If you haven’t crafted your own homemade stir fry, you are missing out! It’s a super easy way to stretch your dollar and your groceries. Stir fry meals are quick, they’re easy, and best of all, they are cheap. You can use fresh ingredients or finish up leftovers. Pull veggies straight from your garden and toss them in to sauté. And how can you argue when your dishwashing time will be a fraction of the standard?! One-pot meals are where it’s at! (Especially now that virtual school is the name of the game.)
Our family loves to make homemade stir fry together. My kids are 8 and 4 years old and they both enjoy making dinner with mommy in the kitchen. Making homemade stir fry with them is so much fun because we get to be creative! There’s generally no right or wrong answer and you can totally make this dish flying by the seat of your pants. Our stir fry dishes in this post use no soy sauce. It’s just how it worked out. Here are my favorite homemade stir fry recipes for you to try with your own family!
Homemade Chicken Stir Fry
This recipe originated before we even had kids. It’s a quick one-pot meal with a flavor that generally appeals to even the pickiest of eaters.
Ingredients:
- Butter
- Olive Oil
- Minced Garlic, to taste
- McCormick Italian Herb Seasoning Grinder
- Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
- Green Beans, Broccoli, or other Veggies
Instructions:
- Place wok on burner to medium heat.
- Add olive oil to coat bottom of pan about ¼ inch.
- Add 2 tablespoons or so of minced garlic. (to taste – obey your flavor preferences.)
- Simmer until garlic is golden and fragrant, but not burnt.
- Add slices of butter, ½ stick.
- Once butter melts, add sliced chicken breast and toss around the wok to coat. Put on the lid.
- Sprinkle Italian seasoning on the chicken evenly.
- Cook several minutes and then flip over.
- Sprinkle more seasoning on the other side of the chicken.
- Once chicken appears fully cooked, add fresh green beans, broccoli or vegetable of your choosing to the wok and replace the lid.
- Steam the vegetables for several minutes until they reach the right shade of green or a quick sampling confirms doneness.
- Serve over top of rice, couscous, pasta, quinoa, or grain of your choice. Enjoy!
Shrimp Stir Fry
I like to think of this recipe as a cheater’s shrimp scampi homemade stir fry. So often in a rush, I find that following a recipe to a tee doesn’t always work in our home. I know most of my personal recipes by heart as I’ve created quite a few of them from scratch. This shrimp stir fry is so easy you can throw it together on those nights when you have no idea what you’re going to make for dinner!
Ingredients:
- Butter
- White Wine
- Olive Oil
- Minced Garlic
- Fresh Parsley
- Raw Shrimp, Peeled & Deveined
- Linguini, Farfalle, or Desired Pasta
- Lemon
- Fresh Broccoli
- Parmesan Cheese, Freshly Grated
Instructions:
Again, I am rather forgiving with the portions here and go by feel in the spirit of my Italian ancestors before me.
- Warm up your wok on medium heat and melt some butter.
- Add olive oil.
- Whisk to combine.
- Add minced garlic, at least 4 tablespoons, more if you’re like me.
- Boil water and cook pasta according to instructions.
- Once garlic is golden and fragrant, add the raw shrimp (peeled and deveined).
- Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until color changes fully to pink, turning over with tongs.
- Remove shrimp and place in container with lid, such as a glass Pyrex that you’d use to store leftovers.
- Add about a half-cup of white wine and a bit more butter and olive oil. Stir until combined.
- Add fresh broccoli florets and sauté until bright green and still crisp.
- Return the shrimp to the pan.
- Squeeze juice from a fresh lemon all over and toss to combine.
- Add the pasta and fresh parsley to the pan and toss to coat.
- Remove from heat and grate fresh parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.
Tip: Don’t forget to make some garlic bread or homemade garlic knots to go with this scrumptious homemade stir fry recipe!
Beef Stir Fry with Snow Peas
Snow peas are my new obsession. Unfortunately, most of ours didn’t make it in our garden this summer, due to pests or extreme summer heat. Regardless, you can enjoy this tasty beef stir fry recipe with snow peas, broccoli, green beans, or any veggie of your choosing! So easy and versatile, it’s a great fit for your monthly or biweekly rotation.
Ingredients:
- Beef Sirloin or cut of your choice
- Olive Oil
- Minced Garlic
- Butter
- Optional – Sherry or Marsala cooking wine
- McCormick Italian Herb Seasoning Grinder
- Fresh Parsley
- Snow Peas or other Vegetable
Instructions:
- Place wok on medium heat and melt butter.
- Add olive oil and whisk to combine.
- Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of minced garlic.
- Simmer until golden and fragrant.
- If desired, add a splash of Marsala cooking wine, Sherry, or wine of your choice. Simmer to release the alcohol for two to three minutes.
- Add sliced beef and toss to coat.
- Sprinkle with the seasoning grinder.
- Cook a few moments and then flip the pieces over.
- Add more seasoning to the other side.
- Sprinkle fresh parsley throughout.
- Remove the beef from the pan and place into a glass container with a lid such as a Pyrex you’d use for leftovers.
- Add snow peas or other vegetable and steam lightly until tender.
- Replace the beef and toss to combine.
- Serve over rice or another grain. Enjoy!
Tip: Add a step to cook some shrimp and you can turn this into a Surf & Turf style stir fry!
Accompaniments for Homemade Stir Fry
White jasmine rice is usually our go-to with any of these yummy homemade stir fry meals. We love to change it up, too, though.
- Try a bowl of couscous as the base for your stir fry.
- Delight kids with pasta noodles underneath the entrée course.
- You can also whip up a pot of quinoa, brown rice, or other favorite grains.
You can use the same pot for the grains by cooking ahead of time or I guess technically this will be a two-pot meal if not. Regardless, it works so well as leftovers that you’ll be glad you made it even if it does make a few extra dishes.
Time-Saving Tip
When doing food prep, consider doubling your recipe. You can set aside half of your ingredients or cook it all the way through for a “Chicken Voila” style easy freezer meal. Simply freeze a zip-sealed bag of veggies and sliced meat (cooked or raw in a separate bag) to make easy homemade stir fry at a moment’s notice for a future meal. If you plan to freeze raw meat, use a separate zipper-seal bag so you can cook accordingly. If you’ve already cooked it, set aside some of your leftovers to rewarm in your favorite wok at a later date.
Leftover stir fry is *almost* as good as fresh, so be sure you make enough for lunch tomorrow in these crazy quarantine times! Enjoy and let us know in the comments which one is your favorite stir fry combination.
