This is Chinese cooking for modern Americans – a light, simple and delicious stir fry that is quick to prep and cook. It’s devoured by adults and kids alike in my extended and extensive in-law family and provides everyone with a yummy balanced meal in a single bowl.
In real Chinese cooking, you don’t really combine a lot of vegetables with meat in a single dish like this. Even when she worked full time, my mom cooked everything in multiple courses (meat, veg, etc) – which I adore and admire. But I am all about making cooking as simple as possible. Many Chinese dishes require a significant amount of prep time chopping up vegetables and meat. In this recipe the chicken is diced but the green beans are cooked whole, so it’s a snap to prepare. In my mom’s cooking, she quickly deep fries the meat in small batches, which results in really succulent, tender chicken. But that method is too time-consuming and messy for me, and I also like to keep things light. I stir fry this dish in one big skillet, which makes clean up easy.
I’m on a roll with the string bean recipes this week, which is what happens when you shop at Costco. I hadn’t thought of dinner at all until shortly before my six year old’s soccer game Saturday afternoon, and I was happy to remember that I still had more than half the package of French green beans left. I scrambled to do 10 minutes of prep work before running out the door.
Defrosted some chicken breasts for a few minutes in a bowl of cold water.
Diced the chicken – still kind of frozen, but I was in a hurry.
Rinsed the green beans and left them to dry in a colander. Ready to marinate chicken.
Couple splashes soy sauce (Kikkoman is the best) and sherry; garlic clove through the press and in with the chicken.
Ready for the fridge.
I was then off for an hour or so to the soccer game. It’s perfectly fine if you only have 10 minutes to marinate. But if you have the luxury of thinking ahead, the chicken will be more flavorful if you let it sit for an hour or two.
When I got back, I washed rice and started it in the rice cooker. Then to my quick stir fry. Couple of tablespoons of oil in skillet (my mom always uses corn oil, so that’s what I use – feel free to use what you have).
Green beans (you may need to do this in two batches if your skillet isn’t supersized like this.
I won’t bore you with the green bean cooking since we just went through it in the green beans and feta recipe. Though this time you can undercook a bit, since the beans will go back in the skillet a second time. Remove beans from pan.
Make the stir fry sauce: brown sugar, apple cider vinegar (white or rice vinegar will do too), soy sauce, sherry and garlic. Feel free to add fresh ginger if you have it (you can grate some in or just add a few slices for a milder flavor).
You can also double the sauce if you like a saucier stir fry. American Chinese food is a lot saucier than traditional Chinese food, in which the sauce just serves to give a light coat to the meat.
Add cornstarch (this will thicken the sauce when heated).
Stir, pressing out any lumps.
Now to cook the chicken. Heat a couple tablespoons of oil in same pan. Add chicken.
When chicken is just about cooked (not pink anymore), add prepared sauce. It quickly turns from milky light brown to glossy dark brown as it cooks. I also threw in a couple of jalapeno slices, which my mother-in-law brought in at that minute.
Add cooked green beans and stir to incorporate. Add a dash of sesame oil if desired.
Remove to a serving bowl or platter (sorry picture is blurry…only took one as I was in a hurry to get food to in-laws).
Serve over steamed rice. Tender chicken, crunchy green beans, fluffy rice and a sweet, tangy, garlicky sauce. It’s not how Chinese grandmas with a capital “C” cook, but it’s darned tasty for the rest of us.
Chicken and green bean stir fry
A light, simple and delicious stir fry. Not authentic, but easy, healthy and extremely versatile.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 1/4 pounds green beans
- Cooking oil
Marinade
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sherry
- 1 clove garlic
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (white vinegar or rice vinegar also fine)
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce (Kikkoman is best)
- 1 tablespoon dry sherry
- 1 clove garlic
Optional
- Dash sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
Directions
- If starting with frozen chicken breasts, set in bowl of cold water to defrost.
- Take end off green beans and wash.
