Quick and easy stir fry recipe

If you're looking for a quick and easy meal you could make during a study break, this stir fry recipe is ideal. It takes just 15 minutes to cook and can be a great way of using up your leftovers.

Credit: gorkem demir - Shutterstock

If you're lucky enough to live close to your campus, you might be able to dash home during your lunch break to whip up a nice, hot meal. This speedy chicken stir fry recipe is perfect for students and only takes 15 minutes to make.

It can also make great use of your leftovers – like with our soup recipes. We've suggested using chicken here, but you can also use pork or beef if you have any to hand.

And for the vegetarians among you, this stir fry can be veggie too. You can add ingredients like mushrooms or tofu instead of meat. However you choose to make it, it tastes fantastic all the same.

Easy chicken and vegetable stir fry recipe

Ingredients

Serves: 4 | Costs: £5.97* (£1.49 per serving) | Time taken: 15 mins

• 2 packs of stir fry veg (£2.80)
• 300g of straight-to-wok egg noodles (£1.25)
• 6 tablespoons of dark soy sauce (£0.45)
• 2 tablespoons of fish sauce (£0.26)
• 4 eggs (£0.61)
• Leftover chicken – pork or beef work well too (£0.60, give or take).

Please note: If you're not following the meal plan and don't have any leftover meat, you'll need to buy a whole pack of meat which will bring the overall price up.

Method

1. Chop your chicken (or whichever meat you choose) into chunks.
2. Split your straight-to-wok noodles and place them in a bowl so they're ready to throw in later on. If you didn't manage to pick up straight-to-wok noodles, you'll want to boil them and make sure they're ready at this point.
3. Grease a frying pan and fry your chicken pieces until they're brown on both sides, and then set aside. Top tip: chicken doesn't need much oil to cook in, as it produces its own juices. However, to make sure the meat doesn't stick and burn, you should use a spritz of spray-on oil, or grease your pan by wiping a sheet of kitchen towel dipped in oil across it.
4. In a separate pan, fry the veg for around 4–5 minutes, tossing as you go.
5. Bring the chicken and veg together in a large wok on medium heat and continue to toss. Now it's time to add in your soy sauce and fish sauce too, along with any other seasoning that you fancy. If you'd like a fried egg on top, check out step 7, as you'll want to start frying that around about now.
6. Once you're satisfied your meat is cooked through, and that everything's combined nicely, stir in your pre-prepped noodles. Continue to stir and toss for 2 minutes.
7. You may wish to serve your stir fry with a fried egg on top (we'd certainly recommend it). If this is the case, before you add your noodles to the wok, start frying your egg (or eggs, if you're cooking for your flatmates too) so that it's ready for serving at the same time as your stir fry.
8. Dish up and serve. Season to taste if you wish.

Stir fry is wonderfully versatile, meaning you can adjust this recipe any way you'd like.

Don't fancy the fish sauce? Swap it for another seasoning of your choice. Prefer beef in your wok to chicken? That's fine too. The be-all-and-end-all of this recipe is that so long as everything's cooked through, you can alter it in several ways.

We love this dish as not only is it super tasty, but it's also really quick and simple. It's a great way to feed yourself and your friends on a budget. The perks just keep on coming.

Stop throwing away your leftover meats and make use of them with this charming meal. You can thank us later!

Looking for more simple and budget-friendly recipes? See our full weekly meal plan, which this stir fry recipe is a part of.

* Prices are correct at the time of writing (using Tesco.com, Sainsburys.co.uk and Asda.com prices as guidelines).