Thai Peanut Butter Noodles

I love Chinese food delivery.  What is it about this cuisine that, aside from Pizza, has made it big into delivery while no other cuisine has?  Why can't other kinds of food be delivered with the same degree of frequency and ubiquitousness? I can well imagine hamburgers would be an easy delivery item.  Or tacos.  Or even chicken fried steak.  But it seems that Chinese restaurants figured out a long time ago they needed to deliver in order to stay in business, and I imagine there are very few communities that don't have some form of Chinese food delivery.  But, what to do with all the leftovers?

Well, last night we were faced with that very dilemma, and I have come to the conclusion over time that General Tso's Chicken and Salt & Pepper Shrimp are two items that do not reheat very well in a microwave.  So, I popped them in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes and then made this delicious Thai noodle dish.  I've actually been making this for years and sort of re-discovered it recently. In fairness, the more traditional Thai Peanut Butter Noodle recipes are made with coconut milk and use Thai curry paste, neither of which I use.

Instead, I use an Asian hot sauce called Sriracha sauce, which is made with chilies and garlic. The most popular and available brand in most grocery stores is Huy Fong which has a rooster for ts logo.  For this reason, some chefs refer to this as "cock sauce."  Click here for more information.

You can use any noodle you like.  Italian semolina flour pasta, such as spaghetti or Angle Hair, is perfect.  Or if you are watching your intake of wheat or have issues with gluten, rice noodles are also perfect and perhaps more traditional in the Thai kitchen.  The size of the noodle needs to be "vermicelli" or like Angel Hair.

The traditional recipe would call for smooth peanut butter, but we only had chunky on hand and it was just great, in fact, I liked it better.  Make sure you use a premium, all-natural peanut butter (one in which the peanut oil separates in the jar unless chilled), like Laura Scutter's or Smucker's All-Natural Peanut Butter. Don't use brands like Jif, which contains only 90% peanuts and a lot of other unnecessary crap, like sugar, molasses and palm oil.

Ingredients 

1 package rice noodles (like, Thai Kitchen)
3/4 cup premium all-natural peanut butter, smooth or chunky (like, Laura Scutter's)
1/8 cup Sriracha sauce (like, Huy Fong) - use more or less depending on desired "heat"
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp lime juice
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup boiling hot water
3 tbsp freeze-dried or fresh cilantro
3 green onions, chopped on the bias
1/2 cucumber, peeled and cut into match sticks
2 ounces whole peanuts

The Recipe

Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package, then drain well.  While the noodles are cooking, mix the peanut butter, Sriracha sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, lime juice and soy sauce in a bowl.  Take 1/2 cup of the boiling pasta water and add to the mixture, then stir well so that the peanut butter softens into a thick, creamy sauce.  Add the cilantro at the end and stir to combine.

Add the well drained noodles to the sauce, and fold into the sauce carefully to coat the noodles, but not so vigorously as to masticate them. Toss in the green onions and stir to combine.

Garnish with a few whole peanuts and the cucumber sticks.

You can serve this along side leftover Chinese food,  like we did this time.  Or, broil a boneless, skinless chicken breast, then dice it up and add to the noodles for a single-bowl meal.