I Shrank a 3-Sauce NYT Recipe Into One Bowl — Cold Peanut-Lime Noodles That Saved Our Summer

If you had told me a week earlier that I would willingly add cold chicken to cold noodles and call it a proper meal — one I’d eat with enthusiasm — I would have thought you were mad. The intersections of cold chicken and cold pasta are littered with dishes I’d rather forget: think shredded, overcooked chicken folded into macaroni salad, suspiciously bound with mayo in a plastic deli container of dubious age. Who’s hungry now? Probably not you.

In David Tanis’s skilled hands (I hope you’re following his City Kitchen column as faithfully as I do), the chicken is marinated in a punchy mix of ginger, garlic, lime juice and fish sauce, flash-grilled or broiled, cooled and roughly chopped. It joins long, twisty rice noodles, piled with crunchy vegetables and finished with two complementary sauces — one bright with chiles, lime and fish sauce, the other nutty with ginger, peanut butter and toasted sesame — plus salted roasted peanuts and a scatter of herbs (mint, basil and cilantro). The result is about as close as you can get to a summery, one-bowl dream, and it arrived just in time for our first serious New York heatwave.

The recipe as written is outstanding: complex, nuanced, a grown-up evolution of basic peanut-sesame noodles that begs to be set on a central platter for everyone to assemble at dinner. But it also used, in my experience, an alarming number of bowls and dishes — I exaggerate when I say 92, but it felt like 84. It took me two hours to prepare, involved making three separate sauces, and I ran the dishwasher twice before getting our little one to bed. Tanis described it as not particularly labor-intensive; my sore hands disagreed.

There was too much good in the bowl not to share, so I pared the method down. What remains is everything you need to survive this heatwave — minimal active cooking, loud flavor, and a colorful, easy bowl. That absolutely counts as a proper summer dinner.

About page:

I recently realized the photos on my About page were from 2008. A year later we moved to an even smaller kitchen (because I’m cuckoo), our family grew by one, we stopped sleeping through the night, and because I apparently had extra time, I wrote a cookbook. Needless to say, the site’s back pages were neglected. Four years on, with my toddler off to summer camp a couple hours a day and my cookbook finally off to the printer, I found a window of free time and updated the photos. Want to see?

Cold Rice Noodles with Peanut-Lime Chicken

To explain my changes: the original recipe used three separate sauces/dressings/marinades — a pungent-sweet dipping sauce with chiles, lime, garlic, brown sugar and fish sauce; a nutty dressing with peanut butter, soy, lime juice, rice vinegar and ginger; and a chicken marinade with garlic, ginger, fish sauce, soy and brown sugar. Because ingredients overlap and to cut prep time, I eliminated the chicken marinade as a distinct component and instead used a combination of the other two sauces (each increased in volume) to achieve a similar flavor. I also omitted lemongrass and mung bean sprouts — common in New York but not everywhere available — to see if the dish could be excellent with ingredients from a mainstream grocery store. It can. For chiles, the original suggested 6–8 Thai chiles or 1–2 serranos; I used far fewer to avoid intimidating my toddler. Use as much heat as you like. We wouldn’t have minded more vegetables; next time I might add extra cucumber, carrots, scallions, thin red pepper and a handful of lightly cooked green beans, sliced on the bias. Although the original suggests finishing with mint, basil and cilantro, you can get away with just your favorite if you don’t have all three — we used market-fresh mint that melted deliciously into the noodles. To see the original version before my edits, consult the NYT link.

Serves: 4 generously, 6 moderately

Dipping sauce

Peanut dressing

Chicken and noodle salad

Make the dipping sauce: Whisk the ingredients in a small bowl, ensuring the sugar dissolves. Let it rest for 15 minutes to mellow. Refrigerate any surplus and use within a few days.

Make the peanut dressing: In a blender or small food processor, puree all ingredients until smooth and about the consistency of heavy cream. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Marinate the chicken: Combine half the dipping sauce and one-third of the peanut dressing (eyeballing the mix is fine) in a low-sided dish. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Let it marinate at least 15 minutes.

Cook the noodles: Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then remove from heat. Add the rice vermicelli and soak 7–8 minutes, or according to package directions — check doneness by tasting. Drain when al dente and rinse under running water to cool. Fluff and leave in a strainer to drain well.

Cook the chicken: Grill the thighs on an outdoor grill, a stovetop grill pan, or under the broiler until nicely browned, about 3–4 minutes per side. Let them cool slightly, then roughly chop into 3/4-inch pieces.

To serve: You can arrange everything on a large serving platter with separate piles or bowls for noodles, vegetables, chicken, dressings and toppings so people assemble their own bowls. Alternatively, assemble individual bowls as follows: toss the vegetables with 1 tablespoon dipping sauce in a small bowl. Divide the cooked noodles among 4–6 bowls. Top each bowl with an equal portion of the vegetable mixture and chopped chicken. Toss each bowl with 2 teaspoons each of the dipping sauce and peanut dressing, or more to taste. Add herbs, peanuts and scallions, and serve with extra dressing and dipping sauce on the side.

At-a-glance

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