- Rinse rice in several changes of water until water is mostly clear. Add fresh water for cooking and set aside.
- Dice chicken into bite-sized pieces (approx 1/2-inch cubes). Place diced chicken in bowl.
- Add marinade ingredients to chicken – soy sauce, sherry, garlic (chopped or pressed through garlic press). Stir well to distribute marinade.
- Refrigerate chicken.
- Start rice to cook before starting stir fry.
- Prepare stir fry sauce (note: you can double the stir fry sauce if you prefer a saucier stir fry). Add brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, sherry and garlic (again chopped or pressed through garlic press) in small bowl. You can also add fresh ginger if you have it.
- Add cornstarch and stir well, pressing out any lumps until sauce has a consistent milky brown color.
- Heat two tablespoons of oil in an large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add green beans. If green beans don’t fit in one batch, cook half at a time. Use long tongs to turn beans over while cooking so that they do not burn.
- If beans are particularly thick, add two tablespoons of water to pan and cover skillet for a couple of minutes to steam-cook beans to desired tenderness. Do not overcook, as beans will go back in the pan briefly later.
- Remove beans from pan.
- Add two more tablespoons of oil to pan. Add chicken and stir to separate pieces.
- When chicken is cooked (turns from pink to white), add prepared stir fry sauce and stir. Sauce will quickly turn from milky light brown to glossy dark brown as it cooks.
- Add string beans and stir to combine. Add dash of sesame oil if desired.
- Remove chicken and string beans to serving dish.
- Serve over rice.
Serves 6.
Notes
- If you are making ahead, cook green beans and chicken separately. Just before you are ready to eat, add chicken back to skillet with sauce, then vegetables last. This will keep everything looking pretty.
- If sauce is too runny for your liking, mix 2 teaspoons of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water and add. Cook until sauce thickens.
- If sauce is too thick, add 2 tablespoons of water and stir well.
- If sauce is too tart for your liking, add 1 tablespoon soy sauce.
- Sherry is a fortified wine, originally from Spain. Some are sweet and others dry. For cooking, you will normally want dry sherry. Better to buy it in the wine section of the market – cooking sherry sold in the food section is not good. Unlike regular wine, sherry will last indefinitely, so you can use it over a long time.
Here’s the link to the print version of the recipe:
Chicken and green bean stir fry recipe for printing
Loving these recipes…..only so much Adobo Chicken we can eat! (not true)
haha, that recipe’s coming this fall! thanks for reading. xoxo
I am really psyched to try this!
Two of my favorite things prepared just right!
let me know how it turns out!
oh problems, problems. i just bought fresh green beans to try the feta recipe. now i have to decide to use them in that dish or this…
Yummy. I live in Vanuatu and LOVE chinese cooking. I will definitley try this out this week-end.
hi pauline, so nice of you to visit. vanuatu – fantastic! technology is amazing. let me know how it goes this weekend!
We loved the sauce on this recipe! It’s so versatile! Making stir fry again tonight with your recipe but with chicken, mushrooms, and broccoli instead of green beans. I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes.
hi rachele – so glad you like the recipe! love your variation – i agree, the sauce works well with pretty much any stir fry you can come up with. thanks so much for taking the time to comment. you made my day!
We all love this recipe! It has quickly become a dinner staple and popular favorite, even for my picky eater preschooler.
thanks, rena! that makes me very happy. =)
sounds very delicious, chicken marinated, beans ready to be cooked, about to prepare the sauce and the rice!!! ummmm so hungry can’t wait to try it!!! I’m going to serve it with chinese egg soup as an aperatif
yay olga, love hearing about your meal in process – hope you like it!
I intentionally cut the chicken up partially frozen. Makes for a prettier presentation, and makes the chicken far easier to cut too!
hi alisha – great idea, thanks for sharing!
