Home Cooks Online

Fast, Asian inspired one pan dish by guest author, Heather Forsyth.

I can tell it’s almost spring because I couldn’t resist buying a few handfuls of vibrant green, crisp snowpeas that appeared recently at my local grocer.  Snowpeas beg to be put in something stir-fried, with Asian flavors, and sure enough that’s what these ended up in.  For a really “authentic” taste, it’s worth buying the dark sesame oil.  It’s pricey, but a little goes a long way, and makes a big flavor difference here.  This recipe comes together quickly once you start cooking so you’ll definitely want to do your prep work ahead of time, unless you’re an extraordinarily fast hand with a knife (in which case you should give up your day job and become a sushi chef).  I use vermicelli or linguine noodles because I think the flat surfaces are best for this kind of dish, and I like the way they look, but you can use any kind you have handy.  Although I wouldn’t normally rinse pasta, in this dish you’ll want to remove the excess starch to make it easier to toss the noodles around later.

Noodle Stir-Fry with Chicken and Snowpeas

• 8 oz. dried noodles, cooked
  
• 12 oz. chicken tenders or boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips
  
• 1 t. cornflour
  
• 1 t. sugar
  
• 1/4 t. salt (I know it seems redundant with the salty soy sauce, but it seems to need it)
  
• 3 T. soy sauce
  
• 3 T. vegetable oil, divided use
  
• 2 T. dark sesame oil, divided use
  
• 6-8 shitake mushrooms, sliced
  
• 4 oz. (roughly 30 or so) snowpeas, halved lengthwise
  
• 2-3 stalks celery, cut into 1" diagonal slices
  
• 6 thin slices of fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
  
• 1 garlic clove, minced
  
• A few flakes of dried red pepper 

Cook the noodles then drain, rinse and set aside.  Mix cornflour, sugar, salt and soy sauce together in a medium bowl, then add the chicken and toss to coat. Heat 2 T. of the vegetable oil and 1 T. sesame oil in wok or large frying pan over high heat.  When very hot, add the chicken and stir fry for about 4 minutes.  Add the mushrooms, celery and snowpeas and stir-fry for 3 to 4 more minutes; then the garlic, ginger and red pepper and cook for another minute or two.  Transfer to a warm dish.  Lower the heat a little, add the remaining oils to the pan, then the cooked noodles.  Toss the noodles until heated through and coated with oil.  Return the chicken and vegetables to the pan and mix with the noodles until everything is hot.  This should serve 4, but in our house it only fed two of us, with just enough leftover to fight over for lunch the next day.