This is (IMO) one of the nicest things you can do with chicken.  It works equally well with fresh chicken breasts or leftover roast chicken, and you can also mix and match with the vegetables; grated carrot or courgette/zucchini will go brilliantly in place of or addition to the spinach, for example.  When it comes to the noodles, my preference is for the flat ones that look like tagliatelli, rather than the thin rice vermicelli which are very easy to overcook!  If you can't get flat rice noodles in your local supermarket, then try a specialist oriental food store or health food shop. 

You will need (serves 2)

• Half an onion
• A small red pepper
• Handful of baby spinach or chopped cabbage
• A couple of chicken breasts
• Tablespoon of sesame oil
• Flat noodles (half a 375 g packet or a bit more if you're both hungry)
• Half a pint of stock (home made chicken stock is ideal, but stock cube stock is fine)
• If you roasted a chicken the day before and have a bit of gravy left over, this will be great in addition to the stock
• Large clove of garlic, pureed (I like to pass it through the smallest holes on a grater)
• Inch long piece of root ginger, peeled and pureed in the same way as the garlic
• Some dried chilli flakes (optional)
• Three or four spring onions, chopped
• Dark soy sauce to taste.

Method

Chop the onion, and deseed and chop the red pepper and cabbage.  Wash the cabbage and spinach (you may want to cut the stalks off the latter if they're too thick).  Put the chicken breasts onto a board and bash them with the back of a wooden spoon to tenderise them.  Then cut or chop them up into bite-sized chunks. 

In a wok or large saucepan, fry the onion in the sesame oil for a minute, stirring all the while.  Add the red pepper and fry a bit longer. Add the chicken pieces, and stir the mixture until the outside of the chicken turns white.  Then add the cabbage/spinach.  Stir for about a minute - the spinach will start to wilt.  (At this point, you'll want to put the kettle on to heat the water for the noodles.)  Add the garlic and ginger, and stir very briefly before adding the stock (you don't want to burn the garlic.  Burnt garlic - not good.)   Leave the mixture to simmer gently.

When the kettle's boiled, put the noodles into a large saucepan and pour the boiled water over them.  Boil the noodles for no more than a couple of minutes.  (What you're aiming for is to cook them enough so that they become soft and pliable, but they don't go all flaccid - they will have plenty of chance to cook some more when you add them to the stir fry/stock mixture.)

Drain the noodles and add them to the stir fry/stock.  Stir them well in.  They will cook gently in the stock, absorbing liquid as they go.  If you're using chilli flakes, add them at this point.  You should find that the point at which the noodles have absorbed pretty well all the stock is the point when they're cooked. 

Oh, if you're using leftover roast chicken instead of fresh chicken breasts, add the cooked meat to the stir fry/stock when you add the noodles.  This should give it enough time to heat through.

Serve with chopped raw spring onion as a garnish, and soy sauce if wanted.  Gorgeous.

© M. Ibbotson October 2009