Healthy Kung Pao Chicken

Raise your hand if you used to get Chinese take out growing up. Ok sure, I won’t actually see you raising your hand, but I am guessing that most of you reading this raised your hand. As children of the 90s with parents who worked, or equally exhausted stay at home parents, it is likely that they succumbed to pizza or Chinese take out every once in a while. Or late night in college, as I did many times.

My favorite dish was always the kung pao chicken. Perfectly spiced and sticky. I always went for the white rice and scooped up extra sauce for each bite.

I wanted to recreate this childhood and college favorite of mine, but without the food hangover. Enter my healthy kung pao chicken dish! It is so freaking good. I couldn’t be happier with how this turned out!

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound chicken breast (cut into 1-inch pieces)

2 cups chopped broccoli 

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

2 tbsp. tamari, soy sauce or coconut aminos

3 tbsp. rice vinegar 

2 tbsp. coconut sugar 

4 tsp. arrowroot powder

1 tbsp. sriracha 

3 cloves garlic, chopped 

2 tsp. grated fresh ginger 

METHOD:

Heat a bit of oil in a nonstick pan on medium-high and add the chicken with a bit of salt and pepper and cook for 4-5 minutes until done. Set aside. In the same pan, cook broccoli on medium heat with the garlic, ginger and a bit of oil and a few splashed of soy/tamari/coconut aminos and cook until tender (you can steam the broccoli for a few minutes before to cook faster in the pan). 

While you cook the broccoli and the chicken, combine the tamari, rice vinegar, coconut sugar, arrowroot powder and sriracha to a bowl and stir to combine. 

When the broccoli is done, add the chicken back to the pan on low heat and stir in the sauce until it thickens. Serve with the peanuts over a bed of white rice.

ENJOY!