I’m need to expand my chicken dish possibilities and was just saying that I need to get into stir fries to incorporate more veggies as I’m helping my husband start Weight Watchers. I can’t wait to try this recipe and add some other variations like red peppers, broccoli, etc. I just discovered your blog and LOVE your kitchen—it is to die for and I’m taking notes! Keep sharing!
thanks, stephanie! so glad you found me. hope you like the recipe – it is a great way to eat more veggies!
I prepared this dish tonight and it came out excellent, even without the Sherry! What is your opinion of adding Chinese black bean to this recipe? I can see the black bean adding more flavor to the green bean, but this would change the marinade a little because of the saltiness, I think.
Oh, I also used the dark meat instead (thigh), just a personal preference of mine, its more tasty. Thanks again for the recipe.
wonderful – thanks for sharing back!
hi ted, black bean would be a great add! i agree, you could definitely reduce the soy sauce since the black bean is also salty. let me know if you try it!
Found this recipe when looking for something new to try with chicken and green beans (which I had in the fridge). Made it for dinner – it was FANTASTIC! I love your stir-fry sauce, and marinating the chicken beforehand made it juicy and delicious. I added some fresh pineapple because I didn’t have quite enough beans on hand, and I thought it would help entice the kids to the dish. It was a wonderful addition – made a very complete meal. (If anyone wants to try this, I shorted the brown sugar a bit in the stir-fry sauce, to compensate for the sweetness of the pineapple.)
hi gail – love your creativity, and thanks so much for sharing the idea back!
I came home from work, googled “chicken and green beans”, found this recipe and made it dinner. Fantastic! Thanks so much for an awesome recipe.
hi karissa – isn’t it wonderful to have a dinnertime success! thanks so much for letting me know.
This is so simple yet sooooooo nom nom nom nom nom nom : ))
hi sian – very happy you liked it! really easy to substitute other veg and protein too. =)
I made again! This time I only used asparagus and fresh shiitake mushrooms. The chili flakes gave nice oomph!
hi sian – mmm, asparagus and mushroom combo sounds awesome. thanks for sharing!
I love your blog and your recipes. I have done this today to go with brown rice. I think it is super healthy with lean meat, green and very little olive oil I used 🙂
hi sandy – so glad you liked it! i love brown rice too and always feel great when i eat this meal.
Omg!!!! I love love love loved this recipe! It was so delicious!! My entire family raved about it. Thanks do much for sharing and making it easy n fast for me to prepare a meal that my family really enjoyed!! Please share more delicious Asian inspired recipes! 🙂
hi melissa – thanks so much! i will definitely share more asian recipes now that i’m back in california. my mom’s cooking is the greatest. =)
This was wonderful. Will definitely make again. Thanks for sharing.
Very tasty (nam-nam). Thanks for sharing
What a great recipe! It came out excellent. Even my husband asked for seconds and he hates anything sweet. They only thing I changed was cooking the green beans in a bit of butter and garlic before adding them to the sauced chicken. The sauce is so simple yet tasty. I will definitely be using the sauce for other things. This one is going in the recipe book. Thanks!
hi donna – so glad you and your husband liked it! thanks for the feedback, i love hearing everyone’s recipe tweaks. and i am delighted to be in your recipe book. =)
I made this tonight and got rave reviews from the wife and even the 5 and 2 year olds loved it! Thanks!!
hi jesse – you are awesome! thanks so much for trying out the recipe and letting me know it worked out for you. it’s always great when dinner is a hit. =)
So good! I doubled the sauce and it was so thick and sweet, and I added a little chili paste so there was a bit of a spicy kick! Thank you for this recipe, I will make it again and again!
hi anne – great add! i like a little spice too. thanks for sharing back.
Great recipe! My husband said it was the best Chinese food he’s had since we moved to the Twin Cities six months ago! I used the fresh bagged green beans from the produce aisle and steamed them in the bag in the microwave. Cut down on the oil a tad. Definitely a keeper!
hi dana – i’m so glad it worked out for you. thanks for sharing back, and good luck in the twin cities!
