Thai Basil Chicken Stir Fry

Last night I made Thai basil chicken stir fry.  The star of the dish is of course basil, and what did I do, I forgot to buy basil.  Brilliant.  Usually on Sundays we end up running around town because we don’t want to just sit at home on our last day of freedom.  For me every Friday feels like the last day of school and Sunday is the last day of summer vacation so we always try to do as much as we can on Sundays.  I already had my grocery list done and had it with me so we could stop at the grocery store on the way back from whatever random thing we ended up doing.  By the time we got to the grocery store and finished with the shopping it was already 7:15.  That is a little late for me, I like to start dinner closer to 6 or 6:30 and so of course J tried to convince me that it was way too late to cook so we should just go ahead and order pizza.  But I stood my ground, I knew I was making a stir fry and I can have it done in 30-45 minutes. So don’t let those voices distract you from your goal, making the stir fry didn’t take too much longer than having a pizza delivered and I saved at least 500 calories.

2 large chicken breasts, cut into ½” strips (Mine were 1 ½ lbs total)

1 tsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups mushrooms, sliced

2 carrots, chopped

2 cups sugar snap peas

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1 ½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves

3 tbs soy sauce (low sodium)

1 ½ tbs fish sauce

3 tbs rice vinegar

2 cups jasmine rice

Boil 3 cups of water.  Add the rice and stir to keep it from initially sticking to the bottom of the pot.  Return the water to a boil, cover and turn off the heat.  By the time the stir fry is ready the rice will be perfectly fluffy and all the water absorbed.

Heat the olive oil to medium high-heat and cook the onion and garlic until lightly browned.  Add the chicken and cook until browned.  Add the mushrooms and cook until browned.  Add the vegetables and cook until crisp tender.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir to coat well.  Serve over the rice.

6 Servings, 450 calories, 5 g fat