leftovers from the garden but I love dishes like this in the fall as well as it looks filling

Carlee

Monday 21st of August 2017

It is definitely great for all seasons! It's just a lot easier to make it for very little cost when you can harvest most of it in your own backyard ;-) I do like stir fries in the fall too though.

Debbie

Wednesday 16th of August 2017

Hi Carlee, I do like a good stir fry, but it's something I'm not very good at. Other peoples always taste better! I've tried different oils and frying less at one time, with little difference. I do keep trying though.

Your tomato plants sound huge! I was loving mine until the heat got the better of them. And next year I will plant more zucchini plants and less peppers. Living and learning!

xx

Carlee

Monday 21st of August 2017

My husband cut the tops off the tomato plants for fear they'd just break under the weight of a big tomato anyway. But he measured them first and they were 9 feet tall! Of course we train them to grow up though. I wish I would have gotten before and after pictures of their trim!

Unknown

Sunday 13th of August 2017

Veggies and chicken! My favorite things! Pinned! XOXO

Carlee

Tuesday 15th of August 2017

Hooray! Thanks, Kelly!

Family Around the Table

Sunday 13th of August 2017

So much better than take out! Your garden sounds fabulous! Wish I was your neighbor for any extras!

Carlee

Tuesday 15th of August 2017

You should definitely move closer!