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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
This was AMAZING! You’re recipes are so delicious. This is our 6th recipe in the last 20 days. We look forward to dinner when your recipe is on the menu. Thank You!
Thank you so much Alena! I am really glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
Absolutely phenomenal recipe. It had so many great flavors, and while a little involved it was quick to make. I also didn’t have broccoli but substituted some carrots and yellow peppers instead as suggested. The lime at the end in the sauce and then making the coconut garlic noodles just put this a step above. I also have been looking for amazing recipes that are easy to incorporate baby lead weaning into. I gave my daughter the chicken (without the honey soy sauce) and steamed up some of the same carrots I used separately.
Hi Rachel! That is so great! I am glad this recipe turned out well for you and for your daughter! Thank you for trying it! xTieghan
We made this tonight with a few tweaks. Buttery creamy noodles are not my cup of tea, so we just added the garlic to the sauce and served it over jasmine rice. Very good that way. I bought roasted cashews by mistake, but I don’t think it affected the end result too much. We used just one teaspoon of black pepper, but next time I think we’ll use less crushed red pepper flakes and slightly more black pepper. We felt like the red pepper overpowered the black pepper, and since black pepper is in the name we want that to come through a little more. We used basil (as opposed to cilantro) and really liked that.
Hi Joni! Love the idea of it over rice, I am sure that is amazing as well! Also, I hope you love this more with a bit more black pepper! Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with! xTieghan
I made this tonight and it cam out very delicious!
Thank you so much Ozlem! xTieghan
Hi! Made this last night and it was absolutely incredible! Thank you 🙂
One question though re step 1. In the recipe it says to combine the spices/flour/1 tbsp oil in a bowl with the chicken. I had all my dry ingredients blended and added the oil and it immediately thickened and i had a tough time coating the chicken so had to add more corn starch and spices. Would you recommend coating the chicken in the oil first and then dredging each piece in the dry spice/flour mixture?
Hi Kevin,
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Yes you could easily do that as well! Please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
So yum Tieghan, thanks!
I love your recipes and photos.
Thank you so much Jess! xTieghan
Oh em gee….. Okay, so to begin, Shay Mitchell brought me here and oh am I so thankful! She made it and I followed your page and YESSSS! Beautiful presentation and the lovely stories of how you make your creations on IG. But any how, I made this and WOW! I was blown away. I couldn’t stop eating! I didn’t even take a picture! Bummer. I was extremely impressed and all I can say is yessss! This is it! Thank you ♥️
Wow I am so glad she did!! Also, so glad you are enjoying my blog and recipes, Victoria! I hope you continue to! Thank you!! xTieghan
This was a really yummy recipe, but it took me MUCH MUCH longer than 25 minutes to make it. Just getting the water boiling was 20 minutes (even while concurrently slicing 4 pounds of chicken breast for 20 minutes, prepping both sauces and veggies, etc. etc.). Maybe I did something wrong! (maybe I just need your kitchen!! *wink*)
But honestly, unless I had an extra set of hands or two in my kitchen, I can’t even fathom how I would be able to get this to the table in under an hour (or two-bc it honestly took me about 2.5h from starting prep to plating).
That’s not so much a critique as it is a warning to those who might expect that prep to table can be accomplished by us mere human beings!
Love your recipes, Tieghan–please keep them coming–and next time I will take the timeframe with a grain or two of salt.
You are one talented young lady, and I enjoy having new recipes to try. Thank you! <3
=)danielle
Hi Danielle! You are too kind! I am so glad you enjoyed this, and apologize it took longer than expected! I hope you continue to love recipes of mine! xTieghan
Made this tonight for “self date-night in”!! It was divine! Can’t wait to make it again!
Aw that is amazing!! I am so glad this turned out so well for you, Ruth! xTieghan
This came out PERFECTLY and was so incredibly delicious-it tasted like Thai Takeout but honestly better. I will be adding this to favorite recipes!!
I am so happy to hear that! Thank you so much Julie!! xTieghan
This was great!
Thank you Lori! xTieghan
My wife and I made this the other night, thankfully we had all the ingredients on hand. It was great !
The only thing is that our noodles didn’t end up with a sauce like the ones in the picture, perhaps because we used
brown rice noodles ? Next time we’ll increase the noodle sauce.
Thank you so much! I am really glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
Another incredible HBH recipe! I didn’t have all the ingredients (cashews, basil), but this was SO yummy and easy! Thanks, Tieghan!
Thank you Maegan! I am so glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
No directions for rice noodles on package!
Need about four kitchen elves to do this in twenty five minutes.
Other than that, I guess on a scale of one to ten we’d have to give it about … oh maybe a ten. Fabulous.
Haha I am really glad you still loved this one, Charles! Thank you for giving it a try! xTieghan
Made tonight and loved it. However 2 tablespoons of oil wasn’t enough. And next time will toast the cashews first
Thank you so much Jenni! xTieghan