Tag Archives: noodles

Better-Than-Takeout Chicken Fried Noodles

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For the longest time, I would throw every single Asian cooking sauce from my pantry into stir-fry dishes and hope for the best. For some bizarre reason, I thought that the more different flavors I added (teriyaki, black bean, sriracha, soy sauce–you name it), the more delicious the stir fry would be. Of course, I would always be disappointed by the taste, wondering what was missing from my very random soup of sauces.

I finally just decided to do my research (duh!) into what makes stir fry so delicious, and was pleasantly surprised to find how simple the sauce needs to be. The key is a little bit of sugar, and to make sure your pan/wok is super hot before throwing in all your ingredients. This particular recipe I tested recently from RecipeTin Eats is absolutely fantastic, and easy to customize depending on what you have in your pantry. I whipped up a lazy girl version of it on a random Friday night that I was craving Asian takeout, and it COMPLETELY hit the spot. Taste-wise it was better than takeout, and no bloating or guilt 🙂

Enjoy! I tried the noodles with shrimp as well, but personally preferred the taste with chicken thighs.

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

6 chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces (can easily be swapped out with shrimp)
1 tbsp Canola oil
Noodles of your choice, prepared according to instructions (*The type of noodles you pick makes a big difference to the taste of this dish–my personal favorite is Blue Dragon’s egg noodles. Three rounds of this is perfect for two very hungry adults)
Veggies of your choice–for my lazy, minimal prep version of this, I opted for 3/4 a bag of Broccoli Coleslaw, which includes shredded broccoli, cabbage, and carrots
1 shallot, cut into long pieces
3 garlic cloves, finely diced
1/4 cup of water

The Sauce

1.5 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tbsp oyster sauce
1.5 tbsp chicken broth
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
Pepper

Recipe

Stir together all the ingredients for the sauce in a separate bowl. Marinate the chicken thigh pieces with 1 tbsp of the stir fry sauce for at least 10 minutes.

Heat Canola oil in a large frying pan or wok. Once it’s on high heat, fry the garlic pieces until it begins to brown. Throw in the chicken and stir for a few minutes until partially cooked. Add the veggies/broccoli slaw/shallots and mix together until the chicken is fully cooked. Make sure the veggies are still a bit crispy and not too soggy. Add the noodles, the remaining stir fry sauce, and water. Stir the mixture with the noodles, remove from heat, and serve immediately.

Looking Back on Summer – Recipes & Reflections

Posted in Cooking, Musings by

And here I am, six months later. I can’t believe I’ve taken that long of a hiatus from my blog, but I guess that’s what happens when a summer of epic proportions rolls by. I blame a combination of weddings (nine total this year!), a crazy upswing in work travel (I think I clocked in a total of four trips to NYC within the summer), and the most incredible belated two-week honeymoon to Italy & Greece with my husband. This summer was awesome and exhilarating, but I’m looking forward to time sloooowing down a bit with the change of seasons. I still can’t believe we only have a month and a half left in 2016, but I’m determined to slow things down with what we have left. And catch up on my blog, of course. I have a zillion ideas circling in my head for posts–Italy travel guides, ideas for fall/winter dinner parties, slow cooking recipes–so it’s time to hibernate a bit and get writing again. Always fun to get my creative juices flowing after a long break.

I could do a million different blog posts on my summer alone, but I wanted to start off with sharing a few recipes I tried from other bloggers/websites these past few months. If you follow me on Instagram, then you know I love sharing ‘grams of my food with quick descriptions of the recipes. Some of my favorite tries from summer and fall:

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Post Italy, linguine carbonara has become a dangerous staple in our household. We love how easy it is to prepare, and we’re obsessed with the smoky delicious taste of pancetta/guanciale combined with pecorino. There are many different recipes of linguine carbonara out there and we sometimes improvise, but this The New York Times recipe is pretty fool-proof. Perfect for dinner parties with a side of shrimp scampi or Florentine steak. 

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I am obsessed with Indo-Chinese cuisine, an amazing combination of spicy Indian food and classic Chinese dishes. My husband isn’t the biggest fan of Asian food, but likes it when I make it (or so he says…), so I’ve been experimenting more with Asian dishes at home. The chili chicken pictured here is my absolute favorite, and the schezhwan noodles ain’t so bad either. Thanks to Indu Gets Cooking for both these awesome recipes! Her blog is fabulous for Indian/Indo-Chinese recipes. 

