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There is absolutely no limit to how many different stir fries you can make. And with an elimination diet that has chicken and rice as the base of most recipes you’ll want to master them quickly. You can use pretty much any vegetable that you have lying around and you can easily mix up the sauces every time.

This sweet and savory chicken stir fry is designed to fit into phase one of an elimination diet. There is no soy sauce and not a pepper in sight. The key to livening up a stir fry with limited ingredients is fat. Chicken thighs are going to be your friend to help you through what could otherwise be an extremely boring diet. Use the chicken fat after the thighs are cooked, instead of olive oil, to stir fry the veggies to flavorful perfection.

Additionally, take a step outside your comfort zone with trying new veggies. I use bok choy in a lot of my stir fries to give it a higher flavor. Think of it like peppery celery. Also adding to a perception of heat is fresh ginger. Ginger is one of the few spicy things you can have in phase one, pretty much at all until nightshades are introduced. This sweet and savory chicken stir fry shies away from the heat to focus of the other two flavor profiles.

Lastly, and I cannot stress this enough, get real maple syrup. Yes, it is more expensive, but it is so worth it. Also, you can’t have any form of corn yet on the elimination diet so stay away from the corn syrup imposters! The maple syrup tastes so good with the coconut milk you’ll want to just drink it before you add any of the other ingredients! And you know what, treat yo’self.

Health benefits of Bok Choy

Bok Choy is a variety of Chinese cabbage. Unlike American cabbages bok choy has a texture similar to celery. It is a cruciferous green vegetable and therefore has some great health benefits.

Bok choy is an anit-inflammatory vegetable high in fiber, vitamins C, E, K, and selenium.

Ingredients

For the Stir Fry

5 bone in chicken thighs
1 large carrot, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 yellow onion, diced
3 stalks bok choy, white parts only, halved lengthwise and sliced
8 ounces of your favorite mushroom, sliced
¼ head of cabbage (about 2 cups), chopped
salt, pepper, and olive oil
4 cups cooked brown, basmatti, or jasmine rice

For the Sauce

¼ cup coconut milk (full fat preferred)
¼ real maple syrup (no corn syrup!!)
2 tsp fresh grated ginger (powdered okay just lower to 1 tsp)
½ tsp turmeric
splash of rice vinegar
1 tsp salt (or to taste)

Instructions

preheat oven to 450 degrees F
heat cast iron skillet on stove top at medium low, just make sure the pan is hot!
rub olive oil onto skins of chicken thighs and liberally season with salt and pepper
place chicken thighs skin side down in heated cast iron (it should sizzle!)
cook thighs skin side down for about 7-10 minutes until the skin is golden brown and crispy
flip thighs over and place whole skillet into the oven for 20-25 minutes until the thighs reach an internal temp of 165 degrees F
while thighs are cooking whisk together sauce ingredients (using a fork works too!)
remove thighs from oven, place thighs skin up on a paper towel lined plate to rest
return cast iron to stovetop at medium heat, leave all the fat in! (if you really want to you can drain half of it but more fat is more flavor)
stir fry the chopped veggies in all the chicken fat for about 15-20 minutes until they reach the desired texture and the mushrooms sweat their liquid completely
while the veggies are cooking eat some thigh skin, it’s delicious
remove the thigh meat from the bones and toss with the veggies and sauce off of the heat
serve on rice