Brainy Gourmet Chicken Pad Thai with Linguine

Anyone up for an evening at the Pad Thai Outdoor Cafe...

Being authentic is not always possible or affordable. Being brainy is always about frugality as much as it is about taste. This Thai dish made the brainy way is simple and really good. Pad Thai was made popular in Thailand during World War II. Pad Thai has since become one of Thailand's national dishes. Today, some food vendors add pork-chops to enhance the taste. The most important item is of course stir fried rice noodles.  In its original form, Pad Thai is made with soaked dried rice noodles, which are stir-fried with eggs and chopped firm tofu, and flavored with tamarind pulp, fish sauce along with dried shrimp, garlic or shallots, red chili pepper and palm sugar, and served with lime wedges and often chopped roast peanuts.


Sounds pretty intensive. But, you can make a simple detour and it will be brainy. To begin, using either chicken or pork, cut meat into strips. Set aside and in a large skillet saute on med heat in olive oil one whole onion and one large green pepper cut into long slivers. Brown until the edges begin to blacken. Push aside the onion and green pepper and lay in the chicken. Turn up the heat so that the meat sears. As long as you pushed the onion and green pepper to the farther side of the skillet, they will be out of the way to sear the meat.Sprinkle in a dash of salt, garlic powder, red pepper flakes and dried herbs.

At this time, add 3-4 tbs of organic peanut butter and stir until the chicken and veggies are coated. Next, add 1/2 cup heavy cream, cover and let simmer on low heat for as long as it takes to prepare the rice noodles or in this case- linguine pasta. Either will work and as they become tender, drain and quickly fry in another skillet with a bit of sesame oil.  For an additional side, saute cubed eggplant in olive oil. Once it is cooked, nearly translucent, spoon in 3 tbs of apricot ginger glaze and return to heat to let it caramelize.

Pour out the noodles onto a low lipped serving dish and top with the incredible peanut sauce with chicken.
Add a squeeze of fresh lime juice and dig in.

~ Tutti a Tavola!