Peanut noodles just got a make over! Stir fried chicken strips, rice noodles, scallions, carrots, broccoli slaw, bean sprouts in a spicy peanut sauce. A winning combination of spicy, crunchy, sweet and salty will tantalize your taste buds and making this yourself will be easy on your wallet and waistline.

Let's face it, peanut noodles are not light. Peanuts are high in fat, combined with noodles which are high in carbs and you have yourself a heavy dish. So I had to make some major adjustments to make this dish skinny. Increasing the vegetables was a must, so I loaded this with plenty of noodle sized vegetables to really blend well with the noodles and increas the fiber.


Have you tried Better'n Peanut Butter? I'm a huge fan, it's low fat and tastes really good, sold at Trader Joe's and healthy food stores. If you've tried it let me know what you think. If you can't find it, I suggest using light peanut butter instead but the points will change slightly.

Rice sticks or rice noodles can be found in the Asian section of your supermarket and make this a gluten free dish. If you can't find rice noodles, udon noodles or even linguini would work. I know some of you like those Japanese shirataki noodles, I confess I've yet to try them, but I did the calculations, 5 points plus per serving if you use them instead.

Although there seems to be a long list of ingredients here, it really comes together quite quickly. I bought pre-shredded carrots and broccoli slaw to help speed things up.

Try this with shrimp or tofu for vegetarians!

Asian Peanut Noodles with Chicken

Servings: 6 • Serving Size: 1/6th of recipe • Old Points: 6 pts • Points+: 8 pts
Calories: 337.9 • Fat: 4.6 g • Carbs: 51.4 g • Fiber: 3.7 g • Protein: 21.1 g

Ingredients:

For the Peanut Sauce:

• 14.5 oz fat free chicken broth
• 5 tbsp better'n peanut butter
• 1 tbsp Sriracha chili sauce
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp soy sauce (use Tamari for gluten free)
• 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

 For the chicken:

• 16 oz chicken breast, cut into thin strips
• salt and pepper (to taste)
• 1 tbsp Sriracha chili sauce (more or less to taste)
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 5 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (use Tamari for gluten free)
• 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• 8 oz rice noodles

• 3/4 cup green onion, chopped
• 1 1/4 cups shredded carrots
• 1 1/4 cups cup shredded broccoli slaw 
• 1 cup bean bean sprouts
• 2 tbsp chopped peanuts 
• 1 lime, sliced
• cilantro for garnish (optional)

Directions:

For the peanut sauce: Combine 1 cup chicken broth, peanut butter, sriracha, honey, 2 tbsp soy sauce, ginger, and 3 cloves crushed garlic in a small saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat stirring occasionally until sauce becomes smooth and well blended, about 5-10 minutes. Set aside.


Boil water for the noodles cook pasta according to package instructions.


Season chicken with salt and pepper, sriracha, lime, garlic, ginger and soy sauce.


Heat a large skillet or wok until hot. Add oil and sauté chicken on high heat until cooked through, about 2-3 minutes; remove from heat and set aside.


Add 2 cloves crushed garlic, scallions, carrots, broccoli slaw and/or bean sprouts and salt, sauté until tender crisp, about 1-2 minutes.


Drain noodles and toss with peanut sauce and additional chicken broth if needed to loosen the sauce. When chicken is cooked, toss with noodles.

Divide noodles and chicken between 6 bowls, top with sauteed vegetables, bean sprouts, chopped peanuts (or you can toss everything together to hide the vegetables so your family members don't push them aside!) and garnish with cilantro and lime wedges.