Sesame Chicken and Noodles

Do you ever buy something and then realize you have way too much of it and you don't have any idea what to do with it? That happened to me with rice noodles. In the city where my niece used to live is this fabulous little Asian market, where everything is cheap and they're genuinely nice people. But she and her family moved from that city to mine last fall, so I made one last shopping trip and bought an ungodly amount of stuff.

Enter this recipe, originally posted at Recipe.com. Which didn't call for rice vermicelli at all (it said udon or whole what spaghetti), but which was easily adapted so I could use a bunch of my rice noodles. I made a couple of other minor changes as well, but for the most part followed the recipe as written.

Here are the changes I made: I didn't have refrigerated, cooked chicken strips, so I broiled a couple of chicken breasts and then sliced them into strips. I used Maggi seasoning instead of low-sodium soy sauce. I didn't have any fresh ginger so I used ground. I used half the garlic-chili sauce it called for because my mother isn't a fan of hot/spicy foods. And of course the rice vermicelli instead of udon or whole wheat spaghetti.

Whenever I broil meat, I almost always use an aluminum pie plate. They're cheap (heck, half of mine were free because I always buy frozen pie crust), they hold up well under the broiler, and if for some reason something happens to them they can be thrown away without much loss. I broiled the chicken for about 7 minutes per side, then sliced it. I also laid the slices on some paper towel to absorb some of the excess grease in the pan that wouldn't have been there if I hadn't forgotten to trim the fat before I broiled them.

The recipe says to do this in a bowl, but since I already had a Ziploc bag the chicken had been frozen in, I just used it again instead of dirtying a bowl. Maggi, garlic-chili sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, honey, and green onion. I ended up letting the chicken marinate for about 20 minutes, which is about how long it took to cook the noodles.

My rice noodles require soaking in water, then boiling, then soaking in fresh water again. The package doesn't give a time for the pre-soak, so I usually set them to soak before I set a pot of water to boil. What's nice about pre-soaking them is it makes them flexible so they actually fit in the pan when the water comes to a boil, allowing me to avoid breaking them and sending them all over my kitchen.

This picture was taken after they were boiled and soaked again, rinsed, and then tossed with sesame oil as the recipe calls for.

From there, you dump the chicken along with all the marinade into the pot and toss it with the noodles. The recipe didn't allow for much time to warm this up, and mine was pretty cold. I set it over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes, to ensure everything was completely heated through.

To serve, top with red and yellow bell pepper slices. There really is chicken in there, although I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been so it's a little hard to see. I blame being very, very hungry, since that is my dinner plate. The recipe also calls for garnishing with cilantro. I hate cilantro; it makes me gag. I briefly considered garnishing with parsley because I think the green would definitely add something to the presentation, but reality says I was just serving myself and my mother in front of the TV in the living room, and garnishes aren't really my thing. It worked well enough.

Sesame Chicken and Noodles

Serves 6

1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons Asian garlic-chili sauce
2 6 ounces refrigerated grilled chicken breast strips
12 ounces dried udon noodles or whole-wheat spaghetti
3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 medium yellow, red and/or orange sweet peppers, cut in bite-size strips
Fresh cilantro

Again, not my recipe. This one comes from Recipe.com.

Calories: 391

Total Fat: 11 g

Saturated Fat: 2 g

Cholesterol: 37 mg

Carbohydrates: 51 g

Fiber: 4 g

Protein: 21 g

Sodium: 718 mg

*Nutrition information is for the recipe as written, not with my changes.