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This was good, good, good! The husband, 2 year old and I could not get enough!! It was great warm for dinner and cold for lunch the next day!
Sara Caldwell
Remember when I used to have a dishwasher?
I don’t. Five months of washing dishes by hand means I’ve completely forgotten what life was like back when I had a appliance friend to help me out with my least favorite domestic chore of all the chores, ever. Although laundry is a close second on the list. I think the last time I ironed something was when my mom first taught me how to use an iron. Just kidding Mom! I did iron, like, three times. In 2008. Maybe.
How To Make Our Spicy Peanut Soba Noodle Salad (1 MIN):
The dishwasher thing was totally on accident, because when we bought this house we were so in love with its charm that we sort of, um, forgot to check for a dishwasher.
And suddenly we found ourselves moving in and there I stood, looking around the little kitchen, imagining all the yums that would be created and how cute it would be after a little sprucing up to the cabinets, and suddenly calling in my Emergency Voice to Bjork in the other room if he knew all along there was no dishwasher here?!?! Oh, dear. Not our most responsible house-buying moment.
Lately my workflow has evolved to meet the demands of this no-dishwasher + limited-counter-space thing, so that means lots of pauses during my cooking, during which I’m always really patient and calm and never splashing water all over like a crazy person. Never. I stir, simmer, pause and do dishes. Whisk, chop, pause to put away dishes. Bake, chill, pause to eat the rest of the cookie dough in order to wash out the last lunch container in order to store the completed recipe. And then do the rest of the dishes.
We didn’t have a dishwasher in the Philippines and we had even less counter space, so I guess that was good training for this accidental dishwasher scenario.
Come to think of it, we didn’t have a microwave or a freezer or a consistently functioning fridge, none of which has anything to do with the Philippines and everything to do with our scrappy nature when it comes to setting up a living space for one year. I mean, simplicity is good, right? There has to be something good about that, in its own inconvenient way.
At least we are balancing the inconvenience of our dishwasherless lifestyle with the convenience of this Spicy Peanut Chicken Soba Noodle Salad, since our fridge is stocked to the brim with grab-and-go soba noodle lunch containers for the rest of the year. HAPPY. There’s just a lot of good packed into this one zingy recipe. It’s called a salad, but look at it: no lettuce, no spinach, no greens of any kind. Add greens if you like greens. Or don’t, because it’s really really good with just the crunchy rainbow bell peppers, the shredded chicken, the chewy soba noodles, and the knock your socks off Spicy Peanut Sauce.
I don’t mean that it’s so spicy that it will knock your socks off – I just mean that it’s that life-changingly creamy, spicy, nutty darn good. In my perfect world, I would have a container of this in my fridge at all times. Sesame oil, garlic, peanut butter, honey, and jalapeño for bite. Goes with everything —> including this salad.
Hm? Oh, that. Just a little leftover sauce on my face.
I live for food like dis.
Spicy Peanut Chicken Soba Noodle Salad
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 8–10 1x
Description
This Spicy Peanut Chicken Soba Noodle Salad is loaded with flavor and tossed with a super quick spicy peanut sauce. Definitely a favorite! YUM!
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 each red, green, and yellow bell pepper
- 8.8 (250 grams) soba noodles
- fresh cilantro or basil to taste
For the Spicy Peanut Sauce
- 5 tablespoons peanut butter
- 5 tablespoons water
- 5 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- half of a jalapeño pepper
- 1/2 cup peanuts
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. Place the chicken in the water and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. When chicken is cool enough to handle, shred with your hands or with two forks. Set aside. Meanwhile, cut the bell peppers into very thin strips – it makes the salad extra awesome if they are thin and easy to wrap your fork around, almost like a little noodle.
- Puree all the ingredients for the Spicy Peanut Sauce in a food processor, adding the peanuts last so you can control how smooth the sauce will be (I like to leave some pieces of crushed peanut in the sauce).
- Cook the soba noodles according to package directions. Drain and toss with the chicken, veggies, fresh cilantro, and Spicy Peanut Sauce. Serve hot or cold – but I recommend cold! Yummay.
Notes
Nutrition information is for 10 servings.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 35
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Asian
Keywords: chicken soba noodle salad, soba noodle salad, peanut chicken soba noodle salad
Made this last night and it was perfect. We all loved it. I did serve warm and added a little more jalapeño as we like spicy. Delicious, as so many of your recipes are!
So glad you enjoyed the salad, Molly!
Soba noodles are great and I love eating this cold. The peanut butter sauce and the crunch of the veggies. Amazing.
Thank you for sharing your recipes!
Could you suggest something other than jalapeño for this? Looks delish, can’t wait to try it.
Hi, Sarah! You could omit the jalapeño altogether if you don’t care for the spice.
This is delicious! I omitted the Jalapeños because I don’t like spicy foods and this was still amazing!
Can’t wait to make this. I know all the kids will love it and it is making my mouth water just looking at the pictures
Make this tonight. The entire family was amazed at how good a meal can taste without meat (I made it with the tofu). It was beyond delicious. I added hothouse cucumer, edamame, and sesame seeds. The family can’t wait to see what Pinch of Yum recipe I’ll make next!
