This is one of wuffy′s earliest kitchen experiments for a furry group! Made this back in 2008 for a work pot luck, and a year later served a big batch of it to the Further Confusion Picnic crowd while visiting out in CA. The picnic for the planning committee and friends just happened to coincide with the dates of one of wuff′s San Jose trips, and a good friend out there (Melchar) was kind enough to lend Vrghr her kitchen to make this for the picnic crew!

This dish is inspired by a variety of ideas from the East; Japanese, Thai, Chinese, etc., ″Americanized″ with some store-bought pasta. So wuffy just called it ″Asian″.

This is a very flexible dish, and can adapt well to a huge variety of veggies and ′add ins′, so you can tailor it to your particular tastes, or to what you have on sale in your market that week. It also makes a large batch, and will easily feed a hungry group of 10-12 furs, and even more as a side dish if served with other goodies!

This dish has a lovely combination of flavors and textures, from the robustly-seasoned chicken, to the tender pasta, to earthy mushrooms, to crunchy Jicama, and garden-fresh snap peas. Wuffy offers even more suggestions for ″add ins″ at the end, if you wish to make this dish your own.

Finally, if you leave out all the pasta and veggies and such, the Peanut Sauce here is fantastic on its own! You can easily stir fry chicken or beef in it, or tofu! Spread it on some fresh greens (thinned slightly) or just serve it with your choice of Asian noodles as a sort of Asian Spaghetti!

This salad serves well both warm and cold. Vrhgr prefers the warm version slightly more. But the chili sauce and red pepper provides a mild heat that works well against the cold version too.

Note: Just about any creamy peanut butter will work, but Vrghr has found that the consumer-grade Jiff, Peter Pan, etc., work better with this than the more expensive "gourmet" types. And you save a bit of cash!

Note: If you’re going to hold this overnight (or longer) in the refrigerator and serve the next day, consider reducing the chili sauce and red pepper slightly, leaving the “heat” a bit less than desired when taste-testing it hot after cooking. The peppers and chili build heat when stored, and might surprise you and your guests when you serve this after “resting” a day or so. Of course, if you’re going to serve it (either warm or cool) within a few hours after preparation, this won’t be a factor. Using caution with the heat is especially true if you just make the peanut sauce and keep that for a while to spread on chicken or salad at some later date.

Note: Jicama looks a bit like a brown-skinned turnip with a slightly woody-feeling peel. When peeled, the inside of the tuber is a crispy white flesh with the consistency of a radish, and a surprisingly sweet, nutty flavor. Should be available in the ‘exotic produce’ area of most larger markets.

Note: Though this recipe uses Linguini for the pasta base, you can easily substitute a wide variety of Asian noodles instead. The photos here show it made with Pancit Canton, and that turned out VERY nicely! You want something fairly substantial to stand up to the hearty and thick peanut sauce and the other ingredients. But there′s a lot to choose from in that category!

Vrghr likes this dish best with a bit of spicy "Thai" type heat. However, if you have some heat adverse folks, you can cut that to very low levels by reducing the amount of Asian Garlic Ginger sauce and Red Pepper Flakes.

Ingredients:
(For the Pasta)
1 lb Linguini or other Asian noodles (Vrghr used Pancit Canton for the photo version)
1 Tbs Salt
2 Tsp Garlic Powder
Dash (couple teaspoons) cooking oil

(For the Chicken)
1 Tablespoon Peanut Oil
1 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts or Thighs (about 1 lb), sliced into thin, bite sized strips (photo version used thighs)
3 Tsp Gram Marsala spice
2 Tsp Chinese 5-Spice powder
1.5 – 2 Inches fresh Ginger Root, peeled and minced (or sub Ginger Paste)
4-5 Scallions (Green Onions), chopped
5 Cloves Garlic, minced (or sub Garlic Paste)

(For the Peanut Sauce)
1.5 – 2 C Water
1/4 – 1/3 C Soy Sauce (can use light or low-sodium versions too)
1/4 – 1/3 C unseasoned Rice Wine Vinegar
1/4 – 1/3 C Asian Garlic Chili Sauce
3/4 – 1 C Smooth (not chunky) Peanut Butter
2 Tablespoons Mirin sweet seasoning
2 – 3 Tsp Sesame Oil
~1 Tbs grated Fresh Ginger (or Ginger Paste)
~1 Tbs minced Garlic (or Garlic Paste)
~1 Tbs Fish Sauce (optional)
~2 tsp Oyster Sauce
2 tsp ground Ginger Powder
2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1-4 Tsp crushed Red Pepper flakes (to taste)
Optional: Dash Chinese 5-Spice Powder and/or Garam Marsala powder

