I grew up eating a variety of different stir fries. Popular dishes growing up were Chow Mein, Mongolian beef, Black Bean chicken stir fry, Pad Thai, and my mom’s favorite, Kung Pao! There were a lot of Asian flavors in our household because we were just a Korean family wanting comfort food. Plus, my mom was the head chef. She eventually taught me how to make stir-fries, and this chicken green bean mushroom stir fry recipe is heavily inspired by it. It’s a simple stir fry that uses chicken, green beans, and mushrooms.
One lesson my mom taught me, and that I’ll pass on to you, is that stir fries become a very easy dish, once you master the sauce. Once you understand the typical ingredients that go into a good sauce, it’s only a matter of picking your meat and vegetables. Even with this recipe, the sauce is the star.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s not important to keep in mind certain tips and techniques to make a classic stir-fry restaurant quality. In this recipe guide, I’ll show you how to make the best chicken mushroom green bean stir fry, while showing you the techniques you need to make it high-quality.
Table of Contents
- Ingredients for Chicken Green Bean Mushroom Stir Fry
- How to Make Chicken Green Bean Mushroom Stir Fry
- 5 Tips to Make a Fool-Proof Stir Fry
- Substitutions for Green Bean Mushroom Stir Fry
- What to Serve with Chicken Green Bean Mushroom Stir Fry
- How to Store Leftover Chicken Mushroom Green Bean Stir Fry
- More Asian-Inspired Recipes
Ingredients for Chicken Green Bean Mushroom Stir Fry
Chicken Breasts: In this chicken green bean mushroom stir fry recipe, I call for two large chicken breasts cut into 1-inch cubes. If you don’t have chicken breasts, chicken thighs also work great! Whenever you’re making a stir fry, you’ll want to use a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio of meat to vegetables, depending on your preference.
Green Beans: Take fresh, raw green beans, cut off the ends, and then cut them into 1-inch pieces. You want to make sure you’re cutting them into smaller, bite-sized pieces, so it’s easier and more enjoyable to eat. In this green bean and mushroom stir fry recipe, use two cups of chopped green beans.
Cremini Mushrooms: Slice raw Cremini mushrooms and set them aside until you’re ready to start cooking the stir-fry. For this chicken green bean mushroom stir fry recipe, use two cups of sliced mushrooms.
Avocado Oil: When you start cooking the stir fry, you’ll need to heat a sizable amount of oil in a wok or frying pan to get that classic stir fry taste and feel. In this recipe, I use ¼ cup of avocado oil, because it can take a high smoke point, is a neutral-tasting oil, and is much healthier than vegetable or canola oils.
Peanut oil is also a good option to use, but just note it’s not as healthy nor neutral tasting. If you use peanut oil, your stir fry will have a hint of peanut flavor. This is a great type of oil to use for other stir fries, like Kung Pao.
Egg Whites: Whip the egg whites of one egg in a small bowl and pour it over the raw, cubed chicken breast meat. By letting your meat marinate in egg whites for at least 30 minutes in the fridge, it will break down the proteins and make your meat more tender.
Soy Sauce: Soy sauce is the main ingredient in this green bean mushroom stir-fry sauce. In this recipe, I ask for three tablespoons. It will give the stir fry a salty, umami, and hearty taste.
Chicken Broth: Use one tablespoon of chicken broth to water down the sauce. Adding a little chicken broth to your stir-fry sauce ensures your sauce doesn’t get too salty from the soy sauce.
Hoisin Sauce: Hoisin is a thick, fragrant sauce that adds a sweet and savory taste to any stir-fry.
Sesame Oil: In this recipe, only add one teaspoon of sesame oil. Sesame oil will add a sesame-y and smokey flavor to the stir-fry.
Rice Vinegar: By adding rice vinegar to your sauce, you balance out the salty, sweet, and spicy flavors with something more acidic. It cuts any grease, oil, and fat content nicely.
Honey: Add honey to balance out the flavors of the sauce. If you don’t add a sweetener to your sauce, you risk it becoming too salty. You can also add refined sugar. However, I use honey because it’s more natural and healthier.
Red Chili Pepper: Add red chili pepper to add spiciness. My favorite type of red chili pepper to add is gochugaru. Although it’s Korean and not Chinese, I think it adds a sweet and spicy flavor that no other ground pepper has. Korean pepper is known to be much more sweet than other ground chili peppers.
If you don’t have gochugaru, you can use crushed red pepper flakes, red chili pepper (of the Indian variety), or cayenne. Just take note of that pepper’s spiciness level and adjust to your flavor preferences and spice tolerances.