LOVE this recipe! I make it all the time now. I add cashews at the end to my dish (as my family doesn’t like them). I enjoy the extra crunch. 🙂
hi cari – mmm, great add! you’re making me hungry… =P
This was delicious! I had no sherry so just used water in its place. I used coconut oil to cook the beans, which was yummy. And I subbed tofu cubes for the chicken. We loved it, and I’ll definitely make it again!
hi emily – love the substitutions, thanks for sharing! so great to let people know it’s not necessary to take recipes literally.
Yum! My daughter has Celiac Disease and dinner can be a challenge. This was delicious and easy! My husband requested I put broccoli in it next time. I might even try asparagus.
hi jill – yes great, the recipe is really flexible! so glad it worked for your family.
Made this last night, it was delish! Easy and quick, a definate keeper.
hi heidi – so glad it worked out for you! thanks very much for taking the time to let me know.
Ok, y,all DON’T LAUGH 🙁
I already feel so Stupid …. 🙁
I’m not much of a Cook 🙁
But what is SHERRY ?
I know it’s Cooking Sherry but what is it Really ?
LOL, I’ve never seen a bottle that said Cooking Sherry ….
Help Please 🙂
hi ~simply me – i should be more specific! sherry is a fortified wine, originally from spain, some are sweet and others dry. for cooking, you will normally want dry sherry. i buy it at trader joe’s, but you will also see it at any supermarket. better to buy it in the wine section – the cooking sherry sold in the food section is not good. unlike regular wine, sherry will last indefinitely, so you can use it over a long time. hope that helps!
Thank you for posting this recipe! My daughter just discovered a love of chicken with green beans (at a chinese restaurant)…right after we discovered she needed a gluten free diet. With GF soy sauce–she will be able to enjoy this dish again!
I don’t have any sherry….is it alright to make without it?
yes it’s fine! sherry is just a extra.
This is such a great & simple recipe, thank you!! It’s so hard to find a good stir-fry sauce that is light and well balanced. I make this meal once a week 🙂 It’s great for those days that you feel like you need some more veggies in your life!
hi carina – once a week, that is wonderful! it really works with all kinds of veggies. so glad you enjoy it, thanks so much for sharing back! =)
Oh my goodness, you saved my dinner tonight – and many dinners in the future! This recipe was AMAZING! Thank you so much for a wonderful recipe. We are gluten free and all I had to do was use GF soy sauce, and it was the first Chinese food we’ve had in over 2 years!
-Dana
yay dana – that is cause for celebration! it is so hard to do without foods you used to enjoy – i am very glad to have helped restore a bit of chinese food back into your life. =) i’m much more sensitive to dietary issues since i tried eliminating a bunch of foods a few years back to help with my eczema. so i do try to note recipes that can be made gluten free, dairy free, egg free, etc. thanks so much for sharing back!
Thank you sooo much for this and the beans + feta recipe, we totally love both these dishes, currently making (for 3rd or so time) this and just wanted to tell you big THANKS for sharing this recipe. Ohh, and not to forget your vinaigrette recipe, that has become my favorite vinaigrette above all others! Thanks from and international English-Latvian family living in Brussels 🙂
hi krista – so nice to hear from you! i am always especially happy to hear from readers around the world – just imagining you in brussels is like a little mental getaway for me. =) very glad you are enjoying the green bean recipes and the vinaigrette, some of my favorites!
The BEST recipe EVER!!! AMAZING!! Thank you for sharing these recipes!!!
hi eva – so happy it worked out for you, even without the wine! =)
Very good recipe! I used marsala wine because I was out of Sherry. Turned out so tasty. Also, I had to cook it ahead of time so, I transferred it to my slow cooker (rice on bottom) and left it on warm till dinner time. It stayed fresh and ready.
hi kez – thanks so much for sharing back…great that you enjoyed the dish, and nice trick on the slow cooker!
Made this tonight and it was delicious! Thank you for the recipe!
hi martha – happy you enjoyed it…thank you for sharing back!
