Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Peanut Butter - Rediscovered

I love peanut butter, but have only ever had it in desserts or in a traditional PB & J sandwich. I've seen many Thai or Asian recipes in a PB based sauce. I found two recipes - Spicy Soba Noodles w/Chicken in Peanut Sauce and Aromatic Noodles w/Lime Peanut Sauce took elements from both, and added my own. Jamie LOVED it, it's one of his favorite things I've made recently.
PS - It's healthy too!

Chicken & Noodles in Spicy Peanut Sauce

3/4 lb whole wheat spaghetti
2 cups broccoli florets
2 cups thinly sliced carrots
1 lb chicken breast or tenders , cubed
2 cups fat free less sodium chicken broth, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup reduced fat or natural smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup pasta water (or as much as needed)
1 tbsp fresh ginger
1/2 - 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tbsp honey
6 tbsp peanuts, chopped
4 tbsp scallions, sliced
salt & pepper to taste

Combine 1/3 cup broth, peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, ginger, salt & pepper, red pepper & garlic; whisk until smooth, set aside.

Place chicken in a large saucepan and bring 1 2/3 cups broth to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until chicken is done. Drain.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to directions. Drain and rinse with cold water, but reserve the pasta water.

While pasta and chicken are cooking, add carrots and broccoli to a skillet(or steam) briefly until almost crisp. Add drained chicken to skillet with vegetables for additional 2 minutes.

Add pasta and sauce to skillet, toss. Add some pasta water to think out sauce, and garnish with peanuts and scallions.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't usually like pb, but this looks GREAT

Thistlemoon said...

This is definately a GREAT use for PB! Wonderful!

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