Cornstarch: Adding cornstarch to your stir-fry sauce helps thicken it during the cooking process, and gives you the classic stir-fry taste and texture. You don’t need much cornstarch to thicken an entire pan of stir fry. Only use one tablespoon in this recipe.
How to Make Chicken Green Bean Mushroom Stir Fry
Cut the Chicken Breasts: I start cutting the chicken breasts in half, length-wise. Once you have two long tenders from one chicken breast, cut each piece in half length-wise again. Then, cut it into 1-inch pieces. Whip the egg whites and pour over the meat. Sprinkle the ground white pepper on the cubed chicken.
Cut and Prep the Vegetables: Before you turn the stove on and start cooking the stir fry, prepare all of the vegetables first. Cut the green beans into 1-inch pieces, and slice the mushrooms.
Make the Sauce: Combine the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, honey, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, chicken broth, and red chili pepper in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Using a separate small bowl, combine one tablespoon of cornstarch with one tablespoon of water and mix until it forms a thick liquid. Slowly drizzle the cornstarch water into the sauce while stirring the sauce with a whisk. Set aside.
Heat the Wok: Heat a wok or frying pan over high heat with ¼ cup of avocado oil. Once the oil starts to smoke, start cooking the stir-fry by dumping the cubed chicken breasts into the pan.
Start Cooking the Stir Fry: Sauté the chicken for 3-5 minutes, or until 90% cooked through. Next, throw in the chopped vegetables and sauté for two minutes. Next, add the sauce and sauté for 1-2 minutes, or until the sauce thickens, the chicken is cooked through, and the vegetables are fork tender. Take it off the stove and let it cool or serve it right away.
5 Tips to Make a Fool-Proof Stir Fry
1. Prepare All Your Ingredients Before Cooking
Prepare all of your stir-fry ingredients before you begin the cooking process. Cut up and marinate the chicken, slice and chop all the vegetables needed for your stir-fry, and make the sauce. Once you heat the frying pan over high heat, all the ingredients and stir-fry components should be ready to just grab and throw into the pan quickly.
If you try to prep some of the ingredients in the middle of cooking, you risk falling behind and burning the stir-fry before it’s done cooking.
2. Use Cornstarch
Cornstarch helps thicken the stir-fry sauce in the cooking process, and gives you that classic stir-fry taste and texture! You can add cornstarch in a variety of ways during the cooking process. My favorite way is to mix cornstarch and water and mix it into the sauce before adding it to the pan. Then, once you add all of the sauce to the pan, the sauce will thicken when it meets the heat.
Another way you can do it is to add the cornstarch to your raw meat when you add the ground white pepper and egg whites. This is the method my mom used when I was growing up and is another classic method to add cornstarch to your stir-fries.
3. Water Down Sauce with Chicken Broth
When I first started cooking stir fries on my own, I always made them too salty. There was always too much soy sauce, even if the quantity of sauce I used wasn’t much. I was so confused why this kept happening.
Then I referenced my mom’s old recipes, I noticed she mixed chicken broth with her sauces. When I tried this, it worked wonders. It brought out the flavors of the other sauce ingredients more because it was no longer overpowered by the salty soy sauce. If you want to make a tasty, well-balanced stir-fry, dilute your sauce with a little bit of chicken broth. It can be as little as one tablespoon.
4. Cook Your Stir Fry in a Hot Wok or Cast Iron
Use a wok or a cast iron pan when you make stir-fries, and turn the heat up to high. Using a cast iron or wok helps you conduct heat at a much faster and greater rate than regular frying pans. It helps the stir-fry cook faster and more evenly distributes the heat.
These pans conduct heat much better because woks are made out of carbon steel and cast iron pans are made out of cast iron, or a mixture of iron and steel.
5. Move Quickly
Once the oil in your pan heats up, move quickly. The time in making stir-fries comes mostly from prepping the ingredients, as the cooking process is very quick. That’s because you’re using such a high heat, you have to move quickly to not burn the food.
You may be wondering, why not turn the heat down so as not to burn the food? If you lower the heat, you will lose the integrity and taste of the stir-fry, and it will arguably not be a stir-fry anymore. Stir fries were designed to be cooked on high heat with quick and constant motion. By cooking the food rapidly like this, the proteins brown uniformly and the vegetables lose their raw edge but retain their vibrant color and a bit of a crunch.
Substitutions for Green Bean Mushroom Stir Fry
If you don’t have all of the ingredients to make this chicken mushroom green bean stir fry, don’t worry. The amazing thing about stir-fries is that they are flexible and adaptable to what you like and what you have.
