Jamie's Chicken Skewers with Satay Sauce and Fiery Noodle Salad

By Helen
Main Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• Noodles
• Peanut butter and cashew nuts
• Little Gem lettuces
• Coriander, lime, chilli, soy sauce, ginger

They say you shouldn't go shopping when you're hungry. 

This week I had little choice, dinner being delayed by some super-manly exercise on Chris and Laurence's part. But I'm fairly confident that the overwhelmingly positive response to this week's meal wasn't solely down to how late it was by the time we started eating.

First I made the satay sauce (hello again, my blender friend) - coriander, chilli, garlic, soy, ginger, lime juice and peanut butter. Half of this was slathered over skewered chicken breasts which were then pan-fried (rather than grilled as suggested) with a drizzle of honey.

The blender was then pressed back into service - combining red onion, chilli, lime, coriander, fish sauce and oil to dress the noodles, as well as some cashew nuts which were chopped, toasted and turned in some more honey.

You could eat this as a conventional bowlful but I loved the reverse-sandwich effect: taking one of the scoop-shaped lettuce leaves and filling with a piece of sticky chicken, a couple of noodles and a dollop of creamy satay sauce, then eating in one greedy mouthful.

In fact I loved I loved this full-stop. Yes, there are a lot of ingredients, and a fair few things to keep your eye on at once - it would be very easy to burn the nuts or the chicken - but I didn't care.

In just 35 minutes I'd made a huge pile of tasty food which everyone piled into and was more satisfying than even a generous takeaway. And at £2.68 a head it was vastly cheaper!


Best for... Distracting your guests from a remote-control helicopter...for a little while anyway
Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30 Minute Meals
Chris says... Believe the hype, this really was that tasty! My local takeaway just lost a customer.