Yes, that is sauteeing because you using a small amount of oil to keep the food from sticking and the oil kid of coats the food.

Pan fried chicken uses multiple cups of oil ao the chicken is partially submerged. If you tried to pan fry onions and green peppers the same way as pan fried chicken the oil will splash out when you put them it in due to the amount of moisture and hot oil.

Note: while I am based in the US and pan frying is probably used to mean the same thing as sauteeing somewhere else, I haven’t stumbled across that usage in a recipe before.