Cold Peanut Sesame Noodles

5 from 2 votes

These Cold Peanut Sesame Noodles with chicken are an easy and healthy make-ahead dinner or lunch recipe that the whole family will love!

Course Dinner

Cuisine Chinese

Keyword chicken, Chinese, noodles

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 10

Chill 1

Total Time 1 25

Servings cups

Calories 255kcal

Author Blair Lonergan

Ingredients

For the Sesame Peanut Sauce:

4 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
½ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil or avocado oil
4 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
4 teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
½ teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic

For the Pasta:

12 ounces soba noodles or whole wheat spaghetti, cooked according to package instructions and cooled to room temperature (or refrigerated)
9 ounces about 2 cups cooked and diced chicken
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 seedless English cucumber, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
½ cup grated carrots
1 cup sliced fresh white mushrooms
½ cup dry roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Instructions

For the sauce, whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth. Set aside.
For the salad, combine all ingredients (except for the peanuts) in a large bowl. Pour HALF of the sauce over top and toss to coat. Reserve remaining sauce for garnish. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Just before serving, garnish noodles with chopped peanuts and toss or drizzle with additional sauce.

Notes

Tip: I like to boil the noodles in advance and keep them in a covered container in the refrigerator until I’m ready to assemble the salad. In order to prevent the noodles from sticking to each other, run them under cold water in a colander as soon as you drain them from the pot. This will rinse off a lot of the sticky starch. I also like to drizzle the noodles with a little bit of oil and give them a toss before stashing them in the refrigerator.

Cooking Just for Two? Cut the ingredients in half! The instructions remain the same.

Nutrition