You’ll love the Thai-Asian flavor of this really quick dinner. Most of the “Asian” ingredients are easy to find at your local grocery store. This is a perfect work night dinner, as it only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. The sauce has a little fresh ginger-chili-garlic kick with a savory sesame peanut sauce.
When I started this blog in 2008, I had been using a printable recipe card website for many years. A couple of years ago, that particular website sold and all my of recipe cards disappeared from my blog. Gone! Vanished into thin air! Thank goodness, I had switched to a new recipe card software at the same time that I switched to a new WordPress blogging platform! Still, I had lost at least ten years worth of recipe cards! What a nightmare! I have been, slowly but surely, recreating new printable recipes cards for my older blog posts. While it’s been a bit time-consuming, I’ve also had a chance to revisit older blog post recipes. That’s given me to pick and choose which ones I want to make again, and shoot better photos.
The original photos, for this post, were out of focus and were awful! (I deleted the original post.) This recipe, however, wasn’t awful. So, I decided to make the recipe again, and repost with better photos.
When I was working full-time, quick dinners were something I cherished. If I could get it on the table in 30 minutes I was grateful. This recipe meets the criteria as easy, fast and delicious. This recipe is bursting with Thai-Asian flavors. It’s really delicious!
I keep boneless chicken breasts in the freezer, because they come in handy for so many recipes, like this one.
Because we love Asian inspired flavors, I keep the following ingredients on hand: Rice Vinegar, Oyster Sauce, Sesame Oil, Chili-Garlic Sauce and fresh ginger. These aren’t exotic ingredients to find, as they are always in stock at my grocery store. To these ingredients, I also added creamy peanut butter. Done and Done! The chicken is cooked, in a little bit of oil, until no longer pink and set aside. There’s lots of flavor in that fond!
In the meantime, I’ve started a pot of salted water to boiling and added linguine noodles. In the last few minutes of cooking the noodles, I added chopped fresh asparagus. In a deep pan, I’ve added the peanut sauce and heated it– then added the cooked chicken.
Once the noodles and asparagus was cooked, I strained it and reserved about a cup of the pasta water.
The final step: add the noodles and asparagus to the chicken and sauce. With tongs, mix and combine everything, adding pasta water until the consistency is creamy. You want it not too thick, and not to watery. The whole dinner took less than 30 minutes.
Voila! Dinner is ready. I like to garnish with a little cilantro, because we love it. If I had peanuts on hand, I would’ve added a little bit of chopped peanuts as well. Lime is always a perfect garnish with this dish.
TASTING NOTES: We really liked this recipe, and I’m glad I made it again. The sauce was creamy, with just a tiny bit of heat from the chili-garlic sauce. The asparagus was cooked to just the right tender texture (We like it with a little bit of “bite”.) The only adjustment I’d make, next time, is to reduce the peanut butter from 1/3 cup to 1/4 cup. I felt that 1/3 cup tended to overpower the flavor, a bit. NOTE: I actually cut the recipe ingredients in half, since it’s just the two of us and we had enough leftovers for lunch, the next day.
One more new recipe cards done. At least a hundred more to go!
Sesame Noodles with Chicken and Asparagus
Ingredients
For the noodles:
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 12 ounces), cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 pound linguine spaghetti noodles are okay, too
- 1 pound asparagus trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
For the sauce:
- 1/3 cup peanut butter personal preference is to cut this back to 1/4 cup, as the PB might overpower the sauce
- 5 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ginger grated
- 1 1/2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
Instructions
- Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot.
- Pat chicken dry with paper towels.
- Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook chicken until no longer pink, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer to plate.
- Add pasta to boiling water and cook until just beginning to soften, about 8 minutes.
- Add asparagus to pot and cook until bright green and pasta is al dente, about 4 minutes.
- Reserve 1 cup cooking water, drain pasta and asparagus, and return to pot.
For the sauce:
- Whisk peanut butter, vinegar, oyster sauce, chili-garlic sauce, ginger, sesame oil, and ½ cup pasta cooking water in bowl until smooth.
- Add peanut butter mixture and chicken to pot and toss to combine, adding reserved pasta water as needed. Serve.
Notes
Debby, your updated photos are fabulous! I thought you’ve always had enticing pictures to accompany the recipes. I’m looking forward to making this.
Thank you for your sweet comment. I really appreciate it.
Is the Pioneer Woman copying Cook’s Country or is Cook’s Country copying the Pioneer Woman?
Well, what do you know? I got my recipe source mixed up. Yes, this is a Cook’s Country recipe that I made way back in 2009. I have edited my recipe card source. Thanks for pointing that out.