Thai Chicken Pasta

I love food blogs. I just like looking at them and then thinking, "Ooh...that looks good." So with that in mind, I give you the Cookery Nookery, instantly awesome because the name rhymes. I imagine it to be a place where you can post some tasty recipes, interspersed with tasty photos (the best part of any food blog) and tasty hints/tricks. And I don't mean that I'll be doing all the posting, I want to get some new recipes out of this too (and good god, I think I'd get rather boring after awhile). So invite a couple of your foodie friends, and I'll add you to the author list, and pretty soon we'll get ourselves a nice little cooking mecca going where we can get some food ideas (from simple to complex) and drool over some pictures.


And so, for the inaugural Cookery Nookery recipe, I give you Thai Chicken Pasta. And by "Thai" I mean bastardized Thai. This recipe is essentially a copycat of a pasta salad you can buy at Byerly's deli: super delicious but can get quite expensive. It also gets some bonus points as it uses some pretty common ingredients (the most exotic of which is probably soy sauce) and it makes a nice big batch of pasta salad (and can easily be doubled).

All the ingredients needed (minus a couple that I forgot to buy/usually skip):
The recipe is pretty easy to follow, boil water, add salt, add pasta...standard stuff here. Handy tip: I wrap the pasta in a clean towel and then break it into thirds. It usually keeps any noodles from scattering about and it makes the noodle into pot transfer smoother and less messy. I forget where I read that one but it's pretty helpful.

As for the chicken, I just saute the bite-sized pieces with no added seasonings. It makes the chicken look a little anemic but I figure it'll be sauced up later so no big worry.
In a medium-ish size bowl I add the carrots, green onions and peanuts (I don't usually add the sesame seeds). I shred my carrots using a handy mandolin. I think you can find them for pretty cheap at Asian supermarkets, at least cheaper than you can find them at cooking specialty stores. However if you go the Asian supermarket route, be ready for instructions you don't quite understand and this lady whose eyes show the uneasiness she feels when sliding vegetables towards a razor sharp blade:You could also use the large holes on a box shredder (I've used that method before and it works well) or you could julienne the carrots but I've found the mandolin to be quick and it cuts the carrots pretty darn thin.

For the peanuts, I use lightly salted dry roasted peanuts. They seem to work out pretty well and it doesn't make things too salty (I've never tried it with fully salted peanuts). I like to cut them so they're still pretty big as they'll soften up a bit later and the bigger pieces will have a bit more crunch.

Soon to be a super pasta salad (though I usually use more green onions, these ones came from my potted plant and I didn't have a whole lot to use):
I mix the sauce ingredients in a 2-cup measuring cup. Handy note, oil is less dense than soy sauce (I always forget which one is which when I'm making it) so you'll probably want to measure out the oil first and then measure out the soy sauce so you won't have to go from the 1/3 cup line to whatever the "1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup line" is. I also use 2 HEAPING (like embarrassingly big) tablespoons of PB because I figure it can't hurt and I love me the PB.
I mix it a little but the PB is hard to work in. As long as your noodles and chicken aren't completely cold, it'll melt in and it won't look this gross:

And finally, when you mix container A with container B, you get the good stuff.
I think it's supposed it be eaten cold so stick it in the fridge for a while. I however like to eat it hot but I think the sauce mellows out a bit when it's been sitting in the fridge.

The dinner of champions.

Thai Chicken Pasta

3/4 lbs chicken (breasts work well), cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 lbs spaghetti, plus water and salt for boiling
1/3 cup shredded carrots
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
dash of crushed red pepper

Break pasta into thirds and cook until just tender, drain.

In a large bowl combine carrots, green onions, peanuts, chicken, and pasta, set aside. In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, vegetable oil, vinegar, peanut butter, sugar, sesame seeds and red pepper. Stir to mix. Add sauce to pasta and toss to coat. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve hot or cold.