Asian Noodle and Chicken Salad

Alright friends, final post of the day- I promise!

Tonight's dinner recipe comes to you compliments of my mom. She sent it to me a few months ago and I've been meaning to try it.

Asian Noodle and Chicken Salad
*original recipe found here, my modifications below

• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce
• 1 tablespoon (packed) golden brown sugar (mine was loosely packed)
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 3 tablespoons (or more) low-salt chicken broth (I used 3)

• 3/4 pound linguine or dried chow mein udon noodles (I used spaghetti)
• 4 cups thinly sliced cooked chicken, cut into strips
• 2 large carrots, coarsely grated (about 1 1/4 cups) (i just thinly sliced some baby carrots)
• 6 green onions, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into matchstick-size strips (i used some of my previously frozen, diced peppers)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves (I left these out)

Preparation:

Slice and cook the chicken. I seasoned mine with McCormick's: 

Combine peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili-garlic sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and 3 tablespoons broth in processor; blend until smooth.

I keep my ginger in the freezer so I just scraped the skin off before I diced it. And for the broth, I hacked off a few pieces of my frozen veggie broth and defrosted!

Cook and drain pasta; rinse with cold water to cool and drain again. (I didn't do this. I never rinse my pasta because it washes away lots of good nutrients) Transfer pasta to large bowl. 

Add chicken, carrots, green onions, bell pepper, and cilantro; (I decided to add some extra veggies and stir fry them for a couple minutes so they weren't completely raw. I used broccoli slaw, green onions, carrots, mushrooms and red peppers. I also added a couple cloves of garlic):

Add the veggies and chicken to the pasta bowl:

Pour dressing over and toss to coat:

I served it room temperature with the extra chicken and sauce on the side so it could be added plate by plate!

The result? EXCELLENT! We both liked it. The hubby told me it was a keeper. When I told him it was supposed to be served cold with raw veggies...he said, "I think you made all the right changes. We would be having a different conversation if you had done it that way."

The original recipe said spicy but I guess my chili sauce was more sweet than spicy so if you want it spicier, you could add some siracha or something like that. Also, the broccoli slaw was great! Perfect for this recipe.

Give it a try and enjoy!

--Lindsay--