Thai Peanut Chicken

This is a super easy quick meal that tastes wonderful.

You will need:
1lb chicken breasts
Jasmine rice
corn startch
sesame seed oil
peanut sauce
chow mein noodles or crushed peanuts

First, before I start anything else, I start my rice. I love this Jasmine rice, it has a great flavor and it seems less starchy than other brands.

When the heat is on the rice, I put out a good size bowl with about a cup of corn startch. I will be using this to coat the chicken before I fry it. I have found thru expierment that corn startch really gives a nice texture to fried chicken pieces. It also seems to help the sauce evenly cook onto the chicken giving it that mouth watering taste.
I like my chicken pieces nice and small. About a 1/2 inch.

Make sure the chicken is dry or you'll end up with glue. I just pat the breasts dry with a paper towel before I cut it up. I toss the chicken pieces into the bowl with corn startch.

Evenly coat the chicken with the corn startch. I use my hands and just kind of toss the chicken around until all pieces are coated.

I heat up my pan and cover the bottom with pure seasame seed oil. This gives the chicken a nice golden color and a nice nutty flavor.

Make sure the oil is very hot and then add the chicken. You don't want to start flipping the chicken around right away or all the corn startch will fall off. Wait until the under side is lightly cooked and then flip it carefully.

Fry the chicken until no pink is left and it has a nice golden color. I made this peanut sauce a couple days ago but the recipe is simple. (I like to make a day of cooking sauces, pestos, and other spreads so cooking later in the week is easy and fast. This sauce is simply a mix of peanut butter, chopped red chili peppers, dash of vinegar, white sugar and soy sauce-if you want a more detailed recipe just ask).

Once the chicken is cooked thru add the sauce.

Let it cook onto the chicken over medium heat for about 5 minutes. shimmy the pan and flip the chicken constantly to avoid burning and evenly cooking.

Presto! See how simple that was! I know it's more customary to top with peanuts but I like the crunch of chow mein noodles, and it's my dinner so that's what I'm using. Ha.

This is a great leftover for lunch at work tomorrow!!