COLD SESAME NOODLES WITH CHICKEN RECIPES

Delicious takeout style Sesame Noodles with chicken and amazing soy sauce and sesame dressing. Serve cold or at room temperature, sesame noodles are easy to prepare and make a great lunch or dinner, without the wait for delivery. 

Sesame noodles are also perfect make-ahead noodles as these benefit from hanging-out with dressing. In-fact, whenever I prepare these noodles, I pack two portions for next day's lunch. Tastes even better when kept out of refrigerator for 30 minutes before eating. 

Sesame Noodles

Sesame Noodles is Chinese noodles preparation where thin (or medium) egg noodles are dressed in soy sauce and sesame oil based dressing. Often served cold, sesame noodles can also be served at room temperature or warm just after cooking.

What do you need for Sesame Noodles?

There are two parts to making delicious Cold Sesame Noodles:

1. Egg Noodles
2. Sesame Dressing
3. Chicken - optional but recommended to make noodles a complete meal. I cooked Five Spice Chicken. (recipe included)

1. Egg Noodles

The secret of a delicious Sesame Noodles bowl is in noodles used. I recommend using egg noodles which make a huge difference flavor as compared to other dry-variety of pasta. 

I used thin regular egg noodles (Angel Hair Noodles). If you can easily find thin or medium thick Chinese Egg Noodles, that will be my first choice for making Sesame Noodles.

Here's how I prepare noodles for Sesame Noodles:

1. Cook noodles in salted water. For best results follow the package directions.
2. Once cooked, drain and rinse noodles under cold water.
   
3. Toss noodles with little bit sesame oil. Sesame oil enhance flavor and also prevent noodles from sticking together.

2. Sesame Dressing for Sesame Noodles

A flavorful Sesame Dressing is yet another key to delicious Sesame Noodles. I use a little bit of peanut butter along with sesame paste to enhance the nutty flavor of dressing. All ingredients are easy to find pantry ingredients.

If you can't find Chinese Sesame paste, use tahini paste (Mediterranean sesame paste). The flavor Chinese Sesame pastes has little different flavor than Tahini. But in this recipe, the addition of toasted sesame oil and seeds compensates for the difference. Flavor of dressing is the same Chinese Sesame Noodles you often order in takeout.

Dressing comes together in 5 minutes and needs minimal work. Just add all dressing ingredients to a bowl and whisk until peanut butter, sesame paste are blended well with oil, and soy sauce.

Note: If peanut butter resists mixing well, use a teaspoon warm water at a time until everything blends well and dressing has smooth consistency.

TIP: Sesame Dressing doubles easily. Use a double batch for extra-saucy Sesame Noodles. Dressing also works perfect as a dipping sauce. (hint hint)

3. Five Spice Chicken

Five Spice Chicken completes the recipe for cold sesame peanut noodles. Even though you can use regular cooked chicken, left-over chicken or even rotisserie chicken, I highly recommend trying my five-spice chicken recipe.

Hidden in this Sesame Noodles recipe, five-spice chicken is a delicious way to cooking chicken. Cook once, use any way to prefer.

To make Five Spice Chicken Breast, you need only 4 ingredients:

1. Chinese Five Spice
2. Chicken Breast
3. Salt
4. Olive Oil/Cooking Oil

Here's how I prepare chicken:

1. Slice chicken breast length wise. Transfer chicken to a parchment paper. Sprinkle Five Spice and salt on top. Cover with another sheet of parchment and pound gently to flatten as much as you can (without breaking the chicken). 
2. Cook chicken in hot heavy-bottom pan until nice crust develops.

Once chicken is ready, let it rest while preparing rest. This time also helps chicken release and absorb back juices, making chicken juicy, moist and loaded with flavor.

Quick Cooking Tip:When in hurry, use boneless chicken, place in two layers of parchment, season it and then pound it to even 1/4 inch thickness. Pounded chicken cooks faster than whole chicken breast. Plus flavor of spices is blended into the chicken. This step saves at-least 5-7 minutes of cooking time.

5. Assembly!

You need a big mixing bowl to assemble noodles with dressing. I learned this from experience that a large bowl provides room to mix dressing and other seasonings with noodles and chicken way better than a smaller bowl.

The assembly is easy; with a few tips, here's how I assemble Sesame Noodles:

1. Start with noodles at the bottom. (Noodles tossed with sesame oil.)
2. Top with diced five spice chicken, and vegetables; cucumber, bean sprouts, snap peas(if using), radish and carrots.
3. Pour Sesame Dressing on the top.
4. Fold the dressing into the salad. For best results, use clean hand to massage the noodles with sesame dressing. Works best to evenly distribute sesame flavor in egg noodles.
5. Rest 30 minute before serving - For best results, let noodles sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. This helps noodles get a big boost of sesame flavor from sesame paste, oil in dressing.

Note:The use of veggies is optional as the noodles alone taste great with sesame dressing. I add veggies for color, crunch, and to count for the daily serving of veggies; chicken for serving of protein.

Try this recipe and you will love how sesame pasta sauce transforms egg noodles to Chinese takeout noodles that we all love to order! It’s an easy recipe and a complete meal with amazing five spice chicken. Flavors speak for itself!

Happy Cooking! Savita x