Wow. Fantastic. Best stir fry I’ve ever made.
hi lynn – love the thumbs up, thx!!
Hello!
I love this recipe. I made it tonight, and I only had 30 minutes to marinate the chicken and that made such a big difference.
I also love how you talk about simplicity. I am of Aboriginal descent, and I know of simplicity when it comes to cooking. My grandmother makes these awesome, and very simple doughnuts. Everyone loves them. Thank you for posting! Defiantly going to make it again in the future.
Catherine
hi catherine – so glad you liked the recipe! and thank you for sharing back – your grandmother’s doughnuts sound fantastic…i don’t usually think of doughnuts as simple, so that recipe sounds like a real treasure.
Hi! I just wanted to let you know how much my beau LOVES this meal. I mean, he begs me for it. It’s the only one of my dozens of meals that he requests over and over again. The only things I do differently are: add about a tablespoon of fresh minced ginger to the sauce, use Bragg’s liquid aminos instead of soy sauce (he’s allergic to gluten), and I always double the sauce, as well. Many thanks for this simple, delicious recipe! 🙂
hi hailey – this makes me so happy! thanks for letting me know, and for sharing your gluten free adjustments.
I had chicken breast and green beans and was seeking tastiness and simplicity. This was perfect! My husband and son loved it. Will be a new weeknight staple! I added the ginger (which I happened to have on hand), red pepper flakes and sesame oil. First time here – will be returning!
hi agnès – i am delighted it worked out for your family! a recipe you can count on is a real friend. hope you find more here! thanks so much for sharing back.
Do you think this would work well in the crockpot? Adding the sauce and beans at the end, maybe? I work full time and having dinner basically ready when I get home is a huge life saver. I’m always looking for recipes that can be converted to the crock pot.
alas no, this is won’t work in the crockpot. stir fry is all about quick and hot, not low and slow – your green beans would be overcooked and mushy. i definitely hear you on the convenience of make-ahead, though – chicken adobo would be a great option the crockpot. or for the stir fry, if you had the chicken marinating in the fridge, the sauce made and the veg ready to go, the cooking time when you get home would be very quick. good luck!
Made this recipe tonight with our garden green beans. It was wonderful! I liked it better than our local Chinese restaurant. Very Yummy. Can’t wait for leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
hi alice – ooh, can’t beat garden green beans! so glad the recipe did them justice. kudos for you for your green thumb! =)
Delicious….substituted orange juice for the sherry, yummy!
hi laura – i never thought to try that, thanks for sharing your substitution success! =)
love this recipe! it’s now in our food rotation … i use sake instead and for ultimate laziness, frozen cut green beans. it just works so well.
hi cynthia – sake is a great option, thanks for sharing the substitution! and i’m glad to know it works well with frozen green beans too – we’re getting to that time of year. you are sweet to share back!
I have used this recipe for so many variations. Tonight I made it with tofu, broccoli, celery and mushroom stir-fry and it was DELICIOUS. My family eats it up every time. I really think you hit the mark on this one! I just add a little water to make it more gravy-ish. Thank you!!
I just tried your “Easy chicken and green bean stir fry” recipe. Awesome! I noticed in the photos that you use a cast iron skillet when you prepare a stir fry. As I discovered today, it makes all the difference in the world. I have had several stir fry failures recently using a stainless steel wok. It seems you can’t get the stainless steel hot enough to sear the meat. Is this your experience as well?
My sister Linda and I love your blog and look forward to every new installment. Congratulations on moving into your new home. Can’t wait to see pictures of your 2nd dream kitchen. Happy Holidays to you and your family.
hi susan – sorry i am so late replying back! yes, i love the cast iron, really keeps heat well – my mom loves it too. both of us own woks but never use them. maybe we need better technique? the cast iron is really reliable.
so glad you enjoy the blog! i posted some pics of the new kitchen back in june, though it was pretty bare. happy new year to you, and thanks to you and linda for reading!
