Unlike many others, I can't help but feel the title of this meal is selling it short a bit - no sizzling or mighty or flashy or killer or crackin', just mildly spiced. It's almost apologetic. But to be honest everything about this dish looked appealing to me. The chicken in particular looked reminiscent of a certain sticky kicking chicken, and the soup, although not something I'd normally have on a weeknight, looked chunky and flavourful enough to just about fill me up. Plus the soup we'd had last week proved to be a massive winner.
Even though I was cooking just for two, I took the decision to cook the full amount. I'd had a session in the gym and was feeling like I could challenge the Man Vs Food man (pre diet) in an eating challenge. I started off by grating the butternut squash and although everything looks more voluminous when grated, I was quite shocked about how much grated squash I had produced. The 800ml of stock in the pan barely covered it. I had to add extra water to ensure the noodles were covered. Incidentally the noodles that Jamie seems to use appear to be some kind of quick cook variety. The standard uncooked rice noodles which you buy in a supermarket take a good 15 minutes of cooking so need adding pretty much as soon as the stock gets boiling if you're going to stick to the timings.
Anyway, the chicken gets prepared in the normal way and you add asparagus and a tin of coconut milk. You end up with a huge vat of soup. Seriously, you could a whole village with this. I'm actually writing this post three days after cooking this meal and we still have about half of it left in the fridge. It's strange that some meals are so stingy and some are so huge. But most importantly, taste-wise, we are not let down. The chicken, coated in honey and lime and sesame seeds is very moreish, while the soup, although better than it's name suggests, is aromatic but quite a delicate flavour.
Lolz gave the dish 9/10. Difficulty rating 2/10.
I've never seen rice noodles that take 15 minutes to cook.....unless you mean brown rice noodles? Most of the ones in our markets here only require boiling water and soaking. In any case, glad you enjoyed this dish! So did I.
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