One-Pan Asian Noodles

Upon first forkful of these noodles, Husband declared, “these taste like takeout!”

Hedging any possible offense by comparing my home cooking to that of a takeout-style joint, he quickly added, “and I mean that as a compliment!”

But no disclaimer needed, Husband. Tasting like takeout is the gold standard of homemade Asian food to me. I was flattered: This was a compliment, and a darn good one.

He became an even bigger fan of these noodles when I informed him that they were a one-pan ordeal. Yes! Everything cooks in the same pan!

I’ve learned that minimizing dirty dishes makes the resident kitchen cleaner happy.

Things move quickly with these noodles once you start cooking, so while I’m usually a proponent of multitasking in the kitchen, you will want to give the recipe a read through and have all of the pieces of these bad boys in place before anything goes into the pan.

To kick these off, you’ll crisp up some spiced chicken thighs. 

Once they’re all cooked and crispy, take them out of your pan and save them for later.

Then stir fry sliced onion and shredded carrot and chopped up garlic in the chicken fat. 

Once everything’s all charred and your kitchen is adequately filled with all the good smells, add the spicy lime sauce and lots of chicken broth and let it all bubble up. Then add the rice noodles and turn off the heat.

Rice noodles cook perfectly by soaking in hot liquid. In this case, they’ll be slurping up all that chili lime sauce and getting really, REALLY flavorful.

Let them soak for 20-25 minutes, giving them a toss every few minutes to make sure they don’t stick together.

Slice up your crispy chicken thighs while you wait. 

Once your noodles are cooked, stir in the chicken and lots of chopped green onions. If you feel so inclined, you can crank your heat back up and give everything a quick stir fry here.

Then dig into your spicy, limey, faux-takeout Asian noodles and feel like you’ve beaten the system by having a delicious homemade meal AND minimal dirty dishes.