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Weeknight style Thai Black Pepper Chicken and Garlic Noodles. The super fast Thai chicken noodle bowl that looks like takeout, but tastes so much better…and it’s healthier too! Quick-cooking chicken tossed in a sweet, tangy, and spicy Thai style black pepper sauce with plenty of broccoli, cashews, and basil. Serve this chicken over saucy garlic butter rice noodles and top with extra lime juice. Every bite is saucy, sweet, spicy, and hinted with basil. It’s delicious and healthy. Major bonus? This comes together in no time at all (under 30 minutes). Perfect for busy weeknights when you’re looking for something a little more special, but still quick, healthy-ish, and DELICIOUS.
Making Monday night Thai inspired food a thing and so happy about it. I’ve been saying this for weeks, but all I’m craving right now is colorful food, anything fun, and anything different. Any kind of recipe that I haven’t made before. With life in quarantine being much the same every day, I’m thankful to have food as an outlet for spontaneity. Just something different to break up the days, you know?
So yeah, long story short, I’m switching up recipes these days. I’ve made things like a whipped coffee white Russian, Mexican taquitos, and Italian style ravioli. I even ventured towards Cuban with my skillet cheesy Cuban chicken and rice bake and creamy coconut lime mojitos.
Cooking has been the only thing keeping me sane. What’s helping you guys?
Anyway, today we’re stepping into some quick-cooking Thai cuisine, and it’s truly my favorite kind of food.
The inspiration.
I’ve had this dish in mind for a while now. My oldest brother Creighton is here and this week he pushed me to finally create the recipe. He’s been asking for some new quick-cooking Thai inspired chicken dishes, so I obviously had to deliver up something good.
Enter this under 30-minute Thai black pepper chicken. It’s not super traditional, but it was inspired by black pepper chicken. Which customarily, is a mix of chili peppers, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, fish sauce, and plenty of black pepper. My take has all these flavors too…but also some additional ones as well.
It’s saucy, spicy, sweet, a touch salty, and just about as delicious as a quick-cooking Thai chicken dinner can get. I really can’t say enough good things about this recipe. It’s one of those dishes that will become a monthly staple.
Why? Well, it’s simple, it’s quick, it’s pretty healthy, and it’s a dinner that most everyone can really enjoy.
The process.
First up, toss the chicken with a little cornstarch, turmeric, and ginger. Tossing the chicken with cornstarch allows it to get extra crispy and caramelize while cooking.
Now make the sauce. It’s simply, honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and plenty of chili flakes, plus black pepper.
Pan-fry the chicken in a little oil until it is crisp. Add plenty of broccoli, a handful of cashews. Then pour over the sauce and let it simmer down and thicken over the chicken and broccoli.
As the chicken is cooking, boil some rice noodles and toss them in a hot pan full of butter and garlic. Yes, noodles, butter, and garlic…but then add a touch of coconut milk for a little more sauce and additional creaminess. SO GOOD.
By the time the noodles have cooked, the chicken should be done as well. Now, put it all together…
Spoon the noodles plus the sauce into bowls, then add the chicken and broccoli. Finish each bowl off with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and fresh basil or cilantro.
Enjoy. Immediately.
Yes, this is that simple and that quick-cooking. Honestly, this will take you no more than thirty minutes to make and uses a good amount of pantry staples too!
Notes and substitutions…
For the broccoli, while I love it with this dish, you can really use whatever vegetable you have on hand. Bell peppers would be my top pick, then asparagus, but you could also use mushrooms, bok choy, carrots. Really, use whatever you’ve got.
Now, let’s talk about the noodles. I like to use vermicelli rice noodles, but you could use any variety of rice noodles or even angel hair pasta. The noodles are meant to be saucy, so once you toss them with the garlic butter sauce, make sure to serve right away.
And you guys…that’s it. Takes less than 30 minutes to make and it’s not only delicious but fun too. We might not be able to travel around the world right now, but at least we can create fun ethnic-inspired recipes at home any night of the week.
I’m all about that. So, Monday night Thai food?
