Teriyaki Stir Fry

My oldest is taking advanced culinary classes in high school. He always has some sort of comment about what I'm making for dinner. When I made this, he said, "Mmm, smells like it has an Asian flair, yet you're not using Asian ingredients. What exactly are you making?" If he hadn't started with the "Mmm," I might have been offended.

I found the original recipe on one of my favorite Paleo sites. It originally called for flank steak (beef teriyaki). Flank steak was going for $7 per pound. No thank you. I'll use chicken. I also switched up the veggies a bit and served it over quinoa. Quinoa is such a funny word. It always makes me think of that football commercial where the guy's team won when he ate a quinoa burger so he decided quinoa was magic or good luck or something. So funny! Quinoa is a little magical. If you haven't tried it, you simply must. It has the highest protein content of any grain (though it is actually a seed). Ancient Incan warriors used to eat it before going off to battle because of the energy it gave them.

Another note about quinoa - the package directions state to rinse it well before cooking. It has a natural bug repellant called sapopin that can have a bitter taste. I've tried it both ways - rinsing it and not rinsing it - but I've never had it taste bitter, so I skip the rinsing step. Quite frankly, it's kind of a pain. To cook it, use a 3:1 ratio of water to dry quinoa, but I usually use a little less water so it doesn't get mushy. Boil the water, add the quinoa and cook for 15 minutes or until the water is absorbed. One-half cup dry quinoa will yield 1 1/2 cups cooked.

The recipe got good reviews. It doesn't really taste like teriyaki to me, but it has really deep, rich layers of flavors.

Ingredients:
Drizzle olive oil
1 sweet onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
4 large chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup Liquid Aminos (or low sodium soy sauce)
1/4 cup honey
1 to 2 T. Frank's Red Hot (or hotsauce of choice)
1 tsp fish sauce
8 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 medium zucchini, quartered and sliced
Sea salt & ground black pepper

Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Drizzle in a little olive oil, then add onion, pepper and ginger. Saute until vegetables start to soften. Add chicken and cook until no longer pink.

Add Liquid Aminos, honey, hot sauce and fish sauce. Stir until completely combined, and adjust seasonings if necessary. Add zucchini and mushrooms and continue cooking until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve over brown rice, quinoa or spaghetti squash.