The biggest cause of mushy and sticky rice noodles is that the starch is broken down too quickly in boiling water. Thai chefs typically just soak the noodles in room temperature water so that's what I did while I was preparing the sauce. You want to soak them until you can wrap it around your finger without breaking. I started the sauce in a 2.5 quart saucepan and did use enough corn starch/water to get a thicker bubbly sauce. I used only 4 cups of chicken broth and all the ingredients including Thai red chili paste and ginger powder. While the sauce is cooking and the noodles are soaking, I sautéed zucchini, red onion, and mushrooms seasoned with pepper, salt, and garlic powder in a skillet with oil. During this time, I drained the noodles and added them to the sauce for a few minutes. Once the vegetables were to the firmness I desired, I then poured the noodles and sauce into the skillet, sprinkled with red pepper flakes, and stirred it all together. I let all the flavors come together for a few minutes and then served topped with peanuts. My family LOVED it! No mushy, no watery, just perfect.
It has a good taste but 3 stars due to the preparation. I followed the directions exactly. By the time the vegetables cooked the noodles were way overcooked and mushy from stirring. What I would do next time is cook the pepper and zucchini separately and just mix in at the end.
Its not bad the broth could use a little salt. And when you cook the rice noodles make sure you use a large pot and stir it constantly because the rice noodles are really sticky.
I loved the sauce! Switched the veggies for sauteed mushrooms green peppers green onions and added a bit of tahini paste instead of using peanuts but it was amazing.
I changed the method a bit only because my chicken breasts were still raw. I cooked the chicken in the vegetable oil until well browned then added the chicken stock and brought it to a boil to make sure the chicken was cooked through. Added the rest of the sauce ingredients and then the zucchini and red pepper and only cooked about 5 minutes. I then removed the chicken and vegetable to a separate bowl and proceeded to cook the rice noodles in the sauce adding the chicken and veggies back at the end just to heat through. I really like the flavors in this. My family was not crazy about it though so I probably won't make it again.
Made it again using only 4 cups of broth so it wasn t soupy this time! I might brown the chicken with some garlic or something next time because it s sort of bland but that s my fault not the recipe s. I didn t soak the noodles but they turned out fine. I also didn t have peanuts this time and really missed them! Might add crunchy peanut butter to the leftovers.
Very easy but very good! Thank you.
I omitted the peanuts because I didn't have any on hand but I think it would have improved the recipe so I would recommend using them. Also as other reviews suggested I browned my chicken a little first since I was using raw chicken. I did not have the same experience as other as far as the consistency. My did not come out soupy however the noodles did get sticky. I think the corn starch is a little bit much and would lessen it just a bit. Last thing is this was not spicy to me although it did taste good. Next time I would consider maybe adding some red pepper flakes for heat.
Needs more vegetables. Didn't use cilantro or nuts or have enough zucchini for what it called for. Add more peppers (mult kinds) scallions and maybe water chestnuts next time.
