Rainbow chicken pad thai with chicken satay... kitchen nightmare, but worth it

We are back in Asia, in Thailand today with a classic chicken pad thai and skewers with a satay sauce. A double chicken dinner with noodles, vegetables and a sauce with a kick, a proper treat.

The noodle dish I can make with my eyes closed, but the satay sauce threw me right out of my comfort zone to such extent that I failed to clean up the kitchen while cooking. I know! It was like living a kitchen nightmare and I as I served our dinner, I looked around in horror. There was no way I could sit down and enjoy my meal, knowing there was a bomb site behind me with chopping boards, pots, pans, spills (!!!!!!), cutlery and general mayhem on every surface.

Blaming the heat of the meal, which of course was a white lie, I allowed the dinner to cool down for a minute or two while washing up at lightning speed. Leaving only the pots and pans still in use or that required extra attention, I could draw a sigh of relief and grab my plate. Order had been restored. 

Chicken noodles is a dish I have cooked for years, normally using soy sauce or sweet chilli sauce for seasoning. Last year I did however decided to look for a recipe for a more advanced and perhaps more authentic pad thai. I came across a rainbow version, which I suppose mean a variety of colourful vegetables. Sounded good to me. With that recipe as a base, as usual I grabbed what I had at home and got the chopping boards out. As you can see, I have multi coloured ones. Red for raw meat, blue for cooked, green for vegetables and white for fish. 

This time I had planned to make a noodle-free version and substitute them for bean sprouts and finely shredded savoy cabbage. Everything was prepared when my other half visited the kitchen and wished for noodles, so we ended up having everything. Why not? It therefore made a much bigger meal and we could enjoy leftovers the following day.

1. Check the recipe and get everything out. I believe I missed adding 2 cloves of garlic when writing the recipe.

2. Prepare the chicken.

3. Prepare the vegetables.

4. Cook the chicken and add onion and garlic.

I opted for red onion this time, because it looked sad and lonely in the basket.

5. Once the chicken is cooked and the onion soft, add the vegetables. If you are using cabbage and bean sprouts, save these for later as they will cook quicker.

6. After a few minutes, add the cabbage and bean sprouts and cook the noodles. 

If you want to make the dish wheat free, leave the noodles. Trust me, the addition of cabbage and bean sprouts will be a great substitute if you leave them with a bit of a crunch. Do not over cook!

7. Pop the cooked noodles in a separate frying pan, stir fry for a few minutes and add a beaten egg.

8. Keep stirring while the egg cooks and ensure it is mixed with the noodles.

9. Mix the ingredients to the sauce and add to the chicken and vegetables.

10. Add the noodles.

11. Mix well and the allow the noodles to soak up some of the sauce.

This is when I should have put the pan on a very low heat and made the satay sauce. Instead I had everything happening at once and at one point I actually used both hands, stirring two pots and pans at the time time. It was not good. In fact, a total nightmare. I'm not even going to share that part of my cooking, as the chicken skewers with satay sauce isn't a necessary part of the meal. Instead, sprinkle some chopped peanuts over the pad thai and let that be it. It was nice though...

Ok, I will share it. If I don't, it will grate on my conscious, having featured the skewers in the photo and not shared the recipe. I'm sure there are as many satay recipes are there are people making it. My one is pinched from Pinterest and written by Taming Twins.

Marinade

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp ginger, finely chopped

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

3 tbsp runny honey

3 tbsp sesame oil (I used olive oil and a sprinkle of sesame seeds)

2-3 tbsp medium curry powder

To finish sauce off

300 ml coconut milk (I used 200 ml Greek yogurt)

200 g peanut butter (I used 2 heaped tbsp crunchy peanut butter)

1. Mix the marinade.

2. Cut the chicken into chunks or long strands.

3. Pour half of the marinade into a container and add the chicken. 

4. Put the marinating chicken in the fridge for at least an hour. Once it is ready to cook, discard the marinade used for the chicken. Do not use it for the sauce!

5. Cook the skewers in the oven for approximately 25 minutes, until fully cooked. Turn once or twice.

6. Boil the other half of the marinade until it thickens.

I used the 'brief island' test to judge. Small patches of the bottom of the pan were clear for a brief second before getting flooded by the thick sauce.

7. Add the coconut milk (or yogurt for a lighter version) and the peanut butter.

8. Stir, stir, stir and stir some more. 

The recipe said to cook it for 5-10 minutes, until it was thick and lush. Trying to do that, while stirring not to burn it and finishing off the pad thai at the same time... not a good combo. As you can see (just about) I had still not done the noodle and egg thing at this point and yes, I did that while still stirring the satay sauce. I can not recommend it, unless you are an octopus or have at least one more arm. I don't. You wouldn't believe the state my kitchen was in after cooking this meal. 

9. Clean up the worst of the mess, then enjoy.