Pad Thai with chicken

I was 20 years old when I experienced Thai food for the first time. I lived a fairly sheltered life in a small Midwestern town, so was not exposed to many ethnic flavors. When I left River Falls for Madison in the fall of 1998, I was excited to try food at many different restaurants. Sa Bai-Thong was the most popular establishment for Thai food in Madison and I was instantly became hooked on Pad Thai. In fact, I wouldn't go as far to say that I've eaten Thai food, only Pad Thai, but I've had it numerous times.

Last year, I stumbled across a jar of Peanut Satay Sauce at Trader Joe's. Next to the shelf of sauces is pasta. A homemade sign was attached to a package of rice noodles that indicated that they were noodle needed for "real" pad Thai. I was sold on their marketing campaign and bought the noodles and sauce and had my first experience making my own pad Thai. It was as easy as the meals I made in college - spaghetti with Ragu, etc. It was very good, too.

As I have progressed in my culinary creativity, I have been able to put more thought and effort into my pad Thai. I make it almost once a month. Tonight, my brother and his "guest" joined us for dinner, so I wanted to impress.

I was planning on making my own peanut sauce, but for time's sake, I went with the Peanut Satay Sauce from TJ's. It never misses. I had to use two jars, though.

First thing first, I boiled the rice noodles. They're tricky because the get very, very sticky. After I drained the water, I put a little olive oil on them to keep them from sticking together too badly. I also chopped a yellow onion, red pepper and baby corn along with garlic. In a large wok, I sauteed the vegetables in olive oil and Asian seasoning that included salt, cummin, chiles, ginger and red bell pepper. I was careful to not over-cook them because I was going to saute them again later.

In the same wok, I cooked the chicken. I chopped three breasts and cooked them in olive oil, garlic and red bell pepper seasoning. The chicken was extremely tasty by itself.

Finally, I put the chicken, vegetables, rice noodles and peanut sauce in the large wok and worked the sauce in. I added bean sprouts, pea pods and crushed peanuts and stirred everything together and served.

The portions were very large and full of flavor. This was the first time I used the extra seasonings and they gave it a little kick. I was very happy with how it turned out. The others raved about how good it was.

Ingredients:
1 package rice noodles (16 ounces)
3 chicken breasts
2 jars Peanut Satay Sauce from Trader Joe's
1 red pepper
1 yellow onion
3 gloves of garlic
1 cup baby corn
1 small bunch green onions
1 cup pea pods
1 cup bean sprouts
olive oil
Asian seasoning

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