Easy Ground Chicken Stir-Fry
A quick, flavorful stir-fry and 2 helpful Instant Pot cookbooks
It’s 9am as I write this and I just put a second pot of coffee on to brew. My first round of coffee was at 5am, when I tiptoed out to the living room feeling very groggy but unable to sleep.
I’ve been having dreams (nightmares?) of being chased. Inevitably during the chase I can’t find my kids or they’re just out of reach. One night we were chased by a bear. Another night it was an unidentifiable creature or person. The dreams are unsettling but also kind of laughable because the metaphor is so obvious.
I know I’m not the only one who has a general sense of unease right now. But even if everything in the world was happy and rosy, let’s face it, middle age is stressful on its own. There’s a bazillion things to do and take care and pay for and plan for.
Which is why I’m indulging in second cup of fresh coffee this morning, with extra half & half, a pinch of pumpkin spice and a drizzle of hazelnut extract. We’ve got to enjoy the little things, right?
The recipe I’m sharing today is meant to make your life just a little bit easier. Add it to your meal plan for next week. You’ll have at least one dinner that’s new, easy and fairly quick. The only thing that takes time is chopping up the bell pepper and green beans.
I fed my family this ground chicken stir fry 3x this month and everyone gives it a thumbs up.
You can make this stir fry in 4 easy steps. The sauce is very simple and surprisingly flavorful. It’s just soy sauce, rice vinegar and maple syrup.
A Few Tips:
Yes, you can use other types of ground meat like pork or turkey.
Yes, you can double the amount of meat to feed hungry people. I would also double the sauce recipe.
Yes, you can probably use other types of vegetables but I haven’t tried that yet. I imagine small florets of broccoli would be good, or you could try a bag of stir-fry vegetables from the grocery store. If the vegetables are still too crunchy after stir-frying in oil for 3 to 5 minutes, then add 2 tablespoons of water and cover the skillet with a lid for 2 to 4 minutes to finish cooking the veggies with steam.
Yes, you can keep the meat and vegetables separate so you don’t scare away kids who dislike veggies. Or, they might just pick around the vegetables with their little fingers like my daughter does.
Plan to serve rice or noodles on the side. We like the squiggly knife cut style noodles at Trader Joe’s but be warned that the sauce packet they come with is very salty.
You can find the recipe for ground chicken stir-fry here.
Dinner Last Week
I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? Here’s what my crew ate last week.
Monday: Impossible ground meat sautéed with mushrooms and mixed with jarred marinara, served over spaghetti. One of my kids is adamantly against this meal so she ate tortilla chips with guacamole instead. She’s 9 years old and able to make her own guacamole so I didn’t really mind.
Tuesday: I warmed the leftover spaghetti noodles with soy sauce and sesame oil and served it with marinated tofu. We had egg rolls and sautéed cabbage with a drizzle of soy sauce on the side.
Wednesday: Chicken drumsticks with BBQ sauce (there’s an easy recipe on Dinner, A Love Story), plus green beans and Instant Pot steamed potatoes. BBQ drumsticks are also delicious cold, so if you have kids eating later after sports practice this is a good meal.
Thursday: I slow roasted salmon at 325F which takes longer but keeps the salmon moist. I made a quick pasta salad by tossing together cold Israeli “pearl” couscous, feta and cherry tomatoes.
Friday: We grabbed dinner from food trucks at a middle school halloween festival.
Cookbooks
Years ago when I first started using an Instant Pot, Coco Morante was my go-to cookbook author. Her recipes are simple and family-friendly and a great way to learn the basics of Instant Pot cooking.
Now there are thousands of Instant Pot recipes out there, but I still refer back to her recipes for mostly reliable cooking times and methods.
Last weekend at the library (Josie and I are still doing Books & Bagels on Saturdays) I revisited Coco Morante’s Instant Pot Healthy Cookbook.
The definition of healthy in this cookbook seems to mean lots of recipes that incorporate beans, grains and vegetables. Many of the recipes are vegetarian or vegan, but there’s also chapters for chicken and meat.
Overall, I like her Ultimate Instant Pot cookbook better, which has more recipes that my family is likely to eat. Both are worth checking out though - and by that I mean literally checking them out at your public library. It’s a great resource for cookbooks.
What are you up to this weekend?
We have another school Harvest festival on Saturday and an early morning street festival on Sunday. At the festival a section of the freeway will be closed off for walking and riding bike. There’s something really thrilling about the idea of riding my bike down a car-less freeway!
I’ve been enjoying our crisp fall weather and the pink & yellow blooms on the Chinese lantern trees that line so many streets in our neighborhood. It’s LA’s version of autumn foliage.
Hope you all have a relaxing weekend,
Jenny