Thai Chicken (Shrimp) with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Originally for chicken, but I think it will be good with shrimp.
Originally for chicken, but I think it will be good with shrimp.
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- sauce
- 1 bunch green onions diced
- 2 teaspoons butter
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes crushed
- 8 ounces fresh mushrooms sliced (button)
- 1 red bell pepper sliced into thin strips
- 3 cups cooked shrimp de-veined, no tails
- 4 servings angel hair
- 3 garlic cloves mashed or 2 tsp jar
- 2/3 cup smooth peanut butter skippy or jif
- 4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 1-1 1/4 cups water
- Carbohydrate 101.315273558796 g
- Cholesterol 5.5638541585325 mg
- Fat 12.7489720196476 g
- Fiber 6.8732529561422 g
- Protein 20.6475540192482 g
- Saturated Fat 3.01685655243603 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (271g)
- Sodium 342.854483574201 mg
- Sugar 94.4420206026542 g
- Trans Fat 1.08586155020882 g
- Calories 599 calories
Step-by-step
- Start the pasta water to boiling.
- Melt butter and olive oil in large saute pan. Add mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes on medium until they soften. Add the red pepper slices and shrimp. Cook a few minutes more until pepper slices soften and shrimp warms. You want some crispness still left in your peppers so this won't take more than 3 to 5 minutes. Then add the green onions. You just want them to sort of get warm as you toss them in. They don't need to really cook.
- While this is happening, start your pasta cooking. Angel hair usually takes about 6 minutes to cook.
- The pasta is cooking, the ingredients above are cooking, and now the sauce will be cooking too, so keep an eye on all three things: pasta, shrimp mixture and sauce.
- Sauce: Add the garlic and the red pepper flakes to your oil in a saucepan. Heat until bubbling and hot but do not over brown. Just as they start to brown on the edges, add the tomato paste, peanut butter and hoisin sauce. Cook on medium, whisking gently to mix it. Then add water and continue to whisk to blend. Simmer at low setting. If heat is too hot, it will thicken and stick. If it starts to thicken too much, add water and remove from heat if necessary.
- When everything's ready, drain the pasta. Put pasta into bowls and pour sauce over the pasta. Stir it to mix it in. Last, layer the shrimp mixture on top. The noodles will be brown because of the peanut sauce, so the colorful part is from the peppers on top, so don't stir them in until ready to eat.
- Can add more red pepper flakes, use tiny Thai peppers, or add hot pepper sauce after it's cooked to make it more spicy.
Managing Simultaneous Cooking Times
Coordinating pasta boiling, protein sautéing, and sauce simmering requires careful attention because angel hair cooks in roughly six minutes. While the noodles soften in salted water, mushrooms require four minutes over medium heat to release their moisture before bell peppers and shrimp join the pan. Because shrimp overcooks rapidly into a rubbery texture, remove the sauté pan from the heat the moment the shellfish turns opaque and pink. Keeping separate elements warm ensures nothing turns mushy before assembly.
Protein and Thickener Substitutions
Swapping chicken for shrimp changes the structural dynamic of the dish, as delicate seafood demands much shorter exposure to direct heat than poultry does. When building the peanut sauce, tomato paste acts as a secondary thickener alongside smooth peanut butter; if the mixture tightens too aggressively under heat, thin it immediately with a splash of water. Crushed red pepper flakes deliver the baseline heat, though substituting fresh Thai bird chiles will introduce sharper capsacin notes.
Dietary Adjustments
This dish accommodates certain dietary modifications easily through simple swaps. Standard wheat pasta can be replaced with 100 percent rice noodles to remove gluten entirely. Check that the hoisin sauce is certified gluten-free, as traditional varieties frequently incorporate wheat-based ingredients.