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For a brief period this summer, I was obsessed with zucchini noodles for EVERY meal. I should probably get back on that train, instead of the current pasta obsession that I’m on. I absolutely love this Williams Sonoma recipe for Chicken Meatballs with Spicy Tomato Sauce over a bed of zucchini noodles. It’s super healthy, since the meatballs are baked and include spinach leaves, and the spicy sauce gives it the extra kick I always need. Must try this one!

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Chicken thighs, pesto, goat cheese, garlic deliciousness. What’s not to love? Italian food is one of my faves, and so is this Baked Chicken Thighs with Tomatoes, Olives and Goat Cheese recipe from this lovely little blog called Italian Food Forever. It’s ridiculously simple to put together, and perfect with a side of salad or pasta. Really can’t get enough of that goat cheese and pesto combination! 

That’s all I got for today, but I’d love to hear from YOU guys about what recipes you’ve been loving lately. My husband and I have been cooking together more lately, and we’re dying to try more slow cooking recipes for lazy Sundays. xo, GCG.

Burmese Fall Feast: Khao Soi

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Noodles might just be my favorite food. Ever. Growing up, I had an obsession with any and all noodle dishes – from my mom’s homemade stir fry noodles & veggies, to soupy, masala-filled Maggi in India, I loved it all. Living in Indonesia for four years was pretty much food heaven (mie goreng, anyone?) and I’m probably the only American college kid who didn’t hate having to live on ramen.

So when I saw a new noodles recipe floating around on Instagram for the Burmese coconut curry and noodles dish Khao Soi, I knew I had to try it at home. I had tried Khao Soi at a family friend’s home and I remember loving the unique combination of coconut milk, chicken, and egg noodles. SO yummy!

My recipe is slightly adapted from Mallika Basu (my new favorite Indian food blogger!) so feel free to explore both and adapt based on your tastes. The great thing about Khao Soi is that it’s completely customizable – want more spice? Throw in some extra chilli powder. Vegetarian? Food Fashion Party has a great recipe for a vegetarian version of this. Do it your own way, enjoy, and let me know if you try this at home!

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Getting the ingredients prepped: spring onions, egg noodles, fried onions, eggs (I ended up only using two), cilantro 

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Cooking the delicious chicken coconut curry to pour over the noodles

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Pouring generous amounts of chicken curry over the noodles

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Voila! 

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Beauty.

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Ingredients (serves 2 generously…with leftovers!)

6 chicken thighs
1/4 large onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, finely diced
1/2 teaspoon ginger paste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 small can coconut milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 servings of egg noodles (if you can’t find egg noodles, ramen packets, stir fry noodles, or even pappardelle works!)
Oil

Garnishes

2 eggs is plenty, but feel free to add more if you’d like more protein
Cilantro
3 spring onions, chopped up
1/4 large onion, diced
Limes

Recipe

There’s two parts to this dish: making the chicken curry and preparing the garnishes. To prepare the chicken curry, heat oil in a large pan. Fry the onions until they become golden brown. Add in the garlic and ginger until everything is nicely mixed together. Then add the turmeric, garam masala, chili powder and stir for a few minutes. Drop in the chicken thighs and fry on each side for a few minutes. Stir the chicken with the mixture so that they’re nicely coated in the masalas. Add a cup of hot water and cover. Let the chicken cook for 15 minutes.

While the curry is cooking, prepare your garnishes and set them out in separate bowls for people to prepare their own noodles.

  • Boil eggs, cut into two separate pieces (you can also mash them up into little pieces like Mallika’s recipe)
  • Fry the onions and garlic together till they’re golden and a little crispy
  • Chop up the cilantro
  • Set out the spring onions
  • Cut the limes into small pieces
  • Cook noodles, per directions

Once the chicken is done cooking, shred each thigh into 2-3 pieces using two forks. Pour in the coconut milk and let simmer for a few minutes until the chicken is completely cooked in the coconut curry. Pour the curry into a large bowl. You can dress this up however you want, but this is how I did it:

  • Serve noodles in a bowl
  • Pour the chicken curry over the noodles until they’re submerged in curry
  • Top with onions, garlic, spring onions, and cilantro
  • Add the eggs on top
  • Squeeze some lime over the dish
  • Devour, and help yourself to seconds!

And voila – you’re done!