Sesame Chicken Noodles

Last night I prepared to make dinner by looking at my list to see what I’d planned for that night. I’d written “Sesame Chicken Noodles.” That’s it. No reference to a cookbook, no page number, nada. Confused, I pulled out my collection of most commonly used cookbooks and my list of handwritten recipes, hoping to find one entitled, “Sesame Chicken Noodles.” Perhaps I was hit by inspiration because that recipe was nowhere to be found. The problem was, my taste buds were all prepped for said dish and I couldn’t be satisfied with a substitute. I looked in my fridge and decided, “I can make something with chicken, noodles and some kind of sauce that may have something to do with sesame oil. Done! Here’s what I came up with.

I started by getting some noodles ready. If I’d been more prepared, I’d have had soft Chinese noodles, or rice noodles, but since it was last minute, I just used my regular spaghetti noodles. I used about 8 ounces to serve my family of four.

Now prep the chicken.

Cube up two large chicken breasts and sprinkle them with salt, pepper and ground ginger. Heat up about 2T olive oil in a skillet and cook the chicken until it’s cooked through.

In the meantime make the sauce. Combine:

• 2/3 C orange juice
• 1/3 C low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 t sesame oil
• 1 T cornstarch

Make sure you whisk the sauce well the dissolve the cornstarch or you’ll have big globs of cornstarch, which is less than delightful.

Add half the sauce to the hot pan with the chicken and mix it until the sauce is very thick.

Transfer this to a bowl to work on the veggies. If you have two large, deep skillets, you can always do the chicken and the veggies at the same time, but washing two pans was more work that I was willing to do, so I just prepped them one at a time.

Heat 1T olive oil in a skillet and add in

• One sliced onion
• 2 carrots, chopped finely
• Spinkle it all with salt and pepper

Let the veggies cook until the carrots are soft and the onions are translucent.

Add in about 1/4 C chicken broth. This loosens things up a bit and mellows the strong flavor of the sauce you’re about to add. You can also add water if you don’t want to open the broth for just 1/4 cup. Add in the rest of the oj/soy sauce mixture and cook for about a minute. Add in the noodles and chicken and toss everything together. At this point, I meant to top it all with some green onions, but I forgot. Next time!

This dish quite easy to put together and did in fact satisfy my taste buds.

Now without the commentary:

Sesame Chicken Noodles

Ingredients:

• 8 oz spaghetti noodles, cooked and drained
• 2 chicken breasts, cubed
• 2/3 C orange juice
• 1/3 C low sodium soy sauce
• 1 t sesame oil
• 1 T cornstarch
• 1 sliced onion
• 2 finely chopped carrots
• salt, pepper and ginger to taste
• 3T olive oil

Directions:

• Cook and drain 8 ounces spaghetti noodles
• Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and ground ginger. Heat up about 2T olive oil in a skillet and cook the chicken until it’s cooked through. Combine orange juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch in a measuring cup. Whisk until cornstarch is dissolved.
• Add 1/2 of the oj/soy sauce mixture to chicken and cook until thick. Transfer chicken to a bowl and set aside.
• In a deep skillet, heat 1T olive oil. Add carrots, onion, salt and pepper and cook until carrots are soft and onions are translucent.
• Add 1/4 C chicken broth and remaining sauce. Cook for about one minute.
• Toss in noodles and chicken.
• Top with chopped, green onions.