Hot and Sour Noodle Stir Fry with Peanut Chicken
Let’s talk the contents of my refrigerator and Hot and Sour Noodle Stir Fry with Peanut Chicken.
Open my postcard/wedding invitation/birth announcement/sassy sayings-covered refrigerator door on any given day and you will find:
- 17 different types of mustard. Just kidding. Sort of.
- Leftovers packed in lunch-sized containers, then stacked like an interactive Tetris game. (Recent cargo: Skinny Greek Mac and Cheese; Vegetarian Bibimbap; 20-Minute Healthy Ricotta Pasta)
- Almond milk (for smoothies), skim milk (for cooking/cereal), buttermilk (for baking), half and half (for coffee), heavy cream (for life).
- Half-eaten dessert with the lid slightly askew; fork marks indicate direct fridge-to-mouth consumption. (Reference: Irish Whiskey Brownie Pie)
- Assorted cheeses.
- Part-empty bottle of white wine—unless you are checking after 9 p.m., in which case check the recycling bin instead.
- Salsa, hummus, pickles, and almond butter. Always and forever.
- A comfortable supply of butter.
Without fail, my refrigerator will also contain:
- A random assortment of orphaned vegetables I feel too guilty to throw away.
Throughout the week, rogue vegetables migrate to my crisper, then give me the stink eye for neglecting them. I recently found myself in a stare-down with a half-used head of cabbage (a remnant of Corn Beef and Cabbage Grilled Cheese) and an almost-empty carton of chicken stock. Kitchen combat commenced, and I emerged victorious with a pan of Hot and Sour Noodle Stir Fry with Peanut Chicken as my prize.
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Hot and Sour Noodle Stir Fry with Peanut Chicken is a simple, flavorful and healthy stir fry dinner that comes together in 30 minutes. I supplemented my cabbage with frozen stir fry veggies that I keep on hand, but you can use any fresh or frozen vegetables you like (or have languishing in the fridge.)
The chicken and vegetables are quickly stir fried with ginger, chili, and garlic, then mixed with whole wheat spaghetti noodles. Tangy rice vinegar, toasty sesame oil, savory soy sauce, and fiery red pepper flakes are added directly to the pan to create an instant, multi-dimensional sauce—no cooking required. A shower of crunchy roasted peanuts provides the final flourish of texture and flavor. The entire process requires only two pans, one for the pasta, one for everything else.
To make Hot and Sour Noodle Stir Fry with Peanut Chicken even easier, I reached into my freezer—whose contents I will save for a later post—for Dorot garlic and herb cubes. I was sent an assortment of these flavor-packed little squares to earlier this year, and I’m hooked. Herbs and garlic are chopped, packed into cubes, frozen when they are super fresh, so they maintain their true taste. Instead of mincing and chopping ingredients, I pop the cubes right into the pan and sauté away. It’s less mess, and I’m shortening my prep time, which means an earlier collision between Hot and Sour Noodle Stir Fry with Peanut Chicken and my face. YES.
Hot and Sour Noodle Stir Fry with Peanut Chicken may be been inspired by my need to find a happy ending for our straggling produce, but its ease of preparation and dynamite taste have earned it a place on our regular weeknight menu.
From my refrigerator, with love: Hot and Sour Noodle Stir Fry with Peanut Chicken.
Hot and Sour Noodle Stir Fry with Peanut Chicken
A 30-minute yummy and healthy chicken stir fry loaded with flavor and can be adapted to suit the ingredients you have on hand. Tangy rice vinegar, toasty sesame oil, savory soy sauce, and fiery red pepper flakes are added directly to the pan to create an instant, multi-dimensional sauce, and the crunchy peanuts on top make this irresistible.
Yield: Serves 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces whole-wheat spaghetti
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for coating pasta
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed into bite-sized pieces (1 to 1 1/4 pounds)
- 3 Dorot crushed ginger cubes (1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger)
- 3 Dorot garlic cubes (1 and 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic, about 3 cloves)
- 1 Dorot chopped chili cube (1 teaspoon finely chopped red chili pepper)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 16 ounces frozen stir fry vegetables, thawed (or any fresh or frozen vegetables you have on hand—I used Trader Joe’s Harvest Hodgepodge)
- 1/2 head green cabbage, thinly sliced
- 1 cup low-sodium vegetable stock or water
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1/2 cup chopped unsalted roasted peanuts, plus additional for serving
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more to taste)
Directions:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta until just tender. Drain and toss with a little olive oil to prevet sticking. Set aside.
