Chicken & Asparagus Stir Fry with Honey Ginger Sauce

It's raaaaaaaining!!!! I am a HAPPY girl!! Love love love my Colorado summer rainstorms. And my beautiful windows!

Speaking of rainstorms, we had a pretty crazy storm here a few days ago. 60 mph winds, golf-ball sized hail just north of us that luckily ran out right before the storm hit us, and the most insane, constant lightning I have ever seen! I got a video, but it's kinda long. My parents, on the other hand, captured this incredible picture of our storm from about 60 miles away...

Yup, that's us! Sixty miles away, under that giant, towering thunderhead. It was scary. But kind of cool and exciting too! 

I have an announcement. I am on a mission to discover the best classic chocolate layer cake recipe EVER. Rich, moist, fudgy cake topped with perfect chocolate frosting. Now accepting applicants, now testing recipes! I shall report my findings along the way. Up first next week: the most ridiculously DARK chocolate cake I've found. Not sure if it really qualifies, but it's so worth blogging on it's own merit. Until then, friends! 

Chicken & Asparagus Stir Fry with Ginger Honey Sauce
Printable Recipe

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 lb asparagus, trimmed, rinsed, and cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 pound sugar snap peas
2-3 large carrots, peeled and julienned or peeled into ribbons
your favorite steamed rice-basmati, jasmine, long grain, brown, etc

Sauce:
3-4 Tb honey
2 Tb soy sauce
4 Tb rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup olive oil/vegetable oil
1/4 cup chicken broth (or water, but broth adds more flavor!)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
a nice, fat, 2-3 inch long chunk of fresh ginger, peeled

1 tsp cornstarch

Start your rice steaming, trim and dice your chicken, place the chicken in a bowl, and set aside.

Combine all sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Pour into a small saucepan, bring to a boil, and lower to a strong simmer. Simmer until the sauce turns dark and a little bit clear. It may thicken a bit on it's own, if it doesn't, remove a few tablespoons, stir the teaspoon of cornstarch into it, and pour the mixture back into the sauce. Stir till it thickens and set aside.

Pour half of the sauce over the chicken. For strongest flavor, let sit for a while. Otherwise you can start stir-frying! Heat a large frying pan on highest heat and add half of the chicken, with sauce. Stir nearly constantly until chicken is fully cooked and has nice little browned spots on it. Remove chicken to a large bowl and set aside. Repeat with the second half of the chicken. Keeping the pan HOT, add a tablespoon of oil and the asparagus, stirring until bright green and cooked, but still crisp. Remove from pan, add to the cooked chicken. Repeat with the carrots (if they're in ribbons, they won't take long to soften!) and the peas.

Serve veggies and chicken over rice, with extra sauce on the side to pour over. Top with diced green onions. and red pepper flakes (optional).

 It's getting so hot out that crisp, fresh veggies sound the yummiest to me. Am I right?? It took me two tries to get this one right, but it was so worth it. I've struggled with stir-fries through my married life, and this one is a keeper!

Lets just talk about the sauce for a second. Healthy? Yes!! Tons of flavor? Absolutely! There's a reason ginger comes first in the name, it is SUPER ginger-y if you go the 3-inch route, like we did. We love it that way, but if you want to tone it down a little, get a smaller chunk. Same with the honey, we like a little less sweetness, but add 3 Tb, taste, and add another if you like. 

I could just eat those gorgeous veggies with the sauce all alone! You can easily make this vegetarian, sub tofu or skip the meat altogether, replace the chicken broth with veggie broth or water, and it will still be delicious! I hope you give this one a try, you know I don't manage to post seriously, no-kidding healthy stuff that often!  'Tis the curse of a baker!

Shared at Treasure Box Tuesday and The Scoop