Shrimp Stir Fry With Brown Sauce

Have you ever noticed when eating out at an Asian restaurant like Pei Wei that the rice servings are huge?! You get a massive bowl of the stuff. I looked at the nutrition info on their website and there are 2 servings with each dinner. More like 4 for me right now.

I almost always get my rice on the side since I can’t finish it all. I eat what I want with dinner. Because it doesn’t get all slopped and mushy from sauce, I take a bunch of it to go and freeze it for later. Makes life so much easier when you can just pull out a bag of rice and pop it in the microwave.

The other night I got to experimenting with stir fry and decided to use some of the chicken broth leftover from another recipe. I just played around with what I had on hand to see what I ended up with. You usually can’t go wrong with stir fry.

The sauce turned out great and was a sweet/salty combo. Not too much to either side, but right down the middle of the road. The Kid gave it two thumbs up and actually asked if we had more to drizzle on her rice. I ended up scraping as much out of the bottom of the pan as I could. That doesn’t happen often so it must have been good stuff.

Easy Shrimp Stir Fry with Sweet Brown Sauce 

• 2 cups snow peas
• 12 oz cooked shrimp, shells and tails removed
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 2 cups cooked brown rice

Spray a skillet with non-stick spray and heat over medium heat. While the pan is heating, slice the snow peas into halves. This just makes them look pretty on the plate, not a requirement. After the pan is warm, put in the snow peas and saute for 2 – 3 minutes until cooked. Stir often to prevent them from burning.

Add the shrimp and saute for another minute until the shrimp are warm. Remove the snow peas and shrimp and divide evenly on plates. Return the pan to the heat and add the chicken broth, fish sauce, and sugar. Stir with a whisk to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Once boiling, sprinkle in the cornstarch and whisk continuously until the sauce is thickened. This will only take about a minute. Remove from heat and drizzle over the shrimp and snow peas. Serve with a side of brown rice.

Makes 4 servings at 256 calories each – 23g protein, 26g carbs, and 6g fat.

Notes

• I love snow peas so I used those, but you can also use other stir fry veggies like sliced peppers, broccoli, carrots, and onions. Experiment with what your family likes.
• I used cooked shrimp to save on time. If you don’t like shrimp, you can use any other protein sliced into smaller pieces. If you have to cook your protein, make that the first step and stir fry it before adding in the snow peas.
• This sauce was a nice sweet version. Next time I might add a pinch of sriracha for a spicy take on it.

If you’re looking for other ways to use fish sauce, I’ve got another recipe for Thai soup and a tofu salad to help you use up the bottle.