Pad Thai Chicken and Noodles
To my family’s chagrin, I absolutely love to attempt creating ethnic foods, even if I have no idea what I’m doing. Thai food has been my go-to lately. When I read Sara’s take on Pad Thai, I had to recreate it. The best part was that she did it in the Instapot, which is my most used tool in my kitchen.
Sara’s recipe called for carrots and green onions. I did not have enough green onions and was too lazy to run to the store…but I did have a red bell pepper I needed to use, so that is what went in the Instapot.
I also used brown rice noodles instead of regular rice noodles. The combination of the peanut flavor with the saltiness of the soy sauce and fish sauce was definitely a win.
Another thing I tried to cut down was sodium and sugar. Sara’s recipe called for a 1/3 cup of brown sugar, I found that the recipe did not need that much sugar and was just fine with 3 Tbsp of brown sugar. With the sodium content, I have found that to truly make authentic tasting Asian food, sodium is riddled in the recipe. While this recipe is definitely tasty, it is not heart-healthy and should be eaten sparingly for those who have cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure.
Pad Thai Chicken and Noodles
Equipment
- instapot
Ingredients
- 3 large chicken breasts trimmed of fat and cubed
- 3/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp fish sauce
- 2 Tbsp sesame oil
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar
- 4 Tbsp all-natural peanut butter
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 Tbsp fresh ginger minced
- 1 large red bell pepper cubed
- 2 cups carrots cut into matchsticks
- 1/2 tsp Sriracha Sauce more to make it extra spicy
- 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 12 oz brown rice noodles
- 2/3 cup roasted peanuts
- sesame seeds for garnish
- green onions for garnish
Instructions
- Add the chicken, carrots, and red bell pepper into the Instapot. In a separate bowl, mix together the soy sauce, fish sauce, peanut butter, brown sugar, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and Siracha Sauce. Pour over the chicken, pepper, and carrots. Then add in the chicken broth and stir until the chicken and vegetables are evenly distributed through the liquid.
- Set the Instapot to 7 minutes on high and let it do its thing. Once done, rapid release the steam and add in the brown rice noodles, replace the lid and let the noodles soften from the leftover heat and steam. It takes approximately 10 minutes. You may want to stir the contents of the Instapot once or twice during that 10 minutes.
- When the noodles are soft, stir the contents one more time to evenly combine all of the ingredients. Serve immediately, top with sesame seeds, peanuts, and green onions. If you'd like, a squeeze of fresh lime juice is very tasty on top as well.
Nutrition
Do you enjoy creating ethnic foods? Do you have a tried and true recipe that I absolutely must try out? Message me if you do! I’d love to swap recipes. Hope y’all have an amazing week.
