Peanut chicken stir-fry noodles
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Serves 4
Make the spicy peanut sauce and sweet chilli dressing in advance to get ahead on this delicious chicken stir-fry.
Each serving provides 855 kcal, 50g protein, 90g carbohydrates (of which 43g sugars), 31g fat (of which 5g saturates), 10.5g fibre and 2.9g salt.
Ingredients
For the peanut sauce
For the chicken noodles
- 750g/1lb 10oz fresh udon noodles (or 3 x 250g/9oz pouches)
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
- ½ tsp Sichuan peppercorns, crushed
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
- 200g/7oz mangetout
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 4 spring onions, finely sliced on an angle
For the chilli dressing (optional)
- 100g/3½oz caster sugar
- 50ml/2fl oz red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp chilli oil
- 2 tbsp finely chopped mint leaves
To finish
Method
For the peanut sauce, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with 3 tablespoons of water until evenly combined. Set aside.
For the chicken noodles, bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Add the noodles, bring back to a simmer and cook for 1–1 minutes, or until tender. Drain in a colander, keeping back some of the cooking water. Cool the noodles under cold running water and set aside.
For the chilli dressing, dissolve the sugar in the wine vinegar in a small pan over a low heat, stirring often. Increase the heat, bring to the boil, and simmer for 3–4 minutes. Take off the heat and stir in the chilli oil. Allow to cool completely, then stir in the mint.
For the chicken noodles, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large wok over a high heat until smoking. Add half of the chicken with half of the Sichuan peppercorns, and stir fry for 2 minutes, or until it is browned all over and just cooked. Remove and set aside on a plate. Repeat with the remaining chicken and peppercorns (but don’t use any more oil).
Once all the chicken is cooked and set aside on a plate, add the remaining oil to the wok and return to a high heat. When it is smoking, add the carrots, mangetout and sesame oil and stir-fry for 1 minute.
Add the spring onions, noodles, peanut sauce and chicken to the wok, along with a few tablespoonfuls of the reserved noodle cooking water, and stir-fry for 3–4 minutes. Add half of the peanuts and mix well.
Serve in warmed bowls, topped with more peanuts, sliced cucumber and a drizzle of chilli dressing.
