Spicy Chicken & Vegetable Stirfry on Udon

More often than not, I make noodle stir fries using the thin yellow chow mein noodles (see: Kung Pao Chicken Chow), but it's a delicious change of pace, when I remember to mix things up a little with udon. Udon is usually served as a hot noodle soup, but I find these fat, juicy noodles are particularly susceptible to soaking up sauce, so I like to use them in stir fry. 

This recipe also uses red cabbage, which I recommend over the usual green variety, because it contains significantly more protective phytonutrients (cancer-fighters) and 6-8 times more Vitamin C! 

Serves 4

• 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast
• Chicken marinade: 
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sriracha
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne 
• 7-8 cloves garlic (less if you don't prefer garlic)
• 2-3 dried red chili peppers 
• 1 small onion
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 small head red cabbage
• Sauce: 
• 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper
• 2 cups water 
• 1/3 cup oyster sauce
• sriracha, to taste
• 4-5 packs of fresh udon (200gr per pkg)
• 4 cups packed fresh spinach
• 1 small bunch cilantro
• sesame seed, garnish

A couple hours in advance, trim any fat off chicken breasts, and slice into bite-size pieces. Mix well with all marinade ingredients and set aside in fridge, allowing marinade to soak in.

Mince garlic and dried chili peppers together. 

Prepare the remaining vegetables: Thinly slice the onion. Julienne (matchstick) the carrots and red cabbage. Chop cilantro. 

Heat a small amount of olive oil over med-high in a large non-stick frying pan. Add minced garlic and dried chilis. Cook for a few minutes, stirring, til fragrant and edges of garlic turn golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside (use a large bowl or container so you can continue adding stir fried items to the bowl before mixing together at the end).

Using the same frying pan, and without adding more oil, add marinated chicken over high heat. The moisture from the marinade will keep the chicken from sticking to the pan. Stir for a few minutes until cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside. 

Using the same pan, add onion slices, reduce to medium, and let cook until onion softens and becomes clear (about 5min). Add small amounts of water occasionally as the pan becomes dry. Remove from pan and set aside when cooked. 

Add half a cup of water to the pan, increase heat to med-high, and add julienned carrots. Let steam-fry for 1min, then add the red cabbage to the carrots in the pan. Stir, and allow to steam-fry for another minute or two. Remove from pan and set aside.

Prepare the sauce in a small bowl, mixing together the cornstarch, soy sauce, ground pepper and water. 

Add the udon noodles to the frying pan over high heat, and add half a cup of water. Add more water as necessary as the water will steam off. Once the noodles have warmed up a bit, you can use a pair of chopsticks to loosen them up from their packaged brick form. When the noodles have been loosened, stir in the spinach, cilantro and all other stir fried ingredients set aside in the bowl. Give the sauce a stir as the cornstarch will have clumped at the bottom, then add to the pan, along with the oyster sauce, and sriracha to taste. Reduce to med-high heat and stir to mix everything together. Add more water to achieve desired sauce consistency. 

Serve in deep dish bowls (the noodles are slippery!), and garnish with sesame seeds. 

Kung Pao Chicken Chow

One of Brian's favorite meals to order at Earls is the Chicken Hunan Kung Pao. I've only had a few nibbles off his plate, but quickly concluded it's silly to be paying $17.75 for one serving of Asian food made in a non-Asian restaurant, so I set out to make my own version! The greasiness of the restaurant dish is what disturbed me most. Nobody likes to go home feeling like there's slimy cooking oil sloshing around in your belly. My recipe uses barely any oil at all - in fact, the only oil used is for cooking the ginger, garlic and chili peppers. The vegetables are steam-fried, a method I learned from watching my mom (no wonder she's such a skinny mini!), and the chow mein noodles are not fried in oil, but heated up in an oil-free sauce. Hope you enjoy the non-greasy version as much as I do! 