Chicken Breasts: Substitute with chicken thighs, thinly-sliced cuts of steak, or ground pork.
Green Beans and Mushrooms: Chicken with green beans and mushrooms is delicious! However, if you don’t have them, replace them with any vegetable variety including bell peppers, sliced red or yellow onions, zucchini, broccoli, snap peas, baby corn, water chestnuts, and carrots.
Sauce Ingredients: You can replace hoisin sauce with oyster sauce. You can replace rice wine vinegar with regular white vinegar, Saki, or mirin. You can replace the chicken broth with water. Substitute honey with sugar, agave, or another natural sweetener. Substitute soy sauce with coconut aminos, and cornstarch with arrowroot powder. Replace gochurgaru with another ground chili pepper variety, Sambal, Siracha, or chili oil.
What to Serve with Chicken Green Bean Mushroom Stir Fry
I love serving chicken green bean stir fry with freshly steamed rice and kimchi. However, you can also serve it with a multitude of other sides.
Carbs: White rice, brown rice, purple rice, garlic noodles.
Dumplings: Vegetable pork dumplings, kimchi dumplings, and chicken cilantro dumplings.
Vegetable Side Dishes or Korean Banchan: Kimchi, Korean cucumber salad, seasoned bean sprouts, spicy radish salad, and braised potatoes.
How to Store Leftover Chicken Mushroom Green Bean Stir Fry
You can store this leftover chicken stir fry with green beans and mushrooms in the fridge for up to a week. Store in an air-tight container.
More Asian-Inspired Recipes
- Korean Beef Rice Bowl
- Sweet & Spicy Korean Cucumber Salad
- Easy Teriyaki Chicken
- Chinese Chicken Salad
Chicken Green Bean Mushroom Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 2 large chicken breasts diced into cubes
- 2 cups cremini mushrooms sliced
- 2 cups green beans chopped into 1" pieces
- ¼ cup avocado oil
- egg whites of 1 egg beaten with a whisk
- ½ tsp. white ground pepper
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 bunch scallions for garnish (optional)
Sauce
- 3 tbs. soy sauce
- 1 tbs. chicken broth
- 2 tbs. hoisin sauce
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 2 tsp. rice vinegar
- 1 tsp. honey
- 1 tsp. gochugaru Korean red ground chili powder
- 1 tbs. cornstarch
Instructions
- Start by drying the raw chicken breasts with a paper towel, in order to soak up any extra moisture.
- Cut the chicken into bite-sized cubes. You can do this by placing the chicken breast vertically to you and cutting it in half length-wise. Then slice it in half length-wise again. Turn it horizontally to you and cut it into 1-inch pieces.
- Put the cubed chicken into a medium-sized bowl and season with salt and white ground pepper.
- Separate the egg whites of one egg into a small bowl and whisk with a fork until frothy—about 1 minute.
- Pour the egg whites into the bowl of chicken, add the ground white pepper, and mix together. Place in the fridge with plastic wrap until ready to stir-fry.
- To make the sauce, combine the soy sauce, chicken broth, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, honey, and gochugaru in a small bowl and mix well. Then, using a mini sifter, sift the cornstarch into the sauce until the whole 1 tbs. is used up. Make sure to quickly whisk the sauce as you sift the cornstarch. Then set it aside.
- Next, cut the green beans in 1-2 inch pieces. Place in a bowl, rinse, and then set aside.
- Cut the mushrooms into slices. Set aside.
- Next, heat a pan with ¼ cup oil on high. Cast iron pans or woks are great for cooking stir fries, as they conduct heat really well and keep the food hot. However, if you don’t have either of those pans, a frying pan works great too.
- Using tongs, spread the chicken across the pan creating an even layer. Sauté the chicken until slightly undercooked, about 3-5 minutes. You want the chicken to be slightly undercooked before you add the vegetables, because you will need time to cook the vegetables, but don’t want to overcook the chicken.
- Then add the green beans and mushrooms and sauté for 3-5 minutes, or until fork tender.
- Add the sauce and sauté for about 2 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
- Take the pan off the heat, and turn off the burner. Serve with chopped scallions and a side of rice. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
These values were taken from a nutrition calculator.
Jen
simple and delicious
Audrey Sommer
Thank you Jen!
Marlana
I’ve made this dish twice already because my family loves it. It’s very, very tasty!
Audrey Sommer
Thank you Marlana! I'm so happy your family likes it 🙂