The Girls' General (Paleo) Stir Fry...

It's named "Girls' General Stir Fry" b/c McKlayne helped as the official "taste-tester" and "ingredient adder" as I've made several adjustments to a General Tso's recipe to "paleo-fy" it and get it just right over the last year. McKlayne gave me high-fives all throughout this meal as she commented on how good this was.


Several things that I love about this meal: I love that this meal is PACKED with tons of veggies. I love that it makes PLENTY of leftovers, even for all of our big eaters!  (It's really good the next day for lunch!) And I love that I can actually prep most of this meal earlier that day (or even earlier in the week) to make a quick dinner to throw together.  (I actually riced my cauliflower the day I bought it and kept it in the fridge for 5 days before making this meal. If I prep the broccoli and carrots, too, this meal is pretty simple...it just takes some time to cook in batches since it makes so much.) This makes clean-up much easier and cuts down on time in the kitchen. If you don't prepare all your veggies before-hand this could take about an hour or longer to prepare and cook...but maybe that's just  because of my four little "interruptions" as I frequently have to take breaks to referee or move them on to something else to keep the babies "busy".


Okay...onto the recipe:

2 heads of cauliflower, riced

4-5 cups broccoli (I use raw, but I'm sure frozen would be fine, too.)

5 large carrots, sliced into rounds

1 large onion, cut into large chunks (like you would for a stir fry)
3 chicken breasts (cut into bite size chunks, seasoned with paprika, chili powder, s&p)
Plus the sauce ingredients listed in Step 2.

1. Begin by "ricing" 2 heads of raw cauliflower: Remove stems and leaves, and chop florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like rice. (I find it much easier to pulverize the cauliflower in several batches.  It's less messy AND I have better control over the consistency.  I like mine to look like large feta cheese crumbles....any smaller and I think it gets too mushy.) I usually set my processor on a 1-2 (out of 6) and pulverize away. Set riced cauliflower aside.
2. Then, prepare the sauce. (Half this if you're making a smaller portion.) Whisk the following together thoroughly in a small saucepan: 


2 cups Chicken Broth 

1/2 cup raw honey
1/4 cup Coconut Aminos (this is to replace soy sauce..it's wheat and soy free)
1/4 cup apple juice (sherry wine or white wine...I actually had some of this and none of the others, so I used the apple juice)
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar 
1/8 cup lemon juice
1-2 tsp garlic chili sauce (optional: my kids don't mind the spice, but if your kids are sensitive, you can cut it out...if you cut it, make sure you add some garlic powder, maybe 1 tsp.)

Let all of this begin to simmer and then add: 1/4 cup arrowroot powder with 1/4 cup of water, for thickening. Simmer, allowing the sauce to thicken a bit. Turn heat to low.  

3. While the sauce is simmering, prepare the chicken: Melt a couple tablespoons of coconut oil in a large pan on medium heat and brown all sides of meat. Once the chicken is starting to brown, turn heat down to med-low and steam for a few minutes until done. When it's done, transfer it to a large serving bowl where you will combine all the stir-fry. (While chicken is cooking, get started on the veggies.) If I had a large electric skillet, I'd probably do all the veggies in this (and use it in place of my "serving bowl"), but I don't so I have to make it in my largest pan and do a couple batches.

4. Cover bottom of hot pan with coconut oil and fry cauliflower. This may take about 10 minutes or so. When you think it's done, taste a little bit...if it still tastes cauliflower-y then cook it a little longer until it doesn't taste like much (kinda like rice.) When it's done, dump it in your serving bowl.

5. Add about 1/4 cup of the stir-fry sauce to your large pan and pour in the rest of the veggies (broccoli, carrots and onion) and cover for about 10 minutes. Occasionally stir everything together, until veggies reach desired "done-ness".  Transfer everything to the huge serving bowl with the "rice" and chicken, mixing together well.

6. Dish out individual servings of the stir-fry and top with desired amount of sauce. Enjoy your stir-fry! 

If you liked this, you may enjoy this even easier go-to-dish: Pork Fried Rice.