Szechwan Chicken-Pasta Salad

Submitted by FLUFFSTER

"This is a great salad!For the most part, Szechwan cooking is known to be spicy hot. You can control the heat by the amount of the crushed red peppers. If you can't find the fresh pea pods, look in the frozen section and you'll need a 6oz. package. For the chili oil, you should find it in the Oriental section. Most of the big-name supermarkets carry the fresh Chinese egg noodles(my store carries them in the produce dept.)i.e. Albertson's, if not then you could buy 5 oz. dried Chinese egg noodles."

 

• Ready In: 40mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 5

ingredients

• 1 lb skinless chicken breast half
• 2 cups fresh pea pods
• 1⁄4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar or 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon chili oil
• 1⁄4 - 1⁄2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 8 ounces Chinese egg noodles, steamed (or fresh)
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large red bell peppers or 1 large green pepper, cut into thin strips
• 2 green onions, sliced (1/4 cup)
• 1⁄4 cup peanuts, coarsely chopped

directions

1. Cut chicken into 3/4-inch pieces. Coarsely chop the pea pods. For sauce, in a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, rice vinegar or white vinegar, chili oil, and crushed red pepper flakes. Set aside.
2. In a large saucepan cook noodles in boiling lightly salted water for 4 to 6 minutes or until tender. Drain. Set aside.
3. Pour cooking oil into a wok or large skillet.(add more oil if necessary during cooking.)Stir-fry the garlic in hot oil for 15 seconds. Add the pea-pods, red or green pepper, and green onions; stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove the vegetables from the wok.
4. Add half of the chicken to the hot wok. Stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until no pink remains. Remove the chicken from the wok. Repeat with remaining chicken. Return all chicken to the wok. Add the sauce to the wok. Add the cooked vegetables and noodles. Stir ingredients to coat with sauce. Cook and stir 1 minute more or until heated through. Sprinkle with peanuts. Serve immediately.