Chicken and Green Bean Stir Fry with Sweet Chili Sauce

This recipe is fantastic!  It takes a bit of prep, but well worth it.

When I made it I didn't have a low carb sauce, I used the buffalo wild wings branded "Asian Zing" (not even close to low carb) sauce, and figured pretty much everything else was good, so I went with it.  And I was fine, no glucose spike.  (Just not eating rice with it made a much bigger difference for me).  If you have to be more strict, I'm sure one of the low/no sugar chili sauces out there would work out, or find a homemade one that you like.

Notes:

The recipe I started with called for chicken thighs.  I only had breasts on hand, and they worked out great, so that's how I'm writing this up.  Use whichever you prefer.

It also just called for green beans, but I had onions/bell peppers/chiles on hand, so I added those also.  It's your kitchen, put in any vegetables that you normally like like in a stir fry, you just get to work out how long to cook each ingredient if some take longer than others.

I had fresh green beans from the farmer's market, so I steamed them ahead of time.  If you're using frozen it won't take as long, and if you're using canned (they're not going to work as well in this, they'll be way more mushy), add them at the last second and just warm them through.

I also had 3 Fresno chiles (one of my favorite chiles of all time), and 3 pretty spicy Thai Bird (Bird's Eye) Chiles from the farmer's market.  I cut the stems off, but left them whole and it was just the right amount of spice for my wife and I.  If you are daring and wanted to make it even hotter you could mince them  up into the dish.

Experiment!  Change things up..  Just don't complain to me if you change it a ton and then don't like it!

Ingredients (modify to your taste/requirements):

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size large-ish chunks.
• Cornstarch, enough to coat your amount of chicken, probably a couple Tbsp.
• 1 lb. Fresh green beans, trimmed, washed, cut into roughly 2-inch pieces.  Or frozen if necessary (canned if you must.)
• Minced Garlic (a few cloves)
• Oil (I used avocado oil)
• Crushed Red Pepper to taste.  I'd guess 2 tsp, maybe a bit more.
• Red or Yellow Bell Pepper, maybe 1/2 of a pepper, cut into large chunks.
• Onions, chopped into somewhat large pieces, to taste.  Maybe 1/2 of an onion.
• 3 Thai bird chiles, left whole with the stems removed (because this is spicy diabetes after all)
• 3 Fresno chiles, seeded and rough chopped.
• Salt/Pepper/Garlic powder to taste
• Sesame Oil to taste
• Sweet Chili Sauce (see my note at the very top about carbs here.)

Directions:

• Steam the green beans.

If you're using fresh green beans (and you absolutely should if you have access to fresh), as I mentioned in the notes, I'd steam them first.  You could probably get away with doing that in a large bowl with some water in the bottom in a microwave for a few minutes, but I did mine in a large covered skillet, with a bit of water, butter, and salt (That's how I'd cook them if I was just cooking the beans normally as a side dish).  For this, remove them from the pan when they're still a bit underdone since they will cook again in the stir fry.  

• Prep and cook the chicken.

Coat the chicken with cornstarch, and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Add enough oil to your pan to coat the bottom and fry, turning often (in batches if necessary) until well browned and the outside is crispy.  Set aside.

• Stir-fry the peppers, onions, and garlic. (and any other quick cooking vegetables you've added)

Quickly stir-fry the peppers and onions, add the minced garlic toward the end so it doesn't burn.   I'm sure this is also when I added the crushed red pepper.  (It's been a week since I actually made this)

• Put it together.

Add the chicken back into the pan along with the green beans, add just enough of the chili sauce, to coat all the chicken and a few drops of sesame oil, stir to coat/combine, and serve immediately.

We just had it as-is, but it would be really good over cauliflower rice if you wanted, or regular rice for the non-diabetics in the house.