Love this recipe! Very easy! My family loves it!
yay maria, i am so glad! =)
This recipe made my day! An empty fridge, only beans and chicken in the freeze and no time to shop. It was simple and delicious. Thank you.
hi grobertson – i just love it when i am able to make a great meal with what i have on hand. so glad my recipe enabled you to do the same! thank you for sharing back.
The sauce in this recipe is amazing. My friends (veg and non veg), husband, and I all loved it and have made it multiple times now. We have used all sorts of veggies besides green beans, just make sure to add the sauce at the end. I noticed some people mentioned that they did not like the cooking sherry. I always sub sake for sherry (originally just out of need and found out it is AWESOME and delicious, and now will never go back) in this recipe. Everyone I have served thinks it is great and tastes like restaurant quality.
hi marian b – i am so glad you love this too! thanks for sharing the sake tip!!
Amazing! Easy explanation and delicious!! Thanks a lot for the recipe!
hi ksenia – so glad the recipe worked for you. you are sweet to let me know!
I just spent a week back in NYC and forgot how good chinese food can be. There is nothing that comes close where I leave – EXCEPT this recipe
hi cpenello – i’m SO glad this brings some chinese food back into your life! thanks so much for letting me know.
Pinned and made in the same day! This is soooo good. It made me feel like I knew what I was doing. Much better than any of our local Chinese restaurants. My husband raved about it and he’s usually not a fan. I added the red pepper flakes as you suggested and ground ginger (wish I would have had fresh). The only change I would make next time would be to cut the sugar in half. It was a bit sweet for me. Other than that, perfect as written. Thank you for making me feel like a pro!
hi karin – i love it!! thanks so much for sharing back, i love hearing your success story. =) glad your husband loved it too!
Sooo tasty! I didn’t have enough green beans so I added sliced fresh mushrooms. Also I didn’t have any sherry so I substituted apple juice….don’t know if that is weird, but it tasted amazing! Love that I can prep this meal ahead of time and then whip up in a flash. Definitely a keeper!
hi sarah c – i love your version, it sounds great! thank you so much for sharing back, i love hearing that the recipe worked for you.
This was so good. Both my kids enjoyed it.
hi sujata – wonderful! thanks for letting me know!
Thanks for sharing this recipe, it was a huge hit last night! My five year old son ate all of the green beans on his plate, and there were several. I added the precise ingredients, including the ginger and sesame, which are essential, I think. We tossed in about 1/3 cup of roasted cashews in the last step and it was perfect.
hi carla – that is fantastic! so sweet of you to report back – it makes my day that your son enjoyed his veggies! =)
I made this tonight and it was FANTASTIC. My girlfriend and I ate ALL. OF. IT. It should have fed six people. WE ATE IT ALL, IT WAS SO DAMN GOOD. Thanks for the great recipe!
ha love it!!! and thank you so much for sharing back!
I made this dish tonight for my family. One of our favorite takeout is Chicken and Green Bean stir fry. This dish is vastly better than any takeout we have tried. It will now be a keeper and no more paying someone else to make this dish for us. Yummy!
hi karen kitchen – you are so awesome! it’s gratifying to be able to make your own favorite foods, isn’t it? thank you so much for sharing back!
I’m always skeptical about recipes that say “easy’, usually they don’t have much flavor or something is over powering. This recipe was really good, I just half’d the recipe amounts for 2 of us and it worked out perfect with a 10oz chicken breast.
I liked the simplicity of the marinate and sauce; which were perfectly balanced. I precooked the green beans in microwave and I added 1” hunks of roma tomatoes at the very end, just long enough to heat up and sauce the tomatoes. I added a splash of sesame chili oil and some Shichimi Tigarashi chili flakes to the sauce. Fresh ginger was not used.
Will make this again – Thank you
hi fritz – thank you for sharing your success and your recipe tweaks! i am so glad you liked it. =)