Stir-Fried Chicken with Noodles

When it comes to ’stir fry’, my husband likes lots of ’sauce’. It is difficult to feed him stir-fry that doesn’t come from a packet – simple soy sauce and spices is not sufficient. However, whilst flicking through an old Good Food Magazine, I came across a recipe that uses sweet chilli sauce and thought that maybe here was something I could use.  So, I read through the recipe, which turned out to be entirely cooked using a microwave (something we no longer own), and then decided to put it away, and see what I could come up  with using my trusty wok, a bottle of sweet chilli sauce, and of course soy sauce.  The inclusion of chopped peanuts isn’t one I would have thought of, so I owe that to the magazine recipe. The coriander gave it a lovely fresh tang, without being over powering – in fact it reminded me of the Pad Thai I recently ate in Minneapolis – yum!

Serves 2 (possibly with leftovers, we both had seconds, but it’s healthy, right?)

• 2 chicken breasts
• Around 100-125g egg noodles (as per pack instructions).
• 1 red pepper
• 4 spring onions
• 200g beansprouts (fresh or tinned)
• 2 tbspn sweet chilli sauce
• 3 tbspns light soy sauce (I use the lower salt version)
• 25g / 1 oz peanuts
• handful coriander

1. Roast chicken in oven at 180c for approx 20 minutes (dependent on size) until cooked through. Shred using 2 forks, and put to one side.

2. Cook the noodles according to pack instructions, these can be cooked in advance, or in tandem with the rest of the stir fry.

3. Heat the oil in a wok or heavy based pan, at a medium high heat. Then add the red pepper and spring onions. Cook for around 2 minutes until the pepper starts to soften, then add the beansprouts. Stir-in, and add the shredded chicken.  Stir-in the chilli sauce and soy sauce, so that everything is evenly coated.

4. Roughly chop the peanuts (I use a hand blender), and add to the wok along with the roughly chopped coriander. Cook for a further minute or so before adding the noodles. Mix well, and enjoy!

We enjoyed ours simply with some prawn crackers, but if you fancy a vegetable side dish then Pak Choi or tender-stem broccoli would go beautifully.