Easy Chicken & Onions Stir-Fry

This is the easiest, quickest and most flavorful chicken and onions stir-fry dish to whip up in just under 30 minutes! Juicy, tender chicken with savory, thick stir-fry sauce, this homemade easy chicken & onions stir-fry is even better (and healthier) than Chinese takeout!

The inspiration behind the dish

As we started our careers back in 2017, and began to work 9-to-5 jobs, we realized that we needed to have more easy and quick recipes to cook after when we got home after a full day of working. This chicken and onions stir-fry is so easy to make, satisfying, and yet a pretty healthy dish. Stir-fries have become our go-to dishes for when we're feeling tired, but still want a balanced filling dish. There's nothing more comforting than Chinese stir-fry dishes with rich, savoury sauce that you can eat with a bowl of steaming hot white rice.

What we love about this Chicken and Onions Stir-Fry

This dish is a simple and classic Chinese weekday dinner meal, and has 3 basic components: the chicken, the chicken marinade, and the sauce. All these simple elements together will make a tasty, speedy, better-than-takeout meal. This chicken and onions stir-fry is even more tempting when you consider how much more healthy it is than Chinese takeout dishes. Not only did we just two tablespoons of oil, but we also replaced the sugar with honey, and used low-sodium soy sauce (and we didn’t add more salt to the dish). Not to mention, there’s no MSG (flavor enhancer) added.

More related recipes:

• Beef Chow Fun
• Shrimp Chow Mein
• Stir-Fried Chinese Green Beans With Garlic
• Egg Tofu with Mushroom Gravy Sauce

It's all in the sauce!

And how do you make such a quick and simple stir-fry dish more satisfying for your palate and your tummy? Lots of sauce! If you know Alvin, he's all about sauces and flavors, so you know this will be a good recipe. In this dish, the sauce is king. Thick, savory, and oh-so-satisfying, this will win over anybody that didn't like stir-fries. We don't actually know anyone that doesn't enjoy stir-fries, but if we would ever know one, this is the dish to convert them. It has simple flavors, but yet packs a punch. The secret is the oyster sauce, it's a flavor powerhouse! It adds a nice umami, and slightly sweet note, that pairs perfectly with the chicken and onions.

Tips to make the best Chicken and Onions Stir-Fry

This dish is pretty simple and straightforward to cook. However, there are a few key points that you shouldn’t overlook in order to get the most perfect Saucy Chicken & Onions Stir-Fry:

• Slice your chicken breast in bite-sized pieces to ensure pieces are easier to cook and will remain juicy and tender. It will also be more enjoyable to it in smaller pieces.
• Marinate the chicken pieces in soy sauce and cornstarch before cooking. This will make your chicken extra tender and flavourful.
• Adjust the amount of honey to add to the sauce depending on the sodium level of the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and chicken broth you use. You don’t want the sauce to be sweet, you just want to add enough honey to balance out the saltiness from the other ingredients. A trick is to add the honey a little bit at a time while tasting to check for flavours.
• Cooking the onions and green onions first will help flavor the oil, which will add this nice extra flavor throughout your dish.

Ingredients

Chicken Stir-Fry

• Boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into small bite-size pieces.
• Low-sodium soy sauce to better control the salt level.
• Cornstarch to help tenderize the chicken.
• Garlic to flavor the chicken.
• Onions to add a nice crunch to the dish.
• Green onions to flavor the stir-fry.
• Oil for cooking, use a neutral oil.

Stir-Fry Sauce

• Low-sodium soy sauce to add a nice depth and savory flavor.
• Oyster sauce is the secret ingredient! It will add umami flavors and a nice thickness to the sauce. This is the one we love.
• Sesame oil is a must for that added nutty taste.
• Chicken broth is used to make the sauce more "saucy", and to be able to coat all the chicken pieces.
• Honey is added here to balance the salt, and not to make the dish sweet.
• Cornstarch will serve as a thickening agent.
• Water will help make more of the sauce.

Instructions

Marinate the chicken. In a bowl, to marinate the chicken, combine the chicken with 2 tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Mix well and set aside.

Prep the sauce. In a small bowl, to make the sauce, combine 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 cup chicken broth, and 1/2 tablespoon of honey. Combine until the honey is well mixed into the sauce and set aside. In a separate small bowl, to make the cornstarch slurry, combine 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of water and set aside.

Stir-fry. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil on a frying pan over medium high heat. Add the onions and green onions, and stir-fry until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Put in the chicken and cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side, or until cooked thoroughly. Add the garlic and stir-fry for about 1 minute, then pour the sauce mixture into the pan. When the sauce comes to a boil, add the cornstarch slurry into the pan and stir well. Let the chicken and onions cook some more in the sauce for another 1 minute.

Serve! Remove from heat and serve with a bowl of white rice.