15-Minute Chicken Satay Noodles

Ingredients

• 300 g chicken breast, thinly sliced
• 200 g medium egg noodles
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tbsp peanut butter, smooth
• 100 g tenderstem broccoli, halved
• 30 g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
• 3 spring onions, sliced
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tsp sriracha
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• Steamed jasmine rice, to serve
• Pickled cucumber, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Bring a large pan of well-salted water to a rolling boil — it should taste like the sea, and it's your only chance to season the noodles from the inside. Drop in the egg noodles and cook per packet, usually 3–4 minutes, until just tender with a bit of bite.
2. Before you drain, scoop out 100 ml of the starchy cooking water and set it aside — this is what turns the peanut butter into sauce later. Drain the noodles and leave them in the colander.
3. In a bowl, whisk the peanut butter, soy sauce, fish sauce, lime juice, sriracha and sesame oil with 4 tbsp of the reserved noodle water until smooth and pourable — the consistency of double cream. Taste it: it should land salty, sour, sweet-nutty, gently hot. Most of the salt comes from the soy and fish sauce, so adjust with a pinch more salt or another splash of lime juice if it needs lifting.
4. Pat the chicken slices dry and season generously with salt and pepper — water on the surface means steam, and steam means no browning. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok over high heat until it shimmers and just starts to whisper smoke.
5. Lay the chicken in the wok in a single layer and leave it for 30 seconds before tossing. Don't crowd the pan — if your wok is small, do it in two batches. You want the edges golden and caught, not pale and weeping. 3–4 minutes total, tossing often, until cooked through.
6. Add the minced garlic and the tenderstem broccoli. Stir-fry for no more than 2 minutes — the garlic should turn fragrant and pale gold, not brown. Burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter, so keep it moving and watch it.
7. Tip in the drained noodles and pour over the satay sauce. Toss everything over the heat for about a minute so every strand goes glossy and bronzed, loosening with another splash of noodle water if it tightens. Taste once more and adjust salt now — at the end, not at the table.
8. Divide between two warm bowls. Scatter over the sliced spring onions and chopped roasted peanuts, and tuck a lime wedge against the rim for squeezing at the table.