Winter is a tough time of year for food bloggers.
Losing daylight before 5pm makes it nearly impossible to get nice food photos, and this totally bums me out.
The other night I made a batch of this Simple Thai Chicken Pasta and in my florescent kitchen lighting (gross, I know!) it didn’t look so bad, so I thought I’d take a few pictures to see if I could capture it.
Let’s just say they are a far cry from the naturally lit beauties I love.
Should I try to talk Andy into having reheated dinner every night so I can cook at noon just to get good photos?
No?
I didn’t think so ;)
Thanks to my beloved Picmonkey, I was able to fix one of the photos enough to post it, but man I miss me some evening sunshine!
Back to the recipe though…
A simple list of ingredients comes together pretty quickly in this recipe. The contrasting flavors of the tangy dressing, nutty peanut butter, fresh grated ginger, and fragrant sesame oil give this dish a lot of bang for your buck.
Paired with an Asian salad, this dinner would be a nice easy option to serve for company.
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
*This could totally be made with almond or cashew butter if peanuts are an allergy!
- 1 lb boneless chicken breast, cubed
- 8 oz bottle Newman's Italian Dressing (or other quality Italian dressing)
- 2 tablespoons chunky peanut butter (or creamy then add a few chopped peanuts later)
- 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (more or less to taste)
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup diced red bell pepper
- ½ cup sliced green onions
- 1 lb angel hair pasta
- Marinate chicken in ⅓ cup salad dressing for 1 hour (or longer if you have it)
- Mix peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, ginger, red pepper and remaining dressing in a medium mixing bowl.
- Prepare pasta according to package directions, then drain.
- Meanwhile, in a large wok or sauté pan over high heat, add coconut and sesame oil. When the oil is hot, add carrot and red pepper and stir fry 2-3 minutes or until softened.
- With a slotted spoon, remove chicken cubes from dressing and add them to the hot pan. Stir fry with the carrots and red pepper until cooked just cooked through (maybe 5 min?). Add green onions and stir fry for 1 minute more.
- Add cooked pasta then peanut sauce, and mix to fully combine everything (tongs make this easy!)
- Enjoy!
