Stir Fry Szechuan Chicken

 

It's time to try another new (to me!) product.  I found this Szechuan Sauce at Food City this week and immediately new a chicken and veggie stir fry would be on the menu here this week.

When they have spicy on the label, they mean it!  This sauce added at the end of the wok cooking time adds tons of flavor thanks to hot peppers, onion, ginger and garlic.  I love this!

I started out with a pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed, along with a prepackaged container of stir fry vegetables (also from Food City) which contained broccoli, tri color bell peppers, onions, snow peas, and zucchini.  I added a couple of tablespoons of minced garlic, sliced white mushrooms, and dry roasted peanuts.

I heated 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in the wok over high heat.  When the oil began to shimmer, I added the cubed chicken.  Using a wooden spatula, I stirred the chicken continuously as it began to cook.  After 2 minutes, I added the garlic and continued stirring.

After 3 minutes, I added the sliced mushrooms and continued stirring and cooking.

After the mushrooms cooked down for about 2 minutes, I added the remaining vegetables.  After several minutes of continual stirring and cooking, I added a couple of tablespoons of water to create steam to help complete the cooking of the larger pieces of broccoli.  You'll want the vegetables to be crisp-tender, not mushy.

I tossed in about 1/3 cup of dry roasted peanuts.

Lastly, it was time to pour in 3/4 cup of the Szechuan sauce.  Make sure to coat all the chicken and vegetables with the sauce.  I removed from heat and sprinkled on some black and white sesame seeds.

Of course, you can serve the stir fry over rice or noodles.  I'm cutting some carbs from my diet, so I ate this dish as is.  It was delicious.  Yes, there was some heat, but I enjoyed the different textures and was happy to be able to add all the different veggies in one dish!