Weeknight dinner has never been so quick! This flavor packed ginger chicken stir fry is sure to become a family favorite!
Over the last few months I’ve been Instagramming some of our family weeknight dinners just to give my followers over there a bit of real food blogger reality on how the whole meal thing gets done.
Because my friends…I am right here in the trenches with you!
I have 3 kids 6 years old and under, one in elementary, one in preschool with a completely different schedule than the elementary, and….a toddler (need I say more?!). My husband works out of town every weekday and isn’t home until after dinner, so there isn’t an extra set of hands to help at dinner time. Despite what some may think I don’t spend all day in my kitchen, and while I truly do love to cook, most weekdays I really have just 15 to 30 minutes to get supper on the table.
I’ve been asked on these quick and nourishing dinner ideas on Instagram to post some recipes, and now that our Northern daylight hours are improving I’m hoping to grab some shots of some of my favorite weeknight dinner ideas for you!
Ginger is a winter time cold and flu powerhouse with anti-inflammatory properties, and it really gives a meal an amazing flavor. While some may shy away from giving such a different flavor to little ones, I have found that introducing these flavors early to train their taste palates for different meals rewards you with big kids that will gladly ask for seconds.
My quick prep tips to keep this meal at 15 minutes!
- Get the rice going while you start chopping for the stir fry – by the time you are done making the stir fry the rice will be finished!
- While the chicken is crisping up, chop the cabbage, ginger, and green onions – you really can make this flow into 15 minutes when you do something while other things are cooking!
- You can leave the carrots to peel last while the other veggies are cooking down for a few minutes – once you add those in you are about done!
- Another quick prep trick is to do the chopping the night before – put them in a sealed container and the next day you can just dump it all in.
So 15 minutes!
You can set that baby down for 15 minutes (or pop them in the baby carrier while you cook!). The kids can read a book or get homework started for 15 minutes. Better yet…the kiddos can help. Put that 4 year old to work with a carrot peeler (mine love doing the ginger too – use a peeler or even just the edge of a spoon works to peel in those cracks and corners!). Put that 6 year old in charge of stirring the chicken. And if you have even older kids they can practically make this themselves!
Happy weeknight dinner to you!
15 Minute Ginger Chicken Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup divided friendly fat to cook in such as butter, pastured lard or tallow, avocado oil, or coconut oil
- 2-3 cups leftover cooked chicken cubed (use leftovers from your whole crockpotted chicken, whole roasted chicken, or whole Instant Pot chicken, !)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 head cabbage sliced thin
- 3-4 cups sugar peas sliced broccoli works well too
- 1 bunch green onions chopped
- 2-3 inch piece of ginger peeled and finely chopped
- 3 large cloves of garlic minced
- 3 large carrots sliced with a julienne peeler
or just sliced thin - 1/4 cup coconut aminos this replaces soy sauce - it tastes just like it without soy! You can find it at most health food stores however I find it is cheaper through Amazon
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/3 cup bone broth or water
- Sea salt & pepper to taste
- Extra sliced green onion and/or chopped nuts for garish if you wish
- 3 cups cooked long grain white rice for serving
or just sliced thin
Instructions
- Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a large skillet and add the cubed chicken along with the sea salt and pepper. Cook the chicken over medium/high heat for a few minutes to brown and crisp up the outside and then set the chicken aside to add later.
- Melt another 3-4 tablespoons of butter in the skillet and add in the cabbage, sugar peas, green onions, ginger, and garlic along with a big pinch of sea salt and cook 5 minutes over medium/medium-high heat stirring occasionally.
- Add the cooked chicken, carrots, coconut aminos, turmeric and bone broth, stir to combine and low simmer over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Serve over white rice and garnish with green onions and chopped nuts.
For more real food dinner ideas you can follow my Dinner Ideas board on Pinterest!
More real food ideas you might like:
15 Minute Asian Noodles
15 Minute Chicken Tortilla Soup & Kid Friendly Guacamole
Simple & Quick Sweet & Sour Sauce
I love simple dishes like this! So wonderful for a fresh dinner.
Love these flavors and love all of those sugar peas! Yum!
Okay. I am making this week. Pinning.
This was seriously good! I made a few tweaks to the recipe last night based on what we had in the kitchen. Instead of the cabbage, I subbed in a whole sweet onion and used boneless chicken thighs because that’s what we had. Turned out terrific and my husband was wowed by the recipe. Thank you for another delicious meal!
Hi Holly! So glad you guys enjoyed it!