Take-Out

One of the things I miss most about no longer living in Brooklyn is the diverse and delicious take-out food. Oh how I long for the Pad Thai from our favorite Thai restaurant – it was a Friday night tradition, movie and takeout…. Pre-kids of course! Fast-forward five years, now our Friday night is more likely spent eating dinner at 6pm and then watching the latest episode of SpongeBob.

So for nostalgia’s sake, I attempted an easy stir-fry, noodles are always a big hit in our house so I figured I couldn’t miss with this one. Dinner went pretty well until the chopsticks morphed from eating utensil to weapon and had to be confiscated.

This particular recipe turned out so good the boys practically finished the bowl before the fighting began and the noodles went flying. It might seem a bit daring for the average toddler but this dish is actually not spicy at all, just extremely flavorful, and I didn’t even have to camouflage the vegetables.

Chicken Stir-Fry Noodle Extravaganza

Ingredients

I package Stir-Fry noodles

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp sesame oil

1 red bell pepper diced

1 small yellow onion diced

1/2 cup edamame – frozen is fine – out of shell

Note: Assortment of vegetables is interchangeable, broccoli, asparagus, eggplant all work well here – use whatever you have on hand

1 lb chicken cutlets (cut into bite size chunks)

2 tbsp cornstarch

Salt & Pepper

1/4 cup minced garlic

1/4 cup minced ginger

1 tsp chili garlic sauce (optional)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

Directions

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.

Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil and sesame oil in sauté pan. Add vegetables and cook until just tender. Remove from pan and set aside. (This step can be done ahead as a time saver)

Toss chicken with cornstarch, a large pinch of both salt and pepper.

Heat remaining oil in the pan on medium-high heat and add garlic, ginger, and chili sauce. Cook for about 1-2 minutes and then add chicken and stir to coat in garlic/ginger mixture. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the vinegar and sugar and bring to boil – approx 4 minutes until sugar has caramelized.  Stir in the vegetables, then add the soy sauce and cook for another minute or so.

Note: Can also be served over rice but noodles are much more fun for the under 5 crowd.

And the VERDICT is:

Matthew (right): “This is like real Chinese food, this is crazy yummy”

Dylan (center): “The chicken is so slippery!”

Liam (left): “GOOD – yes GOOD” (between noodle bites)