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Love at First Spiral
This recipe is the FIRST zucchini noodle recipe I ever cooked! It is what made me fall in love with my spiralizer (get one NOW! you won’t be sorry) and never think about making traditional pasta again. That was over two years ago, and this recipe is still a staple at my house. We make it on almost a weekly basis. My boyfriend, who used to claim he hated all vegetables, loves it and even requests it. He was skeptical at first, but trust me, you can convert anyone once they get a taste of this dish. If you want to learn more about spiralizing veggies, check out my post on it, here.
Simple and Fast
The reason this recipe became the first one I tried was because of how simple it is. The recipe that inspired this actually called to use spaghetti squash, and a ton of various ingredients to make an intricate Asian stir fry sauce. I attempted that recipe once, and it was good, but soon realized that cutting a spaghetti squash in half takes a LOT of arm strength (which I lack), and buying ten different spices to make a sauce that tasted just like teriyaki was expensive, time consuming, and kind of silly.
So a new DWBH recipe was born. Spiralizing zucchinis is a zillion times easier than making the spaghetti squash, benefit number one. Benefit number two, I found Kikkoman teriyaki sauce that is only 15 calories for a tablespoon, with no fat – so much healthier, cheaper, and faster than making my own with the suggested ingredients in the first recipe. They also make a low sodium, gluten free option. Benefit number three, I think my recipe is much more delicious.
Customize to Your Preferences
Once you have your zucchinis, spiralizer, and teriyaki sauce, the rest of this dish can be customized any way you want it. I make mine with chicken in our cast iron grill pan or skillet. But you can switch that for shrimp, tofu, or any other protein. Usually I am a shredded chicken advocate, but for this meal I actually prefer to just cut a breast into bite sized pieces, and cook it in some of the sauce and spices.
Then I add some extra veggies to give the dish more flavors, a little variety, and to make it more satisfying. My go-to veggies are broccoli and mushrooms. I start cooking the broccoli and mushrooms in the pan alone before adding the zoodles because these take longer to cook than the noodles do, and we want to make sure all the ingredients are correctly prepared and nothing is over or under cooked.
So all you need to do is cook the chicken in one pan, and the veggies in another. Then add the zucchini noodles to the veggie pan and cook until noodles are tender. Once everything is done, put the chicken on top of the noodles, mix it up, and you are done! I told you it was easy.
You can vary the amount of spices and teriyaki sauce as you’d like, just try the dish while you are cooking. Three tablespoons of sauce might not seem like a lot, but the zoodles release a lot of moisture as they cook. This allows the sauce to go a lot further than it would with traditional pasta. Plus the spices give the dish a lot of its flavor, while the teriyaki is a good base. Get the more detailed instructions below:
Stir Fry Zucchini Noodles
Ingredients
- 2 large chicken breasts
3 medium to large zucchinis- One (12oz) bag of broccoli florets
- One package of sliced mushrooms
- 3 tbsp teriyaki sauce
- 1.5 tsp creole seasoning
- 1.5 tsp round black pepper
- 2 dashes cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Spiralize zucchinis into noodles, set aside.
- Cut chicken into bite size pieces – cook in pan or cast iron skillet on stove, with 1 tbsp teriyaki sauce, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/2 tsp creole seasoning until fully cooked.
- In a separate pan, cook broccoli and mushrooms with 1/2 tsp black pepper until they start to get soft, but are not completely cooked to the texture you want.
- Add zucchini noodles, along with 2 tbsp teriyaki sauce, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp creole seasoning, and a couple dashes of cayenne to pan with veggies, mix together and cook until noodles are tender.
- Add chicken to noodle pan, stir to combine, and serve.
If this recipe is the first zucchini noodle recipe you ever make, I hope it inspires you to keep spiralizing like it did for me! And if you like this one you have to try my Sun Dried Tomato & Chicken Zucchini Noodles and also the Italian-Style Zucchini Noodle Bake. They are both great dishes that make fantastic dinners for the entire family.
Need a spiralizer? Get one here.
