Peanut noodles make everything better

It's so odd. I have never been a fan of peanut butter. When all my friends would bring PB&J sandwiches to school I don't remember what I had. I pretend that it was bagels and cream cheese, but that would mean I ate a bagel and cream cheese for lunch from 1st grade THROUGH the present. That seems extreme, but as you can tell I do like my bagels.

Anyway the point is that I have always liked sesame/peanut noodles. I can remember my brother going through a phase where he was obsessed with ordering them at Chinese restaurants.

This recipe is for SURE not truly Asian, but it is Asian inspired.

It's from Cooking Light, but I have slightly adapted it to make it my own.

Ingredients you need to buy before getting too excited: Please note that the first measurement is what the magazine says. After it in parentheses is what I used.

8-12 oz uncooked spaghetti (I say go for the whole package!!)
1/2 cup chicken broth (maybe a little more...like 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter (closer to 1/3 cup!)
2 TB sesame seeds, divided into 1TB piles
1 TB brown sugar (overflowing and packed in there)
2 TB rice vinegar (plus an extra shake or two)
2 TB low sodium soy sauce (plus an extra shake or two)
1 TB fresh lime juice (just cut the lime in 1/2 and squeeze the heck out of it)
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce (or siricha if you want spicier
2 TB canola oil
3/4 lb chicken tenders, cut in one inch pieces (I do more like 1 - 2 lbs)
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups matchstick carrots (true!)
1 1/2 cups sliced green onions (true!)
The recipe does NOT call for ginger....but it would be good in the peanut sauce so you can add it if you want.

Ok so first you trim the heck out of your chicken so that it is not fatty. Then you cut it up into small chunks. Cooks Illustrated recently said that it doesn't matter what kind of cutting board you use for your chicken as long as you use diluted bleach water to rinse it all off. Tom likes to yell "AH! Uncle Sal is here!!" whenever I cut chicken. "Uncle Sal" is salmonella. I found it amusing at first but now it's just getting old. Put your cut chicken aside.

Now you can kill yourself by peeling and chopping your carrots into matchsticks, or you can just buy 1-2 packages of matchstick carrots at the supermarket. Let me warn you though that those packages are often sort of dry and borderline almost going bad. So if you don't want to buy them, but baby carrots (which are always juice??? Why?) and slice those up. At least then you don't have to peel or cut as much. Really do 2 full cups - especially if you are opting for more chicken and more noodles like I do. Put carrots aside.

Now chop up a whole bunch of green onions/scallions. Put those aside.

Put the water on to boil for the pasta. While you wait for it to boil, get a bowl and add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, peanut butter, sesame seeds (1 TB), chicken broth (I recently used beef broth and all was good), lime juice and hot sauce. I would use a whisk, but a fork works well too. One trick my mom told me (or maybe I read it) is to spray the measuring cup with some PAM before you add the peanut butter - then it will slide out lickety-split. Also here is where you might want to add a bit of ginger if you like it. It gives a nice tang to the sauce.

Now the sauce is made and the water is heating up. Put a frying pan on over medium-high heat and add the oil. Add the chicken, sprinkle with some salt, and saute until it is cooked. Then dump in the carrots and green onions and cook a few more minutes.

Drain your pasta, but save a few tablespoons of the water. Now dump the pasta into the pan with the chicken and carrots and green onions (or dump the chicken mixture into the pasta bowl) and then re-whisk the peanut sauce and add that too. Stir it all around and then sprinkle the rest of the sesame seeds on top.

I like to squeeze lime over my bowl too, and while I haven't done it, I bet some chopped cilantro would be delish on top too. Cilantro is amazing on everything.

Sorry no pictures - I just made this at a friend's house.