Indonesian Chicken in Peanut Sauce Recipe

We are smack dab in the middle of our first official summer heatwave. Here in Southern California anything below 72 degrees constitutes a cold snap, anything over 78 degrees and the air conditioners start blasting. We might hit 90 degrees again today and everyone, everywhere is talking about the unbearable heat.

I have all sorts of thoughts about all sorts of things, but tomorrow is a holiday. My typing fingers are going on a break. I had planned to clean up around here today, but *sheez* what’s the fun in that? So instead of gathering my jumbled thoughts and sharing them on the blog, I’ve decided to pull out another tasty dinner recipe, perfect for sharing with friends.

The layering of angel hair pasta followed by thinly chopped lettuce and topped with the chicken and veggies in peanut sauce is visually appealing, and kind of unique, which makes it a good “make when you have company over” meal. Since our daughter is allergic to peanuts and peanut butter, I stopped making this dish, but recently rediscovered it. I used Sunflower Butter from Trader Joe’s and it tasted really good. My first choice is still the crunchy peanut butter but it was good to discover an alternate in case you have food allergies.

Indonesian Chicken in Peanut or Sunflower Sauce:

Sauce: Combine 1/4 C chunky peanut butter or sunflower butter, 3 T soy sauce, 2 T red wine vinegar, 2 T water, 2 t sesame oil (optional 1/2 t crushed red pepper if you like a little kick)

1 lb chicken breast cut into strips

1 C sliced green pepper (red or yellow peppers would look nice!)

1 C julienne sliced zucchini

1 C julienne sliced carrots

pkg of Angel Hair Pasta

2 C thinly chopped red leaf lettuce

Start boiling a large pot of water to cook the pasta. In a different large pan/wok heat oil, add some crushed garlic and stir fry the chicken strips (about 5 minutes). Remove. Using the remaining oil, stir fry the veggies until crisp and tender (about 3 minutes). Meanwhile, cook the angel hair pasta and drain. Back over at the other pan, add the cooked chicken to the veggies and mix in the sauce.

Serve by arranging pasta on a plate, top with chopped lettuce and spoon chicken and vegetables on top.

Enjoy!

Hope you have a fabulous Fourth of July!!