Szechuan Chicken Noodle Toss
My family loves Chinese food, so I came up with this quick-and-easy recipe to use up leftover chicken, pork, or beef.
My family loves Chinese food, so I came up with this quick-and-easy recipe to use up leftover chicken, pork, or beef.
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 4 quarts water
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/3 cup stir-fry sauce
- 6 ounces uncooked thin spaghetti
- 16 oz frozen stir-fry vegetable blend
- 1 tablespoon reduced-fat butter
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 2-inch strips
- 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 3 green onions chopped
- Carbohydrate 51.5786436904762 g
- Cholesterol 68.25589365 mg
- Fat 7.929056347 g
- Fiber 6.66304537976384 g
- Protein 33.9777372963452 g
- Saturated Fat 1.25961370525 g
- Serving Size 1 1 (1332g)
- Sodium 800.298960076916 mg
- Sugar 44.9155983107123 g
- Trans Fat 1.67009870525 g
- Calories 427 calories
Step-by-step
- In a Dutch oven, bring water to a boil.
- Add spaghetti; cook for 4 minutes.
- Add vegetables; cook 3-4 minutes longer or until spaghetti and vegetables are tender.
- Drain.
- Toss with butter; set aside and keep warm.
- In a nonstick skillet, stir-fry the chicken, garlic and red pepper flakes in oil until chicken is no longer pink.
- Add stir-fry sauce; heat through.
- Add onions and spaghetti mixture; toss to coat.
Visual cues remain the most reliable method for determining when thin poultry strips reach doneness without piercing the flesh with a thermometer. Slicing boneless breasts into two-inch pieces exposes the interior grain directly to high heat in a nonstick skillet. Raw poultry presents a translucent pink hue and a wet, rubbery sheen. As heat denatures the proteins, that translucence shifts to an opaque white, and the surface moisture evaporates entirely, leaving a matte finish. When the center of the thickest strip shows zero pink upon separation with a spatula, remove the pan from the heat source immediately to prevent moisture loss. Simultaneous timing governs the success of combining pasta and frozen vegetables in a Dutch oven. Boiling water must return to a rolling boil after adding thin spaghetti before vegetables enter the pot, ensuring the starch gelatinizes properly on the exterior of the wheat strands without turning the interior gummy. Cooking pasta for four minutes initially leaves the core firm enough to withstand an additional three to four minutes of boiling alongside frozen produce without disintegrating. Draining the mixture thoroughly prevents excess starchy water from diluting the viscosity of the bottled stir-fry sauce later. Tossing the warm noodles with butter immediately after draining coats the exterior starch molecules, forming a hydrophobic barrier that stops the strands from sticking together while resting. Canola oil provides the necessary high smoke point required for searing chicken strips without burning minced garlic, which scorches rapidly if introduced to excessive heat too early. Crushed red pepper flakes bloom effectively in hot oil, releasing capsaicin into the fat before the protein is added, which distributes heat evenly throughout the dish.
