Szechuan Chicken Hot Dish (with Miracle Noodles)

Don’t you hate recipes that start out with the author’s autobiography? Well, I’m not about to do that, only to say that you and I are learning together. Yes, I’ve loved to cook but now that I’m trying new things, I will pass on to you what I’ve learned. In this piece, you will learn frying tips that will keep your foods from sticking to the pan. Additionally, frying carbs produces acrylamides which are carcinogenic. Obviously, you can avoid them (in this recipe) by frying your chicken without the corn starch coating, or you can supplement with Swanson Chlorophyllin & Mint 500 Chwbls after the meal. These counter the effects of your fried carbs.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 1/4 cup corn starch
  • 3 packs of Angel Hair Miracle Noodles (You may choose any miracle noodle product you like.)
  • 1/2 cup yellow onion cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I use red onion)
  • 1 red bell pepper cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 1 green bell pepper cut into 1 inch pieces (I used an orange bell pepper)
  • 25 small dried red chilies (these are hot, so use depending on your tastes)
  • 1 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon minced ginger
  • salt and pepper to taste

Sauce

  • 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce (how to make your own at that link)
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil (optional)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup chicken broth

To congeal the hot dish (and make it a tad healthier) : mix the following into the sauce which is poured over the whole dish.

Note: these links are to the affiliate programs that keep this site up. Your author is retired.

Frying Tips

We’re going to coat the chicken bits with corn starch and damn if it kept sticking to the pan . . . until I talked to a chef who gave me the following tips.

Do not use non stick pans. WAIT ONE SECOND!

This was written a while back and since then we have not only discovered a safe, long lasting, easy to maintain non-stick pan. And yes, we bought it and tested it. It’s from Misen, one of our longest running affiliate programs. Love their stuff. The pan is a Carbon Steel Non Stick Frying Pan. It amazed us in the kitchen and just allowed us to remove a few paragraphs from this spot.

Preparation of the Miracle Noodles

I get a lot of complaints that these things are slippery and nothing sticks to them, and that’s because they haven’t been properly prepared.

You can boil them first for about a minute or so, or simply rinse them in hot water. You simply want to get the liquid they’ve been stored in washed away.

Then we fry them. This is simply to remove all the excess water so that your sauces can be absorbed by the noodle.

For this recipe, you may use any Miracle Noodle product, even their rice.

The secret to frying and drying them is to constantly move them about with a spatula, flip them, etc. You’ll know when they are done when they begin to “screech” when moving them about the pan. You see, they’re starting to stick because they are drying. And that’s it.

Directions

Remove the fried chicken and place into a warm oven to keep them warm.

You might need a bit more oil in the pan for frying up the veggies. Add everything to the pan (except your sauce) and give them a light frying. We prefer our vegies a bit crunchy.

Then add the chicken (you can heat the oven to 350 at this time) and mix well, and finally add your noodles. Mix it all up thoroughly and pour that into your casserole (we call it hot dish in Minnesota) dish, and then it’s time to add the sauce.

However, the last things you add to your sauce will be the green banana flour and the Konjac flour. Grab your immersion blender and blend it up thoroughly, then pour it evenly over your hot dish.

Place it into your oven and bake for about 25 – 30 minutes.

Toppings

We simply sprinkle chopped cilantro leaves on top, but everyone has their favorite hot dish topping, from fried crispy fried onions, to pine nuts. There’s also breadcrumbs, chow mein noodles, thinly-sliced caramelized onions, and cheese crumbles. Totally up to the chef in the family.

Success

My third try was a delightful success. It was even pretty, and I had wanted to take a picture for the feature image of this page, but it was gone before I thought of whipping out the camera. The person I tested this recipe on told me that she’d order this if she were in a restaurant.

Misen — One of Our Best Affiliate Programs

You’ve probably noticed we don’t use pop-ups here or any advertising, but to keep this site running, we do have some affiliate links. And our affiliate programs are from stores that we actually use.

When it comes to kitchen hardware, knives, pans, etc, nobody can top Misen. I have one of their knives and I can shave with it . . . after three years of use. Most non-stick surfaces are toxic. Their carbon steel pan is non-stick because of the way you season and care for it. They make the best stuff in your kitchen. We highly recommend them.

These two links will get you started: Misen Chef’s Knife and Misen Carbon Non Stick Frying Pan

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