Quick Asian Sugar Snap Peas with Chicken

This sugar snap peas with chicken recipe is quick and adaptable to a variety of meats and veggies! This is our favorite way to cook fresh snap peas from our garden. 

Tips for an easy and healthy dinner 

Planting, picking, and washing fresh garden produce sometimes feels like it takes longer than prepping the meal itself. The trick is to use an easy recipe that gets fresh crops, such as these garden peas, on the table with simple ingredients that cook up quickly! This is a great meal to cook up a healthy dinner for a busy weeknight. 

Another tip to speed up your meal prep is to use leftover pieces of meat. This easy recipe uses fresh-cooked chicken, but using leftover chicken, pork, or beef would work great and is a great way to cut back on food waste too. That’s a win-win! Follow our recipe for slow-roasted chicken to cook a full chicken for multiple meals! Leftover cooked chicken breast chunks from the whole chicken would make this recipe quick! 

Get the kids involved!

This is a simple recipe that is great to get your kids involved in the kitchen. While you are cooking the meat, have your kids cut the peas in half. While cutting the peas in half isn’t necessary for the dish, it’s a way to make it feel extra special and get the kids involved with cooking and prepping their favorite veggies! 

Meat substitutes for budget-friendly options

This sugar snap peas recipe calls for boneless skinless chicken breast, but you can easily substitute for other cuts of chicken to make the recipe more budget-friendly. You can cut costs by taking a whole chicken and cutting it down yourself to get the breasts (see a short video on how to do this here!), or you can substitute chicken thighs for a more budget-friendly cut of chicken.  

Different Types of Peas

1. Sugar snap peas

Sugar snap peas are the type of peas that can be eaten as a whole pod, meaning you can eat the inside and the outside! They are great eaten raw with dip as a snack or easy side dish or can be used in a quick sauté, like this recipe!

2. Snow peas

Snow peas are another variety that you can eat the entire pod. They are typically used in a stir-fry, and can easily be subbed in for this recipe! 

3. Shell peas

Shell peas do not have an edible pod, which is the biggest difference between snow and sugar snap peas. They are taken out of the pod and can be eaten raw or cooked. If you think you don’t like peas, you probably have canned peas in your head. Fresh peas are the best: sweet & crisp when cooked. There’s nothing like fresh sweet peas when they are in season!

Peas are typically in season in Iowa May-June and we do a fall planting for October-November. The season is very short, so be sure to get them while you can! Buy Peas from our farm store here! 

Quick Asian Sugar Snap Peas with Chicken

This simple dish uses minced garlic, ground ginger, and coconut aminos, in addition to the pea pods and chicken. These simple ingredients give this dish great flavor with the little crunch from the bright green peas. 

What is Coconut aminos? 

Coconut Aminos is used as an alternative to soy sauce. It has a slight natural sweetness to it and gives this simple dish great flavor. Coconut Aminos is made from the fermented sap of the coconut palm tree and has salty and savory notes. It has great flavor and is the perfect addition to any type of peas, or your other favorite veggies. 

We love Azure Standard’s Coconut Aminos! Azure is a bulk organic food supplier that ships all over the USA to drop points where you pick up your items off a semi.

Ingredient list:

3 tablespoons peanut oil or can use lard or avocado oil 

1 pound skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips

1 garlic clove – minced (or can substitute 1 tsp garlic powder) 

1 tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot powder (shop Azure) 

1/4 cup coconut aminos (alternative to soy sauce)

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger 

3/4 pound sugar snap peas, cut in half crosswise for fun! (can use frozen)

Salt to taste 

Optional: Drizzle of sesame oil

Optional: red pepper flakes 

Other fresh ingredients:

This recipe is a great way to use other fresh ingredients you have on hand, so next time you have a fresh garden harvest consider using new veggies such as green beans or asparagus in place of the fresh sugar snap peas. 

For serving:

Rice- We recommend always cooking your rice with bone broth! Just substitute the water for a 1:1 ratio with the bone broth. This gives you a tastier outcome and is packed full of protein and nutrients too! Refer to our blog post on making bone broth from scratch here!

Coconut aminos or sesame oil 

We save the red pepper flakes until serving for those who like the spice. 

Method:

1. Toss chicken pieces with 1.5 tablespoons of peanut oil or lard with cornstarch or arrowroot powder, garlic, and ground ginger. Cover and let sit in this dry mix for 1 hour. If you’ve got time, let the meat rest for about 15 minutes before cooking. If you don’t have an hour, no biggie! Do this step first and then start your rice and do the other prep work.

2. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add 1.5 tablespoons peanut oil or lard, and add chicken to the hot pan, keeping in a single layer. Let sear for one minute without stirring, then stir until opaque (about 2-3 minutes)

3. Add peas and stir until tender-crisp, about 1 minute. 

4. Stir in coconut aminos , and sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or sesame oil if you feel fancy.

Serve right away! 

Note: If you are using pre-cooked meat, toss the meat with the spices and coconut aminos and let rest for 15 minutes. Then add to a hot skillet for a minute or two to reheat and then follow the rest of the instructions.