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The best part about learning to cook is when you nail a dish. It’s not like you just pass and make something edible. It’s when you kill it! People are fighting over the leftovers. That’s what every cook wants.
And I have to say that I killed this dish. Everything just worked. It’s one of my favorite kinds of dishes (good hot and cold). It has some nice summer veggies, some chunky marinated chicken, and delicious Asian flavors.
The photo doesn’t really do it justice unfortunately.
Maybe the best noodle salad I've ever made.
This isn’t an overly complicated salad. It has just a few ingredients so be sure to hunt out the best and freshest that you can. Especially this time of year, make sure you find some really nice fresh snap peas to use. It makes a huge difference.
Also, the original recipe called for boneless skinless chicken breasts, but you know me. I try to use bone-in, skin-on when possible. I think it’s a lot more flavorful but use whatever you like best.
Asian Chicken Noodle Salad (Adapted from Bon Appetit June 2010)
Serves 4.- 12 ounces snap peas, strings removed, blanched
- 1 8 or 9 ounce package of Japanese Udon noodles. The original recipe called for fresh, but I used dry without a problem
- 1 Tablespoon sesame seed oil
- 2 Chicken Breasts
- 6 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 Cup (or more) of the below dressing
- Toasted sesame seeds for garnishChicken Marinade:
- 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegarMango-Sesame Dressing:
- 1/2 Cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 Cup Major Grey’s Mango Chutney (I found this in the Jam section, but it might also be near the Indian/Asian food)
- 1/4 Cup rice vinegar
- 3 large garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 Teaspoon Dijon mustard (I left this out because Betsy hates mustard.)Helpful Equipment:
- If you can’t grill the chicken, the best way to cook it is in a cast iron pan.
This recipe looks like it has a huge amount of ingredients, but most of them are repeats and if you have a well-stocked pantry you’ll probably have a number of them already.
Prepping The Chicken. The original recipe doesn’t say to do anything to the chicken besides grill it but I had all of these awesome oils and stuff that go in the dressing so I decided to whip up a very quick marinade for the chicken. It worked great. I just marinated the chicken for about 30 minutes while I prepped some other ingredients.
You could do longer obviously if you wanted to.
I'm a bone-in, skin-on kinda guy.
The Dressing. Oh this dressing knocked me off my feet. I’d never used the Mango chutney that the recipe recommended. This stuff was out of this world delicious.
It’s spicy and sweet and salty and rounds out the dressing perfectly. Track it down!
The mango chutney isn't optional.
The recipe says to blend all these ingredients together but I just whisked everything together in a bowl. If you want a smooth dressing then blend it obviously, but I don’t mind a few delicious mango and garlic chunks in my dish. Plus it’s a lot easier and quicker than busting out a blender.
This was more than I actually used.
Other Salad Ingredients. Besides the chicken and the dressing, you’ll just need snap peas, scallions, and udon noodles to finish off this salad.
Nice fresh veggies are important.
The Udon. The recipe called for fresh Udon noodles but I wasn’t exactly clear on how to get a hold of those so I used some dried that I found. I thought they worked great. I’m sure fresh would be good also, but if you can’t find any don’t let that stop you from making this dish.
Strange pasta...
Blanching the Peas/Cooking the Noodles. You can do both of these things in the same large pot of salted water. Cook your peas first, then the noodles in the same water.
To prep your peas, snap off the ends and pull out the string along the side of the snap peas. Once you have the whole batch done, give them a dip in the boiling salted water.
Let them cook for about a minute. Don’t over cook them! Then remove them to a colander with a slotted spoon and run them under cold water to stop the cooking. You could also dunk them in an ice bath if you wanted.
They should be really green and still slightly crunchy. As with most things, soggy is bad.
Don't overcook them!
Once your peas are done, you can cook the noodles in the same water from your peas! Cook it according to the directions on your package. I’ve cooked Udon many times now and I’ve always found that the package over-estimates the amount of time it takes to cook. You don’t want really mushy noodles.
