Teriyaki Ramen Chicken

Teriyaki Ramen Chicken - made May 26, 2020 from Good Cook

When I was a poor college student and even during my post-graduate student days when I had a car payment, housing payments and student loan repayments, I had the quintessential eating plan of ramen noodles to make my food budget stretch. Back in the olden days, you could even get them on sale for 20 packs for a dollar. Nowadays, technically the prices have quadrupled or more but that just means they went from a nickel to twenty cents, sometimes a quarter.

That's still affordable (thankfully!) but nowadays, you don't have to be satisfied with following the ramen noodle directions to boil water, add noodles and seasoning and serve. One trolling session through pinterest and you can get all sorts of ideas that basically just treats them as cheap noodles to serve as a base for many noodle dishes.

I ended up making this dish twice, partly because I like ramen noodles (I know, I know, they're not that healthy but noodles....) and partly because I made some mistakes that were easy to rectify the second time around so I did.

I rewrote the directions so I can save you the trouble of making the mistakes I did, namely to make a slurry with the cornstarch and some of the water before adding to the noodles so you don't add the cornstarch in one dry powdery lump that then congeals into multiple gelatinous lumps among your noodles. #yourewelcome

The original version was also a bit too salty for me so I cut back on the soy sauce and filled in with more water instead. The result was more sweet than salty but that suited my taste buds just fine.

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water, divided
1/3 to 1/2 cup soy sauce (if using 1/3 soy sauce, add enough water to fill 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 bricks of ramen noodles (without the seasoning packets)
sesame seeds for garnish

1. Heat large saucepan with a drizzle of olive oil. When hot, add diced chicken and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until cooked through. Add garlic and stir.
2. Whisk cornstarch with 1/4 cup of the 1 cup of water until a smooth slurry forms (no lumps).
3. Add soy sauce, cornstarch slurry, remaining water, brown sugar, rice vinegar and ramen noodles. Stir to combine and cover for several minutes until noodles have softened, 5-6 minutes. Stir mixture to coat the noodles with sauce. Serve warm, garnished with sesame seeds if desired.