Grilled Sesame Chicken with Udon Zoodles

I've been thinking of ideas for the current Japanese Throwdown, but this idea almost fell into my lap.

At the Grill Games competition in Kenosha, WI this past weekend the team next to us gave us a bunch of veggies from his garden and there were two huge zucchini in the bag.

So, I set out on Google to find some recipes for zucchini and saw some dishes where the zucchini was julienned into long strips and used as noodles. Zoodles!

Then, I remembered a recipe for Sesame Chicken with Udon noodles and decided to put the two together :twisted:

I started with a marinade for the chicken...



1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce

I put the chicken in the marinade and let it sit for 4 hours.

When I removed it from the marinade I sprinkled it with some white and black sesame seeds...



and grilled it to 155 internal. The marinade gave the outside a little darker color that I wanted, but it tasted fine.



While the chicken was on the grill I worked on the veggies (zucchini, red and yellow bell peppers, oyster mushrooms and cilantro for the garnish)...



I forgot to add the yellow pepper to the pile for the picture :doh:

I julienned the peppers and sliced the Oyster mushrooms and then used my mandolin to make long julienned strips out of the zucchini, like udon noodles.



I got out my wok and got it screaming hot and added some peanut and sesame oil and put in the peppers and mushrooms...



Once they were starting to soften I added the zucchini...



I stir fried it for a couple of minutes then added the sauce (the same ingredients that were in the marinade) and let it cook for a bit. The zucchini gave up quite a bit of moisture so there was quite a bit of liquid in the wok so I thickened it a bit using corn starch and some of the liquid from soaking the mushrooms.

I sliced the chicken breast and served it over the zoodles and added some red and yellow pepper strips and cilantro as garnish.





This was a very good dish! The marinade gave the chicken a little bit of sweetness and some heat, and as a sauce it was a nice balance of sweet and heat. The chicken was nice and moist and the zoodles still had a little crunch to them. I would make this again!

Why didn't I think of tofu? :doh:

Oh well... I still have until the end of the day on Monday.

:becky:

Thanks, gang! It really came out well. I may have over done the honey in the sauce, but not by much. The zoodles didn't have the same texture as real udon noodles, but they did retain a little crunchiness. I was worried that they would end up mushy.