- In a large nonstick skillet or wok, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken, 2/3 of the ginger, 2/3 of the garlic, and salt. Saute until chicken is no longer pink in the center, about 4 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.
- To the skillet, add the stir fry vegetables, cabbage, remaining 1/3 ginger and 1/3 garlic, and sauté until the vegetables are hot and the cabbage is slightly tender, about 8 minutes. Add the stock, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. Cook 2 minutes. Add the reserved pasta, reserved chicken, peanuts and pepper flakes to pan. Toss gently to combine, then serve warm, topped with additional roasted peanuts as desired.
Did you try this recipe? I want to see! Follow Well Plated on Instagram, snap a photo, and tag it #wellplated. I love to know what you are making!
Look for Dorot garlic and her cubes in your grocer’s freezer section. At Walmart, they will be packaged under the Walmart-exclusive brand “Pop & Cook,” but the products are the same. Want to learn more? Visit Dorot and Pop & Cook‘s Facebook pages.
Dorot compensated me for my time to create this recipe and post. All opinions are, as always, my own.
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that I make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
About Erin Clarke
I’m fearlessly dedicated to making healthy food taste incredible. Wearer of plaid, travel enthusiast, and firmly convinced that sweets and veggies both deserve a place at the table. MORE ABOUT ERIN…
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I’m ALL for a 30 minute meal with a little Asian flair…that’s a fav around these parts! I’m totally intrigued by these cubes! Cooking just got easier! Pinned
This is use-everything-in-the-fridge perfection! Love it!
What’s creepy is now I’m pretty sure that we live in the same house and have just been missing each other. You pretty much described my fridge to a T. #foodbloggerproblems. My husband cleaned it out yesterday because I can’t handle the guilt of throwing things away. Now I can use this AWESOME recipe for the rogue veggies!! Pinned!
This looks like it is just packed with flavor but still so easy to make!
Steph, that is just what I was going for :-) Thanks so much!
Erin, this looks AMAZING!!! And I can totally relate about the fridge contents…you had me at 17 different kinds of mustard…I have the EXACT same problem. I think last week I was counting and I came up with 9 different ones we have, my husband who knows about my mustard obsession had sweetly bought me a grainy brown mustard only to find that we had one opened and one sealed one…not including the one he had just bought…of the EXACT same kind haha. But really, I need to make this recipe asap!
Hahahahaha. Oh I have been there. I do that with spices too! We have about 3 jars of smoked paprika right now. Whoops!
YES, always random amounts of vegetables! Stir fry is just the perfect way to use them up! Love the combination of flavors, Erin! Loving the peanuts too, I always seem to want some kind of nut in all my stir fry dishes :D
My husband would LOVE this! I may have to give it a try one night this week :) Thank you!
Girl, we are on the same wavelength. On everything but the pickles…just can’t get into them. I recently made an Asian inspired pasta dish for the exact same reason. All those dang half used veggies. Glad I have another recipe to use in the fight against the rotting produce drawer!
P.S. I love your style of writing. Seriously, you’re a great story teller Erin!
Courtney, I’m blushing. I love to write, so that really means a lot! Thank you!
oh this sounds divine–love using the stragglers!
Stragglers can be dinner BFFs! Thanks Katie :-)
So this is happening for dinner tonight! Love!
What a great way to eliminate fridge guilt and put those veggies to good use! This sounds perfect and I think I’d feel like I was at a restaurant :)
This is such a great use of leftovers. That peanut chicken sounds delicious! PS- I’m a heavy cream for life girl too, haha!
Heavy cream high five! Let’s meet up and eat truffles, whipped cream and caramel ;-)
Love the description of your fridge. So true. And dorot stuff is great! Love how you used it! This looks so tasty! Pinning this one! :)
Oh you mean I’m not the only one with 10 half full different types of milk…no way! hahaha
Hahaha you so just described my fridge as well. I actually went about cleaning part of it out yesterday. It was pretty scary!
Loving this dish! I’ve yet to try the dorot products yet but have been hearing great things!
I need to channel your productivity and clean mine Chris. You are my hero!
Your fridge sounds like my fridge! This sounds delicious.
hah! You always crack me up. You know I’m going straight for your fridge the minute I get to your house, right? I’m hoping for leftover pie!
Lovely photo!!!
Hahahaha “heavy cream (for life)” Oh dear…I don’t have any “heavy cream” what does that say???
:)
Erin – I am not a huge fan of spaghetti (yes, I know I have issues!) BUT – covered in rice vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce along with Dorots flavorings and chili flakes …oooh I think I could eat myself out of a pool of it!
