Sesame Chicken With Vegetable Fried Rice

This sesame chicken recipe is a healthier spin on traditional Chinese take out. Perfect for a quick weeknight dinner, meal prep, or lunch leftovers.

“Healthy Chinese”

That’s the name for this dish in our house. Chance pretty much makes up the names for most of my recipes found on here. This is probably his new favorite meal right now. He couldn’t wait to tell his family how “we” made healthy Chinese, and how much he loves it!

We have an amazing Chinese restaurant locally, but unfortunately eating there means I’ll be swollen for days. I had to create a dish that would be a close second (or 10th, really). I love the Asian inspired flavors of ginger, garlic, and my favorite substitute – coconut aminos. This simple combo is my marinade and base for everything! It is in my Asian tuna salad, and other dishes you have yet to see here just in varying volumes.

The Ingredients

To be honest, this dish was inspired by a substitution I received in my Walmart pick up order. I originally had ordered cauliflower rice, but apparently everyone else wanted it to. Instead, they gave me cauliflower rice with vegetables. It sat in my deep freezer for a while before I figured out what I could serve it with.

This recipe came about because I honestly didn’t know what to make for dinner one night. There were a few left over chicken thighs and this cauliflower rice mixture in the back of my freezer. I decided to go with some sort of Asian/Chinese/Fried Rice meal.

I created a marinade with the essentials:

1. coconut aminos
2. honey
3. apple cider vinegar
4. garlic
5. ginger

Use any combination of these ingredients for whatever you are wanting to season or marinate – chicken, salmon (my favorite), or veggies. It is in order of largest to smallest quantity. For my recipe here, I made it into a marinade and let my chicken thighs soak in the fridge for about 20 minutes prior to cooking.

How It’s Done

Minus the marinating time, this meal can be done and on the table in less than 20 minutes. It requires no additional effort. For the marinade, I used my favorite ingredients listed above and preminced garlic and ginger. Whisk all of that together in a bowl, then add your chicken. I just tossed those bad boys in. However, you can chop them into bite size pieces prior to marinating if you prefer small bites.

After the chicken is done with its luxurious soak, just sauté the thighs in a skillet on medium high heat until cooked through. The outside is a nice golden brown, and the inside is still juicy and tender. In a separate skillet, put a little avocado oil in the pan and sautéd the frozen cauliflower rice mixture until warmed. Spice it up a little by adding in 2 eggs to scramble and a drizzle of coconut aminos. It is really copy cat fried rice.

That’s All Folks

That really is it, there is not much to it. It’s that easy!