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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
Loved how easy this was to make and I really enjoyed the slight kick of heat behind the dish that wasn’t totally overpowering. This dish had a nice balance of flavors.
Thank you so much Megan! xTieghan
Amazing flavors! So much better than takeout. It took me almost an hour to make this with the prep work, but I’m assuming it’s because Tiegan is a ninja in the kitchen and I am not! So delicious! Thanks again!
Thank you Dana! I am so glad this recipe turned out so well for you!
Your better than takeout recipes are THE BEST. This one is no different! Made it with rice instead of the noodles and it was phenomenal. Such great flavor and simple ingredients. Thank you Tieghan!
Thank you so much Katie!! That is so amazing to hear! xTieghan
Loved it! I even added some fried crispy garlic and onions on top with some black sesame seeds for crunch!
Amazing! Thank you so much Monica! xTieghan
Amazing flavours!
Thank you Ania! xTieghan
How do you come up with only 279 calories/serving? This number seems grotesquely low to me.
Can you show your math as to how you came up with 279 calories/serving? This number seems grotesquely low to me.
Hi Harold! I will review it, thank you! xTieghan
Sooooo good! I wasn’t sure about adding oil to the cornstarch mixture so I skipped that step and just tossed the chicken in the dry mixture. I didn’t use coconut milk, I just tossed the noodles in that amazing garlic butter with a dash of water. Those noodles were heaven. I added a bit too much lime juice but it still turned out amazing. THANK YOU!!!
Thank you so much Julie! I am so glad these turned out so well for you! xTieghan
Just made this for dinner and it was EXTREMELY good. Perfect for Friday night and the new episode of Run on HBO! Seriously better than take out (since we can’t get any right now)!
Thank you so much Hannah! xTieghan
I made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing!! I didn’t have much sauce for the noodles, maybe I let it over reduce? But it was so so so good!! I will definitely be making this regularly! Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
Hi!
That could be your issue, also this isn’t a super saucy dish! Thanks for trying the recipe! xTieghan
My wife just told me we aren’t going out for Thai anymore. It was that good!
Wow that is so amazing!! Thank you so much Adam! xTieghan
Could you please clarify step one? “In a medium bowl, toss together the chicken, cornstarch, turmeric, ginger, a pinch of black pepper, and 1 tablespoon oil.” I made this last night but when I tossed it all together the spices and cornstarch and oil all clumped together, and then after I put it in the pan, the only thing that “browned” or “charred” was the spice mixture. Thanks.
Hi Braden,
So sorry you had issues with the recipe. For this step, you are coating the chicken with the cornstarch, turmeric, ginger, black pepper, and olive oil. I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions!
Wao! This is so good.. so weird haha but so good! I thought.. what? Noodles and butter and olive oil..? This is amazing!
Haha thank you Irma! I am glad you tried this! xTieghan
Tieghan,
This dish is wonderful. It’s savory, a tiny bit sweet, and the noodles are definitely a step above plain rice. The entire family deemed it a winner and my hubby requested that it go in the rotation. These takeout meals are winners for sure.
Thank you so much Kristi! That is so great to hear! xTieghan
Took me way longer than 25 minutes but this was SO delicious; thank you! Do you ever put other things over these garlic noodles? They were my favorite part.
Hi Emily! I haven’t tried to! I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe though! Thank you for making it! xTieghan