So, turns out we have the exact same fridge line up! Adding this my dinner line up this week….sounds delish!
These kinds of meals are my favorite! I love it when I can clean out a bunch of stuff from the fridge and still feel really great about dinner. Love that first picture by the way!
i can so relate to your fridge situation! this sounds like a great dinner to remedy all the leftovers. and it’s quick too? double bonus!
Your fridge situation is a lot like mine (especially all the milks/creams… it’s ridiculous). And I’ve got plenty o’ veg to use up in this yummy yum dish!
That looks absolutely incredible! Fantastic recipe :)
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Happy Valley Chow
Let’s talk about how my tiny fridge is overrun with various condiments because Alex can’t go to the Jewel without coming home with a new type of mustard/pickle/bbq sauce situation. He NEEDS THEM ALL. I suppose I need all of the milks and butters so…there’s that.
What I REALLY need is some of those handy flavor cubes! Toss those over, it’s dinner in a jiffy!
My X-mas card covered fridge always is stocked with hot and sour sauce. Why have I never made a peanut chicken with it? I’m such a loser.
Who says you don’t need 17 mustards!?! Wouldn’t know it by looking at my fridge door. Guilty! Hot and sour anything is a favorite around here – this would be the perfect dinner! Love those little cubes (and love cutting down on prep work)!
Ooh, I love these kinds of noodle dishes, Erin. This reminds me of Indonesian mee goreng. I bet the peanuts in particular make this super tasty!
Orphaned veggies with love from your fridge? Yes, please! I must say…your fridge sounds just like mine with all kinds of milk from almond milk and buttermilk to light cream to heavy cream…including coconut milk chilling for whipped coconut cream. We won’t get into exploding pantry talk, now, shall we? ;) Gorgeous photos and I love your writing style! Thank you for stopping by my blog today, Erin. I’m so glad to have found yours. Now following you via Bloglovin’ so I don’t miss a post!
I love hot and sour flavours! The noodle stir-fry looks comforting and very tasty.
I looove stir fries!
There was a time when I had a stir fry almost every night – no joke. It was always so simple and affordable it became my go-to student meal.
{Teffy’s Perks} X
I just did a mini refridgerator clean out last night and you listing what was in your fridge made me realize how much more I have left to do. But, I’m more excited than discouraged, because I have almost everything in my fridge and pantry for this recipe! I love your photos and would love to talk more on how your photograph your images. I’m trying to step up my food photography game.
Oh I love when you make me dinner :)
This is too good to be true! Love :D
haha we have three different brands of sriracha, at least two jars of peanut butter and plenty of almond butter in our fridge at all times. And usually two kinds of mustard.
Love this recipe! So many good things in one dish!
Hehe,your fridge sounds like ours :) I totally love these dishes that you can use up all of those veggies giving you the stink eye – these noodles are the perfect way to use up leftovers and the flavors sound awesome!
Your fridge sounds similar to ours, especially with the million mustards and dessert with fork marks in it. I always have randoms leftover vegetables begging to be used and this stir fry looks like the perfect way to use them! Looks delicious!
Noodles!!! I love that this recipe basically cleans out the fridge. My fridge could definitely use a good cleaning. Love this! Pinned.
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I so wish I had had this for lunch! I recently joined the savory asian peanut butter and have never looked back! And yes, my fridge is cousins with your fridge :) they sound very similar!
I love dishes like this because I always end up with all sorts of veggies needing to be used! This looks delicious!
I have been CRAVING some kind of Asian noodle as of late, these look fabulous!
Yum! This looks so good!
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I found this recipe through Pinterest. I must find some of those frozen cubes. Thanks for the tip about the product. And, this recipe looks great.
I am so happy you found it Lea Anne! Thanks for saying hi and for your kind words. Have a great day!
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These Dorot products Erin where can I find them to help me cut time in the kitchen as well? Are they American product or international some sort?
Hi Peter! You can actually find resources for where to find the products on Dorot’s webpage. I think it’s only the US, but feel free to type in your address and see what you can find out. They really are time-saving, which I love.
http://www.mydorot.com/?pg=stores
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HI Erin 1 more question, about this Dorot product. I located where I can purchase them ,pray to God that they really have them. Now are these frozen or what Isle should I look for them or ask?
Hi Peter! You’ll find Dorot in the freezer section of some grocery stores. I have seen them at Trader Joe’s. Another option is that you can substitute fresh ingredients. I’ve listed measurements in the ingredient list, so you can definitely still make this stir fry.