Day 3 of lockdown. The request was chicken noodles. The freezer provided some chicken thighs and some frozen finger. The cupboard provided noodles, a generous squirt of tomato puree and lots of spices and soy sauce. It turned out pretty good. There was no recipe so I am attempting to capture it here for you. If you try it let me know how it turned out and what little tweaks you made. Enjoy!!

Ingredients

• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 decent size bits of chicken thigh from the freezer
• A sprinkle of frozen ginger (could use fresh or dried)
• 2 cloves of garlic (could use puree from a jar, dried or frozen)
• 1 pepper
• 4 or 5 decent size broccoli florets
• a big handful of mushrooms
• 2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice
• 2 tbsp or a generous splash of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 300mls water
• 1tbsp cornflour made into a paste with a little water
• 300g noodles (wholewheat if you want to add extra fibre)

Method

1. Heat some oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the onions and stir fry until they are starting to colour.
2. Add the chicken. I cut the some of the meat from the bone but threw the bones in that still had meat on. I removed the skin. You could use sliced beef, pork, chicken breast or duck. If you have some leftover roast meat then this could be thrown in at the end. If you have no meat then you could throw in some nuts.
3. Add the garlic and ginger. Then add the Chinese 5 Spice.
4. Once the meat has started to cook through, throw in the other vegetables. Last night I had enough fresh but you could use frozen stir fry vegetables instead.
5. Add in the tomato puree and allow to cook for a few minutes. Add the water and allow to simmer while you cook the noodles.
6. When the noodles are nearly ready, add in the cornflour paste to thicken the sauce. If you want a more satay style sauce then you can add in a generous spoonful of peanut butter.
7. Drain the noodles and then stir them into the sauce. Serve with soy sauce or sweet chilli sauce. It was delicious.
8. You may well have some leftovers for lunch tomorrow.