29 Stir-Fry Recipes for Flavor in a Flash
All products featured on Epicurious are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
If there’s one technique that’ll seriously improve your weeknight dinner situation, it’s dialing in your stir-fry moves. Working your way through these stir-fry recipes will give you ample practice—and guarantee a series of delicious meals in the process. Below you’ll find speedy options with chicken, shrimp, and tofu and great ways to cook eggplant, green beans, and noodles galore. If you really want to lean in, you might want to consider adding an induction wok to your kitchen arsenal as cookbook author Jon Kung recommends. In the meantime, scroll down for our best stir-fry recipes.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne1/29Kung Pao Chicken
For most stir-fry recipes, it’s a good idea to prep all of your ingredients before turning on the stove. Here, you’ll marinate cubes of boneless, skinless, chicken breast or thigh while you whip a quick sauce with black vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin, sesame oil, sugar, cornstarch, and tingly ground Sichuan peppercorns. Once your wok is on the heat, it all wraps up in just a few minutes.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne3/29Mala Xiang Guo
You can think of this dish as hot pot’s soupless cousin. It’s a delightfully flexible recipe—and a great way to revive leftovers. Keep the spice oil in your fridge and you can use it with any cooked vegetables or proteins that you have around.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Prop Styling by Anne Eastman, Food Styling by Lillian Chou4/29Fish-Fragrant Eggplant With Minced Pork
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Prop Styling by Anne Eastman, Food Styling by Lillian Chou7/29Ants Climbing a Tree
Photo by Betty Liu8/29Flowering Chives and Pork Slivers
This stir-fry recipe from My Shanghai by Betty Liu pairs the fresh green sweetness of flowering garlic chives and ginger with tender bites of pork loin.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Prop Styling by Anne Eastman, Food Styling by Lillian Chou10/29Big Plate Chicken
Photo by Maggie Zhu11/29Stir-Fried String Beans With Tofu
This vegetarian dinner gets its deep flavor from homemade black bean sauce, but if you’re short on time, you can use jarred.
Photo by Yudi Ela Echevarria13/29Kungpao Shrimp
You can make the sauce for this recipe from The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp by Jing Gao up to two weeks ahead. The stir-frying process takes only five minutes or so, so you’ll want to wait until your rice is ready.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton14/29Khao Phat Kai
This Thai fried rice with chicken from Simple Thai Food by Leela Punyaratabandhu gets a squeeze of lime juice and a drizzle of spicy chile fish sauce at the table.
Photo by Uyen Luu16/29Tofu and Tomatoes With Spinach and Basil
This Vietnamese specialty is a knockout during tomato season—but it’s quite good with off-season grape tomatoes too.
Photo by Maureen M. Evans18/29Pad Prik Khing Pla Tort
This dry red curry from Kin Thai by John Chantarasak includes instructions for your making your own aromatic red curry paste. But using store-bought is an option as well.
Photo by Betty Liu19/29Bean Sprout Stir-Fry With Chicken and Garlic Chives
Pair boneless chicken thighs with crisp, juicy mung bean sprouts in this stir-fry, one of author Betty Liu’s favorites.
20/29Lucky 8 Stir-Fry
Photo by Heami Lee, food styling by Judy Haubert, prop styling by Rebecca Bartoshesky24/29Pad See Ew With Chicken
Photo by Yudi Ela Echevarria25/29Mapo Eggplant
Tofu is traditional, but eggplant does an amazing job soaking up the sauce in this mapo recipe.
Photograph by Isa Zapata, food styling by Thu Buser, prop styling by JoJo Li26/29Spicy Oyster Mushroom and Lemongrass Stir-Fry
Photograph by Cody Guilfoyle, Prop Styling by Nicole Louie, Food Styling Thu Buser28/29Three-Cup Chicken With Scissor-Cut Noodles
Three-cup chicken is a Taiwanese classic; here it becomes a showstopping sauce for homemade noodes.
