Scents of lime and coconut rise from this dish of spicy, stir-fried sliced chicken and crunchy water chestnuts tossed in a creamy sauce and served with almost instant rice noodles.
ingredients
serves: 4
1 cup rice noodles
1 pound 2 ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 ounce fresh root ginger
1 fresh green chilli
2 cloves garlic
3 limes
1/2 pound canned
water chestnuts
1 tablespoon groundnut oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
5 scallions
1/2 cup coconut milk
Thai fish sauce, or soy sauce
method
1. Put a kettle of water on to boil. Put the rice noodles into a large bowl, cover them with boiling water and leave them to stand, according to the cooking instructions given on the packet.
2. Slice the chicken into thin strips and set it aside. Peel the ginger and finely chop it, then rinse, deseed and dice the chilli and peel and crush the garlic.
3. Wash any wax from the limes and finely grate the rind from two of them onto the ginger. Squeeze the juice from all three limes and set aside. Drain the water chestnuts, cut them in half, and set aside.
4. Pour the oil into a wok or large skillet, add the ginger, chilli, garlic and grated rind and place over a high heat. When the oil is very hot, add the chicken and stir-fry for 2 minutes.
5. Add the lime juice, sugar and water chestnuts to the chicken. Stir well, then cover and cook over a moderate heat for 3 - 5 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.
6. Meanwhile, trim, rinse, dry and thinly slice the scallions.
7. Drain the rice noodles well, add them to the chicken with the scallions and the coconut milk, and toss together. Add fish sauce or soy sauce to taste (you won't need to add any salt) and serve immediately Variation
more information
You can make this into a vegetarian dish by substituting Quorn chunks for the chicken. Quorn will need to be cooked for only 2 minutes.