For example, my package of noodles said to cook for 8-10 minutes and I cooked mine for 6. After they’re cooked, drain them in a colander and rinse them with cold water!
Mix the noodles and peas together and toss with the sesame oil which will prevent the noodles from sticking together.
Toss with the sesame oil.
Cooking the Chicken. Ideally, you could grill your chicken which would probably take 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your chicken breasts. I cooked mine in a cast iron pan though.
If you’re using cast iron, get your pan hot over medium-high heat and then add your chicken breasts. Sear them for about 4 minutes per side until they are nice and browned. Then transfer the pan to a 350 degree oven and finish cooking the breasts which will probably take 20-25 minutes depending on size.
Mine came out perfectly charred and delicious.
I like a little char on mine.
Finishing the Salad. Finishing the salad is pretty straightforward. Chop up your chicken into chunks. Slice your scallions. Add your chicken and scallions to your noodles and peas. Then toss in your salad dressing and mix everything together!
Plate it up and sprinkle on some sesame seeds if that’s your thing!
Bam!
Betsy thought that this was one of the best salad dishes I’ve made in awhile. I had to agree. It was also awesome for lunch the next day as a cold salad.
This was a great dish to cook and a wonderful dish to eat!
Has anyone else tried this Mango Chutney? Man that stuff is good.
In my humble opinion, Patak’s doesn’t make a single bad product. This looks phenomenal, I’ll have to try it soon.
I’m confused. You keep saying “snap peas” but you are showing Chinese pea pods. I thought you meant sugar snap peas. Very different things.
Do you mean Chinese pea pods or did the recipe actually call for snap peas?
Ha! Nice catch. The recipe actually called for snap peas, but I guess you can use either because my version was tasty!
Thanks for the comment!
FYI. On my way to a Memorial Day picnic, but I mixed up that salad dressing early so those flavors can marry all day. Maybe a light salad for dinner? Anyway, that dressing is spectacular right out of the bowl!
Also, I wonder if sugar snap peas should be blanched as they aren’t as tough as Chinese pea pods. Although, what’s a few seconds in some hot water one way or another?
Yea… I’d blanch whatever peas you use if not just to make the flavors/colors pop a bit! Just be careful not to overcook them.
Nick, you got the perfect char on that chicken. Anytime I am thinly slicing flank steak or chicken for a recipe, I go for a really nice char on the outside, it really amps up the flavor.
Great salad.
Yes…Mango Chutney is the bomb!
I serve a quick appetizer with it, take 1 8oz bar of cream cheese(I use lite) and place on a pretty plate. Pour one jar of chutney over and sprinkle with toasted almonds. Serve with crackers, any kind(I like an assortment) and a knife to spread. The trick is to take a little cc with a little chutney and spread on the cracker.
I also make this cream cheese app with shrimp cocktail, salsa or Pickapeppa sauce, but I think the chutney is the best one. Enjoy!
[...] the dessert (or maybe after?) a nice salad like Macheesmo’s Asian Chicken Noodle Salad would really hit the spot. Mango sesame dressing? Yum. The only drawback is that it feels like it [...]
Holy Smackaroni, Nick! This recipe is AWESOME! I love the chunks of mango, too! I only did a few things different than you. I cooked the chicken breast on top of the stove until cooked through. (I wasn’t about to heat up the kitchen–too hot in these parts!) I did use sugar snap peas and I did blanch them. All was fine there. I toasted the sesame seeds myself. I feel certain this will be a mainstay at any picnics and pot lucks I get invited to this summer. 5 stars, dude.
Made this today for my lunches over the week, and it is as great as you claim! I’ve already eaten way too much waiting for it to cool down. Love the flavor of the Major Grey chutney, already thinking about a million other dishes to use it in. I also added some thinly sliced yellow bell pepper that I blanched along with the peas for some extra color & crunch.
I actually made this again this weekend to take on a picnic and it was very good. I very rarely remake recipes but this was one I had to remake. Glad you liked it also ;)