I take a lot of ‘creative license’ with my recipes.
I post what we eat and I have never been one to follow directions too closely.
To me, recipes for cooking are a combination of what worked well for the author and suggestions of what the reader might like.
Recipes for baking are, of course, meant to be followed strictly.
A stir-fry and a skillet dinner are at opposite ends of the cooking arc.
I wanted the flavors of a stir-fry with the ease of a skillet dinner.
Here you have it:
Click here to Pin Stir-Fried Chicken Skillet
PrintStir-Fried Chicken Skillet
This easy dinner combines the flavors of a traditional stir-fry in a single pan
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Skillet
Ingredients
- 12oz (360gr) chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
- 3 medium (8oz, 250gr total) carrots, cut into sticks
- 1 rib celery, sliced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbs minced fresh ginger
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1/2 cup (3.3oz, 95gr) Basmati rice
- 1 1/2 cups (12oz, 360ml) chicken broth
- 3 tbs sherry
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tbs sesame oil
- 1 tbs cornstarch (maizena) dissolved in 2 tbs water
- 2 tsp sesame seeds
Instructions
- Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat.
- Add onion, carrots, celery, pepper, and sauté until they start to get tender, 5 minutes.
- Add garlic, ginger, chicken, and sauté until chicken starts to brown
- Add rice, sherry, soy sauce, broth, stir well, cover, reduce heat slightly and cook 16 minutes until rice is done.
- Stir in sesame oil.
- Add cornstarch mixture and stir well, cooking until sauce has thickened and cleared.
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.
Notes
You can use other vegetables in place of the carrots – winter squash or a cup of frozen peas added at the end. I used both black & white sesame seeds.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 recipe
- Calories: 659
- Sugar: 11.3 g
- Sodium: 1240.2 mg
- Fat: 21 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.4 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 68.4 g
- Fiber: 6.3 g
- Protein: 46.7 g
- Cholesterol: 127.8 mg
Keywords: stir-fried chicken, skillet dinner, chicken skillet
For a more traditional dish: Stir-Fried Sesame Chicken

When we lived in Minnesota I remember getting excited when the temps were warming up to 5C (40F), especially, after a long cold snap.
If it was a sunny day we would get the bikes out and go off on an adventure, through melting snow and slush. We’d get home with the telltale brown stripe up our backs from the tires kicking up muddy water.
It was fun….. There were, maybe, 5 days all winter when that was possible.
Here, the same temp will keep us in by the fire. A bike ride? Don’t be daft… It’s cold out.
In our defense, winters in Minn. tended to have low humidity. It snowed but it wasn’t damp.
Here winters are foggy and damp. When the sun finally breaks through the morning fog the trees are still dripping water, even though it hasn’t rained.
I don’t mind walking in fog but I don’t like riding my bike in it.
Our bikes are tucked away.
Winter has arrived.
90 percent chance of rain today here ….ugh my least favourite although it’s needed !
We need it, too – still some drought restrictions locally. Still….
It’s Dec. 3, (yes, I’m late commenting) and 49 degrees this morning and it rained all night. I never rode my bike when the roads were wet. It was too hard to get that stripe out of my clothes in the wringer washer and with no dryer, everything had to be hung in the utility room by the oil furnace. Not for too long though or it would get covered with soot. Vicious circle.
I am no longer buying sesame seeds. They’ve become one of the new ‘designer’ ‘spice/herb’ things here and a 2 ounce bottle is almost $18. I can’t justify them anymore since I don’t often use them but when I do, I use more than a little pinch. Same with the Everything Bagel Topping. They get popular and shoot up in price and I don’t bother with them anymore.
I buy them at the Asian market and they are still cheap. I get all my herbs and spices there as they come in cheap bags rather than cute glass jars and I get 5 or 6 times the quantity for the price of the jar. I’d even be happier if I could bring my own containers…..