Easy Pepper Chicken Stir Fry (review) -- or How to Survive without Oyster Sauce

It is Sunday. I spent the day working at my actual workplace, getting some good work done because...Sunday.

My very sweet spouse offered to pick me up, and as we drove home, I realized I hadn't really thought about what to make for dinner. A quick mental inventory of the fridge: bell peppers, chicken, mushrooms. Next, Google.

The last thing I wanted to do was cook, so honestly I picked the first recipe I could find for which I had ingredients. I could have done a stir fry without a recipe, of course, but I needed some sort of inspiration.

Enter "Easy Pepper Chicken Stir Fry" from Holly at Spend with Pennies. On Pinterest it says "This Pepper Chicken Stir Fry recipe is ridiculously easy to make with ingredients that you already have in your pantry..."

MOSTLY true.  But I will tell you---I do not have oyster sauce in my pantry.  Do you? (Not a rhetorical question---I'm actually curious if that is a standard ingredient that people keep on hand).

*featured product in photo not an endorsement

So, despite finding myself without oyster sauce and feeling like a very deficient home cook in not having such a thing in my pantry, I decided to give it a go. I added honey to the stir-fry sauce.  This is not because I think that honey tastes remotely like oysters. Or oyster sauce, for that matter.  But I figured it a) wouldn't clash with the other ingredients and b) would provide some needed gooeyness to the texture. Turns out, I was right.

This was also another excellent opportunity to highlight the glory that is my larger-than-life cast iron skillet. The one my spouse thought I'd never use. It was perfect for this dish because it allowed me to cook all the chicken in a single batch with plenty of room to spare.

Slightly less cranky (thanks to a cocktail) but no more patient, I did not want to make rice, so this seemed like the right time to use those RICE NOODLES that I've had on hand for no reason other than the fact that they cook in 5 minutes. I wish I was kidding. Sometimes I really have no patience.

So, there you have it. The moral of the story? Well, there is none, except that perhaps I should add oyster sauce to my pantry staples. But this was VERY good, semi-easy, and that's even without the oyster sauce. I also did not use freshly ground pepper, but pre-ground black pepper (yikes! I know---scandalous). I think that was a good call here--it calls for a lot of pepper and the flavor came through in a way I'm not sure it would have had I patiently freshly ground all that pepper.

If you are looking for a tasty, quick (ish), and above-average stir-fry recipe, this is it!