New Recipe: Chicken Pad Thai

Pad Thai was one of my favorite meals until I learned that part of its flavor came from fish sauce. Despite the fact that I had been eating Pad Thai for years and loving it, this fact alone was enough for me to pull the plug on consuming this once delicious, now disgusting (to me) dish.

Fortunately, I stumbled upon a non-fishy tasty version on Lauren's Latest blog. Jesse and I cooked up the chicken version but you could substitute chicken with shrimp or tofu if chicken's not your thing. The other upside to this version is that it takes no time at all to make and the ingredients are all easy to find at the store.

Here's what you'll need:

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 4 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• 7 oz. rice noodles
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces (we took the easier route and used a roasted chicken)
• 1 cup sliced yellow onion
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup julienned carrot
• 3/4 cup bean sprouts
• cilantro, peanuts, lime wedges and green onion for garnish

Once you have all of your ingredients, combine the soy sauce, hoisin, sugar, garlic, vinegar, Worcestershire and red pepper flakes together in a small bowl.

Microwave the mixture for 30 seconds to 1 minute until the sugar dissolves and set the bowl aside.

Next, bring large pot of water to boil. Cook your rice noodles for five minutes. Drain the noodles and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

In a large wok or skillet, heat your oil over medium high heat. If you are NOT using a roast chicken, cook the chicken and onions together until browned. If you ARE using a roast chicken, cook the onions and once they are browned add in your pulled roast chicken.

Move the chicken and onions to one side of the pan. Crack the two eggs into small bowl and beat with a fork. Pour into the empty side of the pan and stir to scramble.

 
Next, toss in carrots, bean sprouts, cooked noodles and sauce until all coated.

Cook another 2 minutes to heat veggies through. Heap into bowls and serve with cilantro, lime wedges, peanuts and green onion.

Enjoy!

Finally, although they don't necessarily go together, we paired our pad thai with sparkling Blanc de Noirs from Gloria Ferrer winery in Sonoma - one of the wineries we went to earlier this month when we were out west. We also got to use the champagne flutes we had intended to use for our wedding for the first time. What a perfect meal.

Check out this recipe and others on my What's Cookin' page.

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