Ground Chicken Thai Noodles

Happy belated Mother’s Day to all those that it applies to!

Happy Monday!

Happy getting a facial to get rid of this dry skin day!

I’m psyching myself into happiness since I did in fact drop Andrew off at the airport this morning. He’s off for another two weeks. >insert general whining here< But, we had a great weekend. Friday, in Hood River, was awesome. There aren’t any photos. Andrew brought his camera, but I think only one photo was taken. Of chairs. Not exactly blog worthy [but you can follow his Flickr here, should it ever make its way to the page]. The general atmosphere of the town is the perfect hour long escape from the city. We ate bagel sandwiches at Hood River Bagel Company, enjoyed coffee [Italian soda for him] at Ground, wandered stores, befriended shop owners, and sampled some really great wines at Naked Winery and Marchesi Vineyards. Naked was good, but we fell in love with Marchesi so much that we bought into their wine club. The Timbers won against Philadelphia [Highlights!]. Post match pizza was consumed at Pizza Oasis. Saturday was a mild bummer thanks to finding out I won’t be receiving my accounting degree by year end, like originally anticipated, and I didn’t do so hot on my Individual Income Tax exam. It was rectified with dinner, cookie bowls

, and the Galaxy v. Red Bulls game. Yesterday was a lovely lunch with my fam at The Observatory [hello, smoked trout salad!] for Mother’s Day, a trip to hell IKEA for more vinyl storage, a nap, and the general goings on that involve getting Andrew ready for another work trip.

That said, this post is for him. We ate this recipe. Twice. Not just twice in a week, but twice in a weekend–as in Saturday AND Sunday. That’s just how good this is. I thought he might have been kidding when he suggested we eat it again, but he wasn’t. I modified it slightly the second time, but ultimately we’re smitten with this recipe. This might have actually surpassed my love for curry. It’s very Pad Kee Mao like, and I’m totally okay with that as it’s one of my most favorite Thai dishes.

Inspiration: Fuss Free Cooking

Ingredients

• 250g flat rice noodles or egg noodles [the first time was the egg, and the second time was the rice–rice wins], cooked per directions
• 1lb ground chicken
• 1 bunch of fresh basil [I used a 2oz package]
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks]
• 1 package sliced mushrooms
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 birds eye chilies [I used 4 Serranos, and it still wasn’t quite hot enough so I added red chili flake]
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• lots of fresh cracked pepper [I cranked it about 17 times]
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preparation

1. Heat a large saute pan or a wok [thanks, IKEA $5!] and add two tablespoons of oil on medium heat.
2. When the oil starts to shimmer, dump in the mushrooms, carrots, chilies, and garlic.
3. Cook, stirring occasionally until the garlic starts to turn a nice brown color.
4. Add in the ground chicken, breaking it up as you stir.
5. Allow to cook 75-80%, and then add the fish sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar.
6. Continue until meat is cooked.
7. Add noodles. Mine stuck together from being pre-cooked and drained, but they soak up the liquid at the bottom of the pan and break up.
8. Add basil and stir.
9. Once basil is wilted, it’s ready to eat.