Golden Grains Pot Sized Pasta: Use your noodle

The folks over at Golden Grain Pasta sent me a sample of their new pot-sized pasta and asked me to play around with it to see what I could come up with. The logic behind pot-sized pasta is that we spend time breaking long noodles before cooking so that they cook and they aren't poking out from the pot when you're cooking them. Pot sized pasta eliminates the need for the breaking, and the subsequent tiny bits of pasta that go flying around your stove and the floor. I have to say, cooking with the pot-sized pasta, after so many decades of breaking my pasta was really odd, because I just dumped it in and gave it a stir, much the same way I cook other shapes of pasta. It cooked up the same, looked the same, and was merely shorter in length, and therefore more convenient to cook. I found it worked excellently in my Pseudo Chicken Chow Mein dish.

Pseudo Chicken Chow Mein
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 lb spaghetti or linguine noodles
⅔ cup chicken stock
¼ cup soy sauce (I use the kikkoman low sodium)
3 tablespoons Chinese oyster sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand is my favorite)
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon sambal (Chinese chile sauce)
1 to 1¼ lbs boneless, skinless, chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch chunks
¼ cup vegetable oil (you’ll probably not use all of it)
1 ½ tablespoons freshly minced ginger
1 ½ tablespoons freshly chopped garlic
8 bunches of bok choy, washed, and then pulled apart into individual leaves
3 scallions, thinly sliced

Method
Cook pasta according to package directions, about a minute less than it asks for. (9 minute pasta, cook for only 8 minutes.) Drain, and set aside.

In a small bowl, or measuring cup, mix together chicken broth, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and sambal. Set aside until needed.

In a large nonstick skillet or wok, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over high heat. Add chicken, season with salt and pepper, and cook, until golden and fully cooked, about 7 minutes. Add ginger and garlic, and cook until fragrant. Add cooked noodles and bok choy and begin tossing so that noodles get coated with oil and bokchoy begins to cook, another 2 minutes. Stir in sauce and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is absorbed and noodles are evenly coated, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle scallions on top and give it one final toss.

Serve right away (although the cold leftovers are also pretty good.)

Printable recipe