Nota great experience with the soba noodles here. They generated a nasty foam and clumped together even though I was stirring them. Think I will retry the recipe with whole wheat spaghetti. According to the MyNetDiary app, the sodium and fat were high so I halved the recipe for sesame oil and low sodium soy sauce. And I wanted more veggies (and am lazy) so I went the salad bar route. Shredded carrots, purple cabbage, red and yellow peppers, green onion and edamame. Once I get the noodle situation sorted out, I think this recipe is a keeper!
This recipe sounds so yummy! How long does it keep in your fridge?
Hi Lyn! It’ll keep for about 4-5 days. 🙂
so easy and delicious! its definitely being added to the weeknight dinner rotation. extra love for needing no reheating!
Can I make the peanut sauce ahead and freeze it for our beach trip? I’m not sure if they have a food processor.
Definitely!
I made this Sunday night for lunches for work, and LOVE IT! Tastes even better the next day, the sauce is delicious. I added some mango, green onion and shredded carrot to the mix as well
Sounds delicious! Glad you enjoyed it!
I love the recipes on this website. I mean LOVE them, but truthfully I only come here when I need serious inspiration and here’s why: searching for recipes on this site is huge headache. A couple days ago I came to the site to find a tried and true recipe (spicy sofrito bowls) when I happened on the homepage I found this recipe, spicy peanut chicken soba noodle salad. Yay! I’ll make that for dinner tomorrow. Tomorrow comes and it’s not on the homepage anymore. I spend a ton of time looking through all the dinner recipes for chicken but I only spicy chicken peanut salad which is very similar but not the same. The recipe I want is under lunch salads not dinner. Ack! Who has time to figure this out with a two year old running around. Please, please, please make this site easier to search. Thanks!
Hi, Carlie! Have you tried typing key words into the search bar? The search bar is in the upper righthand corner (above the picture of Bjork and Lindsay), and if you type in (for example) “sofritos”, you should come upon the recipe you’re looking for. I have a toddler as well and I hear you – things need to be quick and easy for me to use them! Hope this helps. 🙂
The search tool has never worked for me. Is it because I”m on a Mac?! I have tried words I know are part of your recipes like “sofrito” “soba” “lasagne” etc. and it always comes back, “Sorry, no content matched your criteria.” I know I sound crazy or technologically illiterate, but over the past couple years I’ve tried many times and it has never worked for me. If I remember the recipe name I usually just google it “spicy sofrito bowl pinch of yum” and that works pretty well.
Sorry to hear that! I have a Mac and have never had a problem with the search bar. Typing the recipe keywords into Google is generally a good way to find things as well. 🙂
And on mobile, search is in the menu as well as at the very bottom of every page
This looks delicious. I am going to make it. I’m just wondering how much soba noodles to use. I cant seem to find that info everywhere.
Thanks.
This recipe calls for an 8.8 ounce package of soba noodles.
I loved this dish, and so did my husband! and it was easy!
Awesome, Jolene!
Hi how long would this keep in the fridge? Was thinking about making it and taking camping, but not sure if the sauce would break down the noodles?
It actually gets better in the fridge a day later – it would just be the veggies/sauce I would worry about more than the noodles/sauce. Can you keep the veggies separate? I wouldn’t keep it for more than a few days though.
I’ll have Lindsay get back to you on this.
I make this up pretty much once a fortnight to portion for lunches to bring to work. My mum makes it too now. Love it!
We love hearing that! Thanks, Edwina! 🙂
Prepared yesterday, chilled in the fridge overnight, and I just wanted a to try a forkful this morning… ended up eating it all, like I was preparing for a zombie apocalypse. SO DELICIOUS! Mine was pure veggie, though. I used only broccoli, bell pepper, baby corn and snow peas. I will definitely do this recipe again using the thai basil.
I love hearing that! Thanks for the comment Laureen!
has anyone tried making this with the mung bean noodles or black bean spaghetti? They are very low carb.
My family and I really enjoyed this. Thanks!
I didn’t have any bell peppers, but shredded cabbage provided a nice crunch, and I topped it with cashews and a little lemon juice. It’s versatile and satisfying!
I love hearing that! Thanks for the comment Kristin!
This dish has amazing flavor! I added green onions and shredded carrot plus subbed siracha for the jalapeño. Awesome and easy- a fantastic combo!
Thanks for the comment – I’m so glad to hear that you liked it Lauren!
I’m in MN too and I just made this using 1.5 jalapeños to really crank up the heat. Have to stay warm any way I can! Thanks for the yummy recipe.
Just made this – wow so delish! Definatly becoming a staple in my household. I added about 5 extra jalapeneos to make it spiceier as I love my heat. Soba noodles are the healthiest noodle you can have too which makes this dish even better 🙂
This is amazing!! I made it yesterday! Cannot wait to try more of your recipes!
I feel your pain! We fell in love with our little lake cottage and somewhere along the way (long after we’d put in our offer), we realized it didn’t have a dishwasher OR the space for one. Whoops!
Thankfully, we’ve only had one for the last 2 years-I grew up in a house without one and our apartment didn’t have one either. So going back to handwashing will just be a small adjustment. I hope.
This recipe looks AMAZING and I can’t wait to try it out tonight. Hopefully it will be just the thing after a hard Monday!