Peanut Butter Stir Fry
This Thai-inspired peanut chicken stir fry is packed with filling chicken and tender veggies topped with a creamy peanut butter stir fry sauce that comes together in minutes. It’s everything you want in a stir fry: quick, easy, and full of healthy ingredients. Serve with jasmine rice for a complete meal.
Why you’ll love this Peanut Butter Stir Fry
I love this Thai-inspired peanut chicken stir fry because it hits all the marks for a weeknight dinner: it’s quick, easy, and packed with healthy ingredients. The creamy peanut butter sauce is the real star here—it’s loaded with bold flavors like curry paste, fresh ginger, and garlic, balanced by a touch of sweetness from brown sugar or honey.
The mix of tender chicken and crisp, vibrant veggies creates the perfect balance of textures, and the addition of water chestnuts gives it a satisfying crunch. It’s a recipe you’ll want to keep coming back to because it’s so flavorful and adaptable – you can swap in your favorite vegetables or even use shrimp or tofu instead of chicken.
Searching for more takeout inspired recipes? pepper beef stir fry / Chinese shrimp and broccoli / Thai peanut noodles / easy kung pao chicken
Ingredients:
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
- Peanut butter – We normally use the sort-of natural peanut butter – the kind you don’t need to stir. Any creamy peanut butter will work, but totally natural will be a touch less sweet.
- Brown sugar – I used dark brown sugar for this recipe, but both light and dark brown will work.
- Curry paste – Any curry paste you like will work here, but we like green curry paste because of the extra bright lemongrass flavor it brings to the dish. Use what you have and see what you like!
- Rice vinegar – This is my go-to vinegar for stuff like this. It works so well, but the next best thing would be white wine or champagne vinegar.
- Sriracha sauce – This adds a bit of heat, but it also adds flavor. If you don’t have it, feel free to substitute crushed red pepper flakes or a chili paste.
Melissa’s tips for recipe success:
Prep first. Stir fry recipes tend to cook quickly, so I recommend getting everything chopped, sauce made and rice started before you begin cooking. Not only is this a great habit to get into, it actually helps with clean up and will make cooking much less stressful.
Make ahead tips:
- This recipe reheats really well, but if you want to prevent soggy veggies, I recommend under-cooking them. Let them be a little on the crisper side and remove them from heat right away.
- If you’re not fully meal-prepping, you can get yourself ahead of the game by chopping ingredients and assembling the sauce ahead of time.
If you like this recipe, you have to try these peanut butter and jelly wings, and this Thai noodle salad and this grilled beef satay with peanut sauce.
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Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 – 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast (cut into bite-sized pieces)
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- black pepper (to taste)
- 1 head broccoli (cut into florets (about 2-3 cups))
- 1 ½ cups sugar snap peas (sliced or chopped in half)
- 1 red bell pepper (chopped (about ¾ cup))
- 1 can sliced water chestnuts
- chopped fresh cilantro & chopped peanuts (optional, for garnish)
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar (or honey)
- 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons green or red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce (or 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes)
- 2 – 3 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Prepare the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, brown sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, curry paste, ginger, garlic, Sriracha, and water. Adjust the water to achieve your desired consistency. Set aside.
- Cook the chicken. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the chicken pieces, season with salt and pepper, and cook until browned and fully cooked, about 6–8 minutes. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.
- Sauté the vegetables. In the same skillet, heat the remaining olive oil. Add the snap peas, red bell pepper, broccoli florets. Stir-fry for about 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender but still crisp.
- Add the sauce. Return the cooked chicken to the skillet with the vegetables and add the water chestnuts. Pour the peanut sauce over the mixture and toss to coat everything evenly. Cook for another 2–3 minutes, allowing the sauce to warm through and slightly thicken.
- Garnish and serve. Top with fresh cilantro and chopped peanuts before serving with a scoop of rice.
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