At the restaurant, they allow you to customize spice by adding 1-6 hunan peppers. My first attempt at this dish was so spicy, Brian raised the white flag after about 4 mouthfuls. Despite having a solid laugh over his spice-induced sweaty looks of panic, I felt terrible he went hungry that night, and it took some time before we were ready for me to give it another go. A few trials later, I've settled on 3.5 to be our magic number - 3.5 dried red chili peppers is what goes into this recipe, but feel free to adjust up or down to your taste! 

Serves 4 
You will need two frying pans - one with a lid, and one without. 

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Chicken Marinade: 
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp vinegar
• 1 tsp dried red chili flakes
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 pkg (450gr) of soft chow mein egg noodles (you can use fresh noodles, or dried noodles - if dried, use 7-8 bundles)
• 1 carrot
• 1 small red bell pepper
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 large handful of snow peas (approx 25-30)
• 4 green onions
• 6 cloves garlic 
• 2 inch section fresh ginger
• 3.5 small dried chili peppers (more or less to taste)
• 1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
• Sauce (make 2 sets - one for noodles, one for chicken & veg - of the following): 
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sriracha
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 2 tsp hoisin sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• garnish: fresh cilantro or sesame seeds

Trim any fat off chicken breasts and slice into bite-size strips. Add marinade ingredients to chicken, mix and set aside in fridge. Can be marinated hours or a day in advance. 

Bring water to a boil in a large pot (enough to cook noodles). Start on the vegetables while the water is heating up. 


Wash and prepare all vegetables (carrot, red pepper, zucchini, zucchini, snow peas & green onion), peeling, trimming ends, removing stems and seeds where necessary. We want the vegetables to be julienned or sliced matchstick-style. Start by slicing the whole vegetable into quarters, so you have four approx 2-inch sections to work with, then slice into even strips, resembling matchsticks.  Set aside. 


Once pot of water has reached boiling, cook noodles according to package instructions. Strain and set aside. 


Keep a large bowl or plate near the stove as you will be cooking ingredients separately, then setting them aside in this bowl until everything is ready to be combined.


Mince together the garlic, ginger and dried chili peppers. Heat a small amount of oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add minced garlic, ginger and chilis. Cook for a few minutes, stirring, til fragrant and edges of garlic turn golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside in the bowl as mentioned. 


Using the same large frying pan, toast peanuts for a few minutes over medium heat. Do not add oil to pan when toasting. Once toasted, remove from pan and set aside in bowl. 

Again, using the same frying pan, and without adding oil, add marinated chicken over high heat. The moisture from the marinade will keep the chicken from sticking to the pan. Stir for a few minutes until cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside in bowl. 

In separate bowls or containers, make 2 sets of the sauce by combining all sauce ingredients and mixing well. Set both sets of sauce aside. 

Now it's time to cook the matchstick veggies. Heat the frying pan with a lid over med-high heat (do not add oil). Starting with the carrots as they take the longest to cook, add them to the pan along with half a cup of water, cover with lid and let steam-fry for 1min. Add all remaining matchstick veggies, add more water if the pan is dry, and cover with lid and let steam-fry for another minute. Remove from heat and using the lid to hold veggies in place, strain any excess water. 

Stir up one set of sauce to mix pour into pan with cooked veggies. Add the garlic, ginger, peanuts, and chicken reserved and set aside in bowl to the veggies. Cook over medium heat for a 3-4min, stirring so that all ingredients are coated in sauce. Remove from heat, cover with lid and set aside until noodles are ready. 

Stir up the second set of sauce, then heat up in a second pan over med-high. Add noodles and stir until coated (I find it is easiest to separate the noodles and coat evenly by using wooden chopsticks at this point). Add more water and/or soy sauce if the noodles look dry. Keep noodles over heat for 4-5 min or until hot. 

Serve Kung Pao chicken and veg over noodles. 

Option: garnish with fresh chopped cilantro or sesame seeds. And keep a bottle of sriracha handy for those who don't find this hot enough!