Aromatic, juicy and crispy shredded chicken and crunchy bell peppers are stir-fried together in this gorgeous Chinese dish. This recipe is paleo, gluten-free and low-carb friendly and can be served on its own or with a side of cauliflower or regular rice or green veggies.
Today, I’m excited to feature my guest contributor ChihYu Smith’s recipe for Chinese crispy, shredded chicken, which she made especially for my readers.
ChihYu is the recipe developer, photographer, and writer behind the blog I Heart Umami – a recipe site that teaches people how to cook Asian-inspired paleo cuisine. I think you will really enjoy this lovely stir-fry dish she made for us. Check out ChihYu’ s website and find her on Instagram , Facebook, or YouTube. Take it away ChihYu!
Hello, friends!
I’m so excited to be sharing one of my favourite recipes – Crispy Shredded Chinese Chicken – with you today. I first discovered Irena and her blog through her post on why I eat miso. I got a great deal of inspiration from Irena’s recipes and have since then been devoting my time to perfecting Asian food in the paleo world.
Growing up in Asia, I loved watching my mom prepare dinner whenever I was home. She always had ways of making boring chicken breast juicy and flavorful. I’m going to tell you about my family’s secret. And the best part? You can apply the same principle to beef, pork, shrimp, or even veggies.
How To Make Healthy Crispy Shredded Chicken
Contrary to what you may believe, the secret to making crispy shredded chicken without deep-frying is skipping the batter and using egg-white with a balanced ratio between root vegetable starch and protein.
The egg white adds moisture to the protein whereas the starch creates a protective shield to seal in the moisture. The ratio between starch and protein is important because the meat will get soggy if you use too much starch, and if you use too little, it will be difficult to create that crispy texture.
Chicken is seasoned and marinated with salt, white pepper (very Chinese!), ginger and garlic powders (you could also use fresh aromatics) and Chinese rice wine (which is optional). The addition of arrowroot and egg white turns this marinade into the chicken coating.
Other Stir-Fry Ingredients
Similar to my wildly popular Paleo sweet and sour chicken recipe, I use fresh red and green bell pepper to add colour and crispness to this flavourful dish. You can throw in broccoli, zucchini, scallions, carrots, Asian greens or anything else you like.
Fresh aromatics such as ginger, scallions (green onions) and chili are also used and are very typical in Chinese cooking.
This is a dish that’s savoury, refreshing, and deeply satisfying. I hope you enjoy this post and I welcome your tips and suggestions about what’s worked for you in your own paleo cooking. Have fun & Enjoy!
What To Serve With Chinese Chicken Stir-Fry
To be honest, I enjoyed this meal as is. The chicken was very satiating and we added some broccoli to the stir fry as well as bell peppers, so it felt like a complete meal.
You could serve it over cauliflower rice or with some zucchini noodles. If you’re not doing paleo, regular white rice or brown rice or some rice noodles would go well with this dish as well. You can also steam some broccoli, bok choy or other Asian greens on the side.
More Healthy Asian Recipes
Cauliflower Egg Fried ‘Rice’
Quick & Easy Chicken Cabbage Stir Fry
My Go-To Paleo Stir-Fry Sauce
Golden Coconut Prawns With Honey Lemon Glaze
My Nourishing Egg Drop Soup
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Ingredients
- 500 boneless and skinless chicken breast 1 lb. sliced into thin strips
For chicken seasoning
- 1.5 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 egg white lightly beaten
- ½ teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon white sesame seeds
- ½ teaspoon ginger powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic or onion powder
- 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry - this is optional
- 3 tablespoons arrowroot powder or sweet potato starch powder
For the aroma base
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated
- 4 tablespoons green onion/scallions thinly sliced (separate green and white parts)
- 1 teaspoon dry red chili powder or chilli flakes/pepper
Other ingredients
- 1 green bell pepper sliced into thin strips
- 1 red bell pepper sliced into thin strips
- 4 tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil to pan-fry the chicken
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil to sauté veggies
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil before serving, optional
Instructions
- Prep:Thinly slice chicken and bell peppers, and finely chop/slice all ingredients.
- Marinade:Mix sliced chicken strips with the chicken seasoning ingredients and leave for 15 mins. Make sure all ingredients are seasoned and coated evenly.
- Pan-fry chicken:Heat 4 tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil in a large sauté pan or a wok over high heat. When the pan is hot, pan fry the chicken in separate batches. Make sure not to overcrowd the pan. Add more oil if needed. Set aside when they are cooked through and golden brown.
- Hint: The chicken strips might stick to each other. You may need to be constantly flipping and scooping to separate the strips.
- Create aroma base:In the same pan (without the chicken), heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium -high heat. When it’s hot, add the ginger and chilli powder. Quickly stir-fry the ingredients for about 3-5 seconds. Then add the white-colored part of your chopped scallions and season with a small pinch of salt. Keep stir-frying for another 5 seconds. You should smell a great aroma coming from the spices. Be careful not to burn the ingredients.
- Add the veggies:Add sliced green and red bell peppers to the. Season with another pinch of salt and white pepper. Constantly scoop and stir the ingredients for about 10 -15 seconds total.
- Add the chicken:Add chicken back to the wok. Toss all ingredients together for about 10-15 seconds. (Optional: deglaze the wok with 1 tbsp of Chinese rice wine.)
- Serve & enjoy:Serve over a large size plate. Sprinkle with the chopped green part of your scallions, more toasted sesame seeds, and 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil.
Nutrition
It was an honor to share my family’s recipe with Irena and EDP readers. I look forward to sharing more Paleo tips and journey together ! :))
Rather salty… I put salt on just about everything and I found this salty without adding any extra.
But otherwise DELICIOUS! I’ll definitely be making it again 🙂
I’ve adjusted the salt in the ingredients. I did think it looked like it might be a bit much too 😉 Glad you liked it though.
This sounds amazing! Pinning to try soon 🙂
Looks wonderful, stir fries are my favorite kind of dinner and I can’t wait to try this out soon!
This doesn’t have to do with the recipe; but do you have a recipe for or a safe site for Paleo Surya bread?
No, I don’t. Sorry.
This will be a regular in our house! I used chilli oil to fry the chicken in instead of adding and the heat was just right. I also added an extra white onion with the red and green peppers just to bulk it up a bit for a main meal. Added a bit of sweetness too.
Do you have nutritional information on this?
Another one of your awesome recipes, added julienned carrots and used red and yellow peppers as I wasn’t buying green peppers from Holland when I live in New Zealand! Unfortunately mine wasn’t very crispy! But boy was it tasty! Thanks
LOVED it! I’ll make it again with less salt, less oil, but overall a winner. Excellent flavor! I served with brown rice.
Thanks Carol 🙂 Glad you liked it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! This will definitely be in my recipe rotation. What wonderful layers of flavors!
Thanks Gail! Happy to hear you enjoyed it.
Amazing recipe, super easy once everything was prepped. Hubs and kiddo liked it and I’m already planning on making it again next week, but a double batch so I have leftovers!
Thanks, glad you liked it 🙂
This came out delicious! I did sub arrowroot flour for potato starch since it was all I had. I also added some kale at the end for more greens. This will become a new go-to recipe for me. Thank you!
Thank you, I’m glad you liked it 🙂