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Thai-style Stir-fried Noodles with Chicken and Broccolini (from Cook's Illustrated)

Serves 4, time: 1.5 hours

This Thai-Style Stir-Fried Noodle recipe is a definite keeper, producing restaurant quality (or better!) noodles in the home kitchen. The chicken stays phenomenally moist and flavorful, the broccolini cut into bite-sized pieces adds crunch, and the rice noodles soak up all the wonderful flavors of the sauce.

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken breasts
1 tsp baking soda
8 oz rice noodles
1/4 cup oyster sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tbsp packed dark brown sugar
3 garlic cloves
3 large eggs
2 bunches broccolini
Vegetable oil

Prep Instructions:

Slice chicken breast across grain into 1/4 inch slices; mix baking soda and 2 tsp water in a bowl; add chicken to bowl and let sit for 15 mins
Boil 6+ cups water; place noodles in a large bowl and cover with water; let soak for 8-15 mins until tender, stirring occasionally to avoid clumping; drain and toss with a little vegetable oil to prevent sticking
Whisk oyster source, soy sauce, white vinegar, fish sauce, and brown sugar together in a bowl
Slice the garlic cloves thinly
Crack the eggs into a bowl
Chop broccolini; cut stems into 1/2 inch pieces and florets into 1 inch pieces

Cooking Instructions:

  1. Heat 2 tsp oil and garlic in a large skillet over high heat
    Stir occasionally until garlic is golden brown, 1-2 min
    Add chicken and 2 tbsp sauce, toss to coat and spread chicken into single layer
    Cook, without stirring, until chicken begins to brown, 1-1.5mins
    Flip chicken and cook on the second side without stirring until starting to brown, 1-1.5 mins
    Push chicken to one side of the pan
    Add 2 tsp oil to clean side of pan and add eggs
    Using rubber spatula gently stir eggs until set, but still wet
    Store eggs into chicken and continue to cook until eggs are fully cooked, .5-1 min
    Transfer chicken mixture into a bowl
  2. Heat 2 tsp oil in skillet until smoking
    Add broccolini and 2 tbsp sauce and toss to coat
    Cover skillet and cook 2 mins, stirring once after 1 min
    Remove lid and continue to cook until broccolini is crisp and very brown in spots, 2-3 mins
    Transfer broccolini to the bowl with chicken
  3. Heat 2 tsp oil in skillet until smoking
    Add noodles and the rest of the sauce and toss to coat
    Cook until noodles start to brown in spots, stirring every minute, 2-3 mins
  4. Add contents of bowl back to skillet and toss to combine
    Cook without stirring until everything is warmed through, 1-1.5 mins

Sample Imagery

Recipe Websites

The Minimalist Baker
I think the design of this website is super helpful for your first time making a recipe - the step-by-step instructions with pictures make it feel like I'm being guided through the recipe. However, I feel like this is less ideal if you've made the recipe before and just need it as a reference; because of how all the steps are so spread out, it's not easy to get the gist of the recipe if you don't want to read all the words.
Damn Delicious
I like the option to skip the intro and go straight into the recipe, which is seperated into a recipe card style section. They put important info at the top of the recipe card (how many servings it makes, how long it takes to make), as well as options to print or pin the actual recipe. The instructions and ingredients are easy to read, with the steps outlined with number icons and certain important words bolded.
The Recipe Critic
I like how the ingredients and instructions are seperated into different parts of the dish (there's a section for dough, one for filling, and another for glaze), so you know what's being used for what and can kind of segment things up. I also like how each step in the instructions has a phrase at the start that sums up what you're doing in the step and then follows that with more detailed instructions - I think it makes the recipe easier to read and follow. The tips and faq sections at the bottom are a good idea.

Non-Recipe Websites

Wikihow
The section at the top of things you should know is super helpful because it gives an overview of the whole process to give you an idea of what you're doing before you actually dive in. I think the way they organized the steps establishes a really clear hierarchy - they use icons, color, scale, text weight, and bullet points for extra information within a step. I like having the step title and detailed instructions seperated by an image as well.
Spotify Design
I was surprised by how the large margins on either side of the text block made it so much easier to read the content on these pages. The text only spans about a third of the page width, while on other sites I looked at the line lengths were much longer and therefore harder to read. Also the way they treated text on these pages really eases the reading process - the font selection and paragraph/line spacing feels perfect, and I don't feel overwhelmed trying to read longer paragraphs.
How A Car Works
Putting imagery to the side was smart on this website, that way they can still include large images without having them take up the entire viewable space of the page. I really like the decision to have unfamiliar terms highlighted, where you are able to hover over them to bring up a definition and some basic info - I think this could be a way to include tips without clogging up the page. However, the way they layed out their text is very overwhelming; there's long sections that have no variation, and the line length is too long to make for easy reading.