Peanut butter chicken - 400 calories

I was inspired by this tasty looking peanut butter noodle salad called BANG BANG CHICKEN.
My first thought though was - what about all those calories in PEANUT BUTTER. A quick search on the internet and I was assured that two tablespoonfuls would cost me around 190 calories. I then realised I could offset this with the other main ingredient - chicken.
There are lots of recipes out there, all very similar, but here is my version, based on what I had available. I've estimated my list of ingredients at around 400 calories per portion too, which is excellent considering the peanut butter. So what was our verdict? Here's what we think, along with our list of ingredients:

BANG BANG CHICKEN (serves two)

Ingredients

200g chicken breast

60g rice noodles

FOR THE SAUCE

2 tablespoons (30g) peanut butter

clove garlic - crushed

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce

chopped fresh chilli to your taste

half a lime - zest and juice

small piece of grated ginger root

1 teaspoon oil - sesame if you have it, otherwise vegetable

VEGETABLES for your salad

one carrot - cut into batons

few spring onions - sliced lengthways

half a cucumber - deseeded and sliced 

a little sliced red onion

1 teaspoon of toasted sesame seeds

A baby gem lettuce

chopped coriander

****

Cook the rice noodles according to the packet instructions. We used 60g for two portions - which we thought was sufficient. Set aside until ready to use.

Cut the raw chicken breasts into about 6 - 8 pieces and simmer in water for around 8 minutes. Keep the cooking liquid, as you will need it to loosen the sauce.

Roughly chop the chicken or tear it into pieces.

Make the sauce ahead of time if you are serving it cold. Place all the sauce ingredients into a small saucepan and heat gently. Add some of the chicken cooking water to the sauce to loosen. 

Mix all the vegetables (except the gem lettuce) together with the noodles and a little of the sauce.

Place the lettuce on the plate, top with the noodle mixture and place the chicken on top. 

Pour the sauce over and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. 

Serve with the rest of the lime, cut into wedges.

***

Many recipes used more peanut butter than this, but as we were making it for the first time, we decided to start with two tablespoons. I used crunchy peanut butter, as the extra texture was a bonus. Using less noodles than most recipes meant we save a few calories there too. I had to add more water to loosen the sauce down than I had anticipated. But, we both thoroughly enjoyed this, although next time we might add just a touch more chilli, as we love spicy food. We felt there was enough peanut butter in the recipe too.

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