Watch the How To Video:
Lastly, if you make this Thai black pepper chicken and garlic noodles, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Thai Black Pepper Chicken and Garlic Noodles
Servings: 4
Calories Per Serving: 823 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons corn starch or flour
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1-2 teaspoons black pepper, using more or less to your taste
- 3 tablespoons sesame oil or extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 8 ounces rice noodles
- 2 medium shallots, sliced or chopped
- 2 small heads broccoli, chopped
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- zest and juice of 1 lime
- 1/2 cup fresh basil or cilantro, roughly chopped
- 3 tablespoons salted butter
- 3-4 cloves garlic finely chopped or grated
- 1/3 cup canned coconut milk
Instructions
- 1. In a medium bowl, toss together the chicken, cornstarch, turmeric, ginger, black pepper, and 1 tablespoon oil.2. In a glass jar, combine the honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, red pepper flakes, and 1/4 cup water. 3. Cook rice noodles according to packaged directions. 4. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil shimmers, add the chicken and brown all over, until it becomes crispy, about 5 minutes. Add the shallots, broccoli, and cashews, cook another 2-3 minutes, until the broccoli is charring. Pour in the honey/soy sauce mix. Bring the sauce to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until the sauce coats the chicken, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lime zest, lime juice, and the basil.5. Meanwhile, heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the butter, garlic, and a pinch of red pepper flakes, if desired. Cook until the garlic begins to caramelize and turn light golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the coconut milk, cooking 3-5 minutes, until warmed through. Remove from the heat and toss the noodles with the sauce. 6. To serve, divide the noodles among bowls and top with chicken. Serve with additional basil and limes. Enjoy!
This post was originally published on April 20, 2020
It’s was amazing. There was only a tiny bit of leftovers, so I put it a rice paper wrap with veggies and cilantro like a fresh roll. It was also delicious
I am really glad this turned out so well for you, Raina! Thank you! xTieghan
Lovely flavors! Subbed in red onion for shallot and whole wheat noodles for rice noodles based on what I had. Turned out well!
Thank you for trying this Anjali! I am really glad it turned out so well for you! xTieghan
OMG this was amazing! Loved it….
Thank you so much Helen! xTieghan
SO GLAD I MADE THIS!!! Husband isn’t usually a fan when I try to make anything Asian, but he LOOOVED this!! We love all of your recipes!!
I am so glad you both loved this one, Stephanie!! Thank you! xTieghan
This looks amazing, can’t wait to try! I wanted to ask if the nutritional information was for the chicken alone or a serving of the chicken and the noodles? thanks so much
Hi Shreya! I am glad you like this and I hope you try it! I do not have the nutritional information for this, unfortunately. I would suggest putting the ingredients into an online calculator and dividing by the serving size. Please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
25 minutes my ass.
Hi Justin! I apologize if this took you longer than expected. Is there anything I can do to help? xTieghan
This was a quick, delicious and satisfying meal. I made it vegan by using soy curls and that worked very well for this recipe. I’ll definitely make this again. Thanks Tieghan!
Thank you Rhea! xTieghan
So the 25 minutes is after you’ve trimmed and sliced the raw chicken and measured everything out right? No chance prep time of 10 minutes is accurate. Why are all online recipes like this?
Hi Jason! I apologize if this recipe takes you longer than the suggested time. I try to do an estimate of how long it takes.. I hope you still try this! xTieghan
I left out all the red pepper flakes so that my little monsters wouldn’t complain about it being too spicy. Me & the hubs just added it to our individual plates and it was just as good. We used red peppers instead of broccoli because that’s what i had on hand. Took less than 30 minutes from start to finish. Everyone loved it. We will be making this regularly.
I am really glad this turned out so well for you all, Mary! Thank you!! xTieghan
Hi! First of all, i LOVE your recipes. Secondly, you always reply to me on IG which I really appreciate and it always makes my day! I’ve made this recipe like 5 times already because I love it that much! So easy and incredibly tasty. I do have one question regarding your recipes in general, when you say 1 shallot or 2 shallots, do you mean the entire thing or just 1 clove of the shallot? I’m assuming you mean the entire thing and that is what I do. Just wanted to clarify! Thank you and thank you for creating fun + different recipes 🙂
Hi Andrea,
Thanks so much for your kind message, I am so glad you are loving the recipes. When I say one shallot I am referring to one clove of the shallot. I hope this helps! xTieghan
another out of the park dinner. I halved the recipe and everything worked great. My butter, garlic, and coconut milk didn’t quite turn into a whole sauce, but I do always find sauce ratios can get odd when I half them. Still, so good!!!!
Thank you so much Lila! I am so glad you enjoyed this one! xTieghan
Just made this tonight! It was really good! Love recipes where you can be flexible with veggies you can put in. I really like the coconut rice noodles with this dish! Thanks
Thank you so much Kime! I am really glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
This recipe has already become a family favorite! I love how your recipes are always so flavorful, and this one certainly does not disappoint. The added lime juice and zest and the garlic butter noodles really put this meal over the edge of yumminess that had my family going back for seconds and thirds.
Thank you so much Kelly! I am really glad this recipe turned out amazing for you! xTieghan
I made this recipe for dinner today and the chicken turned out pretty good but the soup noodle broth was not so great. Maybe it’s because my coconut milk was not the best brand. It tasted really bland even after cooking it with garlic/butter and red pepper flakes. Also I had to add a lot of salt and red chili pepper to everything to give it more flavor. Overall it was pretty good though!
Thank you so much Karen! I am really glad this recipe turned out so well for you! xTieghan
This recipe was amazing!
Thank you Sheila! xTieghan