(The Veggie ″Add-Ins″)
1 med zucchini, julienne or coarsely grated
1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely grated
1/2 – 3/4 Med Jicama, peeled julienne (cut into matchsticks)
1/3 – 3/4 Pkg Sugar Snap Peas (about 1-2 C)
1 Can Straw Mushrooms, drained
1 Can sliced Water Chestnuts, drained
1 Can Baby Corn, drained
1 Pkg Planters “Nut Topping” (crushed peanuts and pecans)

Instructions:
Start the Chicken and Peanut Sauce first, so the sauce is hot and ready when the noodles finish cooking

Heat the peanut oil in a large fry pan over Med-High heat until hot, and add the Boneless Chicken Breast (sliced into thin, bite sized strips). Sprinkle the chicken with the Garam Marsala spice and Chinese 5-Spice powder, stirring a bit to coat all the sides.

Then add the 1.5 – 2 Inches fresh Ginger Root (peeled and minced), chopped scallions, and minced garlic. Sauté until the chicken is just done, and the veggies are tender and fragrant.

Remove the cooked chicken to a separate plate, leaving the sauteed veggies behind.

Lower heat to Medium, and add ingredients for the Peanut Sauce; the Soy Sauce, Fish Sauce, Oyster sauce, unseasoned Rice Wine Vinegar, Asian Garlic Chili Sauce, Smooth (not chunky) Peanut Butter, Sweet Mirin seasoning, Fresh Ginger (or ginger paste), minced Garlic (or garlic paste), and Sesame Oil. Stir to dissolve peanut butter

Gradually add the water, stirring in. Adjust water as necessary to make a medium thin sauce. Allow to come to a light simmering boil, stirring frequently

Spice up the sauce with the crushed red pepper flakes. Note - Adjust pepper to taste. The chili sauce heat comes on at the end, the red pepper heat comes on in the beginning, but both will augment each other, so taste and adjust as desired while cooking.

Finish the sauce with the Ground Ginger Powder and Garlic Powder (or granulated garlic) and the optional dash of Garam Masala and 5-Spice Powder. The powdered spices add a sharper and more pungent “kick” to the sauce when compared to the mellow and sweeter flavors of the sauteed fresh spices/paste added at the start.

Bring to boiling 3 quarts of water in large (4+ quart) pot, and adding the salt, oil, and (optional) garlic powder. Add the Linguini or other noodles and boil until just tender. Leave them a bit 'al dente' so they don't mush up or fall apart as you add the sauce and other ingredients

Drain noodles when done but don't rinse (sauce clings better if not rinsed)

Pour sauce over the noodles, stir gently to coat.

Add in the selected veggies and the chicken. NOTE – For Presentation, reserve some of the ″pristine″ veggies to scatter about the top of the pasta as garnish, to show off what′s inside! Carefully fold in the veggies and chicken so as not to tear up the pasta too much.

The following veggies are what I used. But these can be adjusted to availability and preference. Suggestions for other veggies are also included below the recipe.

1 large carrot
1 Med Jimcama
1/3 – 3/4 Pkg Sugar Snap Peas (about 2 Cups)
1 Can Straw Mushrooms
1 can Water Chestnuts
1 can Bamboo Shoots
1/2 C Broccoli Florettes
1/2 C Cauliflower

Arrange the reserved veggies on top. Sprinkle the Planters “Nut Topping” (crushed peanuts and pecans) liberally over it all

Serve warm immediately, or store in the refrigerator until serving time.

!DEVOUR!

Other suggestions for veggies that should work well in this salad:
Medium zucchini
Shitake Mushrooms
Bean Sprouts
Baby Spinach
Chinese Cabbage
(Note - if using the last 3 items, wait until ready to serve to mix them in, as these are very tender and will wilt if left mixed with the rest for too long)

Variations/Options:
That lovely Peanut Sauce can be used for grilling chicken or strips of thinly-cut beef, or kabobs, or thinned and used as a salad dressing for a Asian salad with mixed greens (try adding any of the veggies suggested above, baby cob-corn, or some Mandarin orange slices to the salad version).