Recipe: Asian-Inspired Noodle Bowl

For a good while now, I’ve been fond of making what I call my Asian-inspired noodle bowl. The dish borrows from Thai, Japanese, and Chinese culinary traditions, and it’s a little different every time I make it, depending on available ingredients and my mood on a given day. But it’s almost always delicious (unless the ratios in my sauce are way off).

This particular version uses a base of wide rice noodles with chicken and green peppers. It was dinner last night, and unless Kelli beats me to the leftovers, it’ll be lunch today, too! Here’s how I make it:

Start with one or two boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and slice the meat thin. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Sautee in a frying pan or wok in olive oil. When the chicken is mostly cooked through, add the juice from one freshly squeezed lime (the citrus brightens the flavor, and you can experiment with using lemon or orange, as well). Set the chicken aside, and sautee one sliced green pepper. Also set aside.

At this point, boil a pot of salted water, and get your rice noodles cooking. Meanwhile, in the fry pan or wok, start to make the sauce. I always make my sauce on the fly, tasting as I go along, so I don’t have hard measurements. Estimate. Begin by adding a quarter cup or so of water to the pan, followed by several tablespoons of soy sauce (tamari wheat-free version, of course). Add a spoonfull of red curry paste, another of red chili paste, and several tablespoons of honey. Lastly, dissolve one or two spoonfulls of corn starch in a small amount of cold water, and add that to the pan as well. Mix thoroughly, and bring to a light boil. Important: you want to boil it enough for the corn starch to thicken the sauce, but no so much that you evaporate too much sauce and make the dish overly salty by concentrating the soy sauce.

Turn down the heat to medium-low, and add the chicken and pepper. When the noodles are al dente, strain them and flush under cold water. Add to the sauce, chicken, and pepper. Toss it all together to evenly distribute the sauce, and serve! Enjoy in your favorite noodle bowl, and eat with a pair of chopsticks (not a requirement).

– Pete