I decided I wanted to make Thai-inspired food as a theme for a Thursday night meal — Thai Thursday, anyone? So, I googled some recipes to get ideas and had to make changes as needed to suit the ingredients on hand. I had no desire to place a $30+ grocery order just to get two or three ingredients.
First, I made a peanut sauce:
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 tablespoon sriracha
Start by pouring the honey, soy sauce, and vinegar into a jar. I only had about a tablespoon of honey left in the jar, so it came in handy! Next, sprinkle in the spices. Screw on the lid and shake the ingredients to emulsify. Open the jar and stir in your peanut butter until smooth and incorporated. Then, add in the sriracha for a little kick! Stir it up, and you should end up with a dark sauce. Set it aside for later.
*Note: you can mix things up with brown sugar or molasses in place of honey, a different vinegar (like rice wine vinegar), more or less sriracha, etc.
Now let’s work on the stir fry ingredients. Start with your vegetables and a clean cutting board. Granted, you could use pre-cut vegetables, but I had been gifted fresh zucchini, yellow squash, and onions.
For my family of five, I used one large yellow squash, one large zucchini, and one large onion. I chopped them and set them aside in a bowl.
For the protein, I opted for chicken. I used two large chicken breasts, but you can use beef, pork, shrimp, fish, tofu, or skip the meat altogether. Stir fry dinners are flexible!
Chop the chicken into small chunks.
Before you just set aside the chicken, you’ll want to liven things up with some seasonings and spices.
Stir in:
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice
Mix the chicken with the seasonings and spices until fully coated, then let the chicken rest for about half an hour. Then, add 2 tablespoons of oil to a wok or large pot and bring it to medium-high heat.
Dump the chicken into the heated oil and stir it while it cooks.
Once the chicken is no longer pink, toss in the veggies.
Stir fry the vegetables with the chicken, then cover with a lid to let the veggies steam. Give it about 5 to 10 minutes, then strain the chicken and veggies.
Add the stir fry back into the pot and pour on the peanut sauce.
Just look at that steam! Stir the peanut sauce around until it thoroughly coats all the chicken and vegetables. Remove the pot from the heat and get ready to plate!
I suggest serving the stir fry with white rice and a pair of chop sticks. Enjoy!
