Let's learn about timing! First, know that no matter what, if everyone gets to eat, that's all that matters!
Note: With this recipe, you'll be handling some raw chicken. If your big person feels more comfortable, they can take over that task, but with a bit of handwashing, you can keep things nice and clean too!
You start with preparing the marinade and adding the chicken. As the chicken sits, you can prep the green beans. Then the fun begins: roast the green beans for a bit, crank up the heat, add the chicken, and then you'll cook the noodles. Everything will come together for a lovely, well-balanced and tasty plate!
Note that a number of ingredients from the marinade appear in the sauce for the noodles. You can save the double clean up and measure everything all at once.
Asian Barbecue Chicken, with green beans and noodles
Yield: 4 -5 servings
Ingredients
Chicken + Marinade
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons orange juice
4 cloves garlic minced
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
3 lbs. chicken thighs skin removed (about 8)
Green beans
2 - 2.5 pounds green beans, ends trimmed
olive oil, salt and pepper
Noodles
8 oz buckwheat noodles (you can use spaghetti, too, or udon or ramen ... what you have on hand and like!)
1 T hoisin
1 T soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
1 T rice wine vinegar
1 T grated fresh ginger
Directions
Marinade the chicken:
In large sealable plastic bag, mix together hoisin sauce, honey, soy sauce, orange juice, garlic, green onion, and ginger.
Add chicken thighs, seal the bag trying to push out as much air as possible, and then squeeze the marinade all over, to ensure each piece is covered. Marinate the chicken at least 1 hour in refrigerator. You can do this the night before, too.
Heat oven to 375. Spread the green beans on a foil-lined baking sheet. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, raise temp of the oven by turning on the broiler to low. If you have a oven-top broiler, move the pan with the green beans to the lower shelf. If your broiler is at the bottom of the oven, keep the pan of green beans higher, and watch it to make sure it does not burn.
When ready to cook the chicken, preheat broiler to medium heat. Bring a pot of well-salted water to boil on the stovetop (for the noodles).
Remove chicken from the bag, pouring the marinade into a small saucepan. On medium-high heat, bring the marinade to boiling for 2 minutes. Set the heated marinade aside for now. Arrange thighs on a foil-lined broiler pan. Slide the pan with the chicken into the oven under the broiler. Broil about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, raise broiler temp up to High. Turn the chicken pieces over, brush each piece with the reserved marinade, and broil about 10 minutes more, until thighs are done, taking care not to burn.
Near the end of the cooking time for the chicken, boil your noodles. Cook the noodles until tender but firm for the time recommended on your package of noodles. Many packages of buckwheat (soba) noodles are not written in English; most are cooked between 4 and 8 minutes, so test at 4 and add more minutes if needed.
Once cooked, remove the noodles from the heat, and drain noodles. Run cold water over them to cool. Drain again, shaking out excess water.
In a bowl large enough for the noodles, make the dressing by whisking the remaining hoisin, soy, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and ginger together. Add the drained noodles, and toss to coat.
To serve, scoop some noodles onto your plate. Top with the green beans and then some chicken. You can drizzle some of the chicken juice over the top. Enjoy!