I wanted noodles, so I made some.

Here is the noodle recipe that I started with.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups chopped roasted skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 teaspoons sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste)
• 1 (6.75-ounce) package thin rice sticks (rice-flour noodles)
• 2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted peanuts

Preparation

1. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add ginger and garlic to pan; cook 45 seconds, stirring constantly. Place in a large bowl. Stir in remaining 1 teaspoon oil, chicken, and next 6 ingredients (through sambal).
2. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water; drain. Cut noodles into smaller pieces. Add noodles to bowl; toss well to coat. Sprinkle with peanuts.

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Then I doubled (actually, probably tripled!) the ginger and garlic and added about a tablespoon of each in the chicken marinade which also had the sesame oil (the entire tablespoon), soy sauce, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce and garlic/chili paste which I used instead of the sambal oelek listed because that’s what we had and I didn’t want to go get something else to add to the pile of small jars in our refrigerator. Don’t worry about exact measurements, if you want it spicier, add an extra glop of the chili paste. 

Looking at the instructions on the recipe, I decided that they weren’t all that helpful. Here is what I did:

• Soften the rice sticks following the package instructions (basically pour boiling water over them and let them sit for 8-10 minutes, drain and rinse them. Use kitchen shears to cut them up into smaller pieces, and then put them in a large bowl to wait for the good stuff. 
• Cook the ginger and garlic (I ended up grating another couple of Tablespoons of ginger and chopping up a couple more big cloves of garlic besides what was in the marinade) in some more sesame oil.
• Mix the cooked garlic in with the softened, drained, and rinsed noodles in their bowl, be sure to disperse all the clumps of flavor evenly throughout
• Grab the chicken and marinade from the fridge and dump it ALL into the pan to cook.
• The marinade makes a sauce which you need to coat the rice sticks, so keep a lid on the pan so it doesn’t thicken up too much if you need to let it sit. The sauce should come to a boil so you kill any raw chicken poison that is left hanging around after the marinating.
• Once the chicken is cooked through, dump the chicken and all the sauce over the noodles and toss it around until all the noodles are coated with sauce.

The only thing I would have done differently is to add some sautéed vegetables – snap peas, peppers or maybe edamame – to make it a one bowl meal, the salad we ended up having with our bowl of noodles was kind of random.

Oh, I forgot this part.

I didn’t put the green onions or the cilantro into the sauce like the instructions said for obvious reasons. Well obvious to me, since I know that I like fresh tasting green onions, not slimy cooked ones and I could live quite happily without ever having to eat cilantro ever again. I did put eventually put the green onions in, but not until the last 30 seconds or so of cooking and I chopped up some cilantro and sprinkled it on top of other people’s servings. 

Everybody was happier. It was delicious. Also, I forgot to take a picture. Again.