A few years ago I was browsing Pinterest for ramen noodle ideas. I had this crazy craving for the chicken cup o’ noodles I used to eat as a kid but I didn’t want to use the noodle packet of questionable origin, especially since I was pregnant! You would be surprised how creative people get with ramen, it was enough to somehow eat up 2 hours of my life going through hundreds and hundreds of pins. I wanted the texture of the noodles, but wanted a flavor that tasted like ingredients instead of chemicals. It also had to be something I currently had in my pantry since the last thing I wanted to do while it was snowing outside was go to the grocery store for fresh ginger or asian pear. I had the noodles because I had experimented with frying them for a salad topping (not a fan of that recipe). Unfortunately it came in a 6 pack, so 5 packs were just eating up cupboard space (which was in VERY short supply living in a condo in Northwest DC). About 100 recipes in, I came across 3 or 4 in a row that mentioned the combination of peanut butter and sriracha. I was intrigued! Then I found this! Martha Stewart, of all people! I mean c’mon, can you imagine Martha sitting down with a bowl of ramen noodles from a packet? Even with the upgrade?
I wanted to give her recipe a shot, but I wasn’t thrilled about using the packet, so I set out to adjust. I played with the amounts of peanut butter and soy sauce, but it all came down to that packet. Then one day when I was going to make it I set my pot of water to boil and lo and behold there was a bottle of Better than Bouillon sitting next to it on the counter. So instead of the packet I put a nice big spoonful in. If you aren’t familiar with them, it is basically stock/broth that has been reduced down to a paste. Literally all the water is gone. So one jar replaces probably 15 boxes of broth (Want to reiterate here, I am not sponsored by Better than Bouillon, I am just a fan. I will always let you know if you are reading about products that I am sponsored by). Added bonus? They sell them at Costco for less than anywhere else, in its organic version.
Jackpot! The concentrated chicken flavor completely makes up for that packet. Then the soy and peanut butter make it creamy and full of umami. Finally the sriracha gives it a kick. PERFECTION! And did I mention perfection in 5 ingredient? Yup. Winner.Since then I have done even more in the way of alternatives. I’ve ditched the ramen noodles in favor of thin spaghetti. It was a healthier choice overall. I go to the Asian grocer for fresh chow mein noodles from time to time, but the best thing about this recipe is how easy it is as a pantry recipe. None of these ingredients have a short shelf life so you can always have this recipe in your back pocket. I usually get fancy and throw some peanuts and sliced green onions on top. If I have cooked chicken in the fridge I chop it up and toss it in with all the sauce ingredients. This is the best part of a pantry dish, it is whatever you have! Have some left over shrimp? steak from last night? roast pork (oh man, now I want this with roast pork and it is only 7:00 am as I write this)? Throw it in! Baked tofu? Roasted veggies? It is pretty hard to steer wrong with this base recipe.
I think the recipe tastes even better because the instructions are only three steps!
Ingredients
- 1 pound thin spaghetti
- 6 cups chicken stock , or 6 cups water and 2 heaping tablespoons of Chicken Better Than Bouillon
- 3 tablespoon lite soy sauce
- 3 tablespoon peanut butter
- Sriracha sauce (to taste, I usually use just less than a tablespoon for a pound of pasta)
- Crushed peanuts (optional)
- sliced green onions (optional)
- cooked chicken (optional)
Instructions
- Cook the noodles on high with stock for 5-7 minutes.
- Drain off 90% of the water
- Add soy sauce, peanut butter and sriracha. Mix well.
- Add peanuts and green onions if you want to get fancy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Psssst… want to hear a little secret? This recipe is one of 10 in my upcoming FREE e-book called 5-10-30. 5 Cuisines, 10 Full Meals and 30 Total Ingredients that is a bonus for email subscribers only! It will include shopping lists that set you up for two weeks of weeknight dinners with no ingredient waste and tips for cooking and alternate ingredient options. If you haven’t subscribed for updates you may want to now so you can be one of the first to get it when it comes out!
Thank you so much for this fast lunch break idea. Great to whip up something substantial while I’m busy working from home, and don’t want to spend my whole lunch hour cooking. ?
I’m very, very surprised you don’t/didn’t add garlic (crushed or powder) Are you sensitive to it?
As someone who is sensitive to garlic, she may be relying on the garlic in the siracha. It has a lot of garlic.
I really love these noods
Yum. This was super simple and delish. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome!
Really enjoyed, I may have had too much sauce to noodle ratio. If your like me and haven’t had peanut butter in a dish before maybe cut it back ha ha. The extra spice is a definite must. Hopefully can add chicken and green onions to really add something. Garlic and chili powder might not be bad ideas either.
So glad you enjoyed the dish!
Love this recipe! I was looking for an easy peanut sauce to make and kept finding ones with ingredients I didn’t have until this one. Only change I made is that I microwaved the peanut butter before using it, to make it blend into the noodles a bit easier. I’ll definitely be making this again.
wow!!! thanks for this-we have ordered these noodles from chinese restaurants for years-never dreaming how easy it could be to make these…thanks,i made it just as you said and it was amazing!!!
So glad you all enjoyed it Anne!
I totally get the whole spending-2-hours-of-your-life-looking-through-pins thing. It happened to me on a lower scale a few hours ago. I woke up around 2 in the morning and just couldn’t go back to sleep. For some reason, my eyes were so tired, but my mind was thinking about all sorts of things a mile a minute! Plus, I was so hungry. After failing to go back to sleep for the hundredth time, I relented and got on my phone to look up all kinds of filling recipes I could make. After a while, I looked up peanut butter noodles, which I had been craving for around a week since my brother mentioned it. I found a recipe with a ton of reviews, but also a ton of ingredients that I just didn’t have (or like). Dejected, I looked at some other recipes but none of them really caught my eye. And then I found this one. The more I read, the more hopeful I became. When I saw the ingredients, I just thought, “Wow, this looks so simple and so good!” I vowed to make it. Then, I tried to go back to sleep. It didn’t work. I finally got up at 6 AM to get something to eat. I figured I’d make some pasta quickly to sate my hunger. A peek into the fridge and pantry revealed that I had Asian noodles AND peanut butter. At that moment, I could practically taste the end product. I ended up making the pasta and the peanut butter noodles in a span of one hour. I let my grandmother have the first bite, and she commented on how rich it was and that it was tasty as well. (By the way, I didn’t even realize that the recipe called for siracha, which I didn’t have, but the finished product looked great anyway. I’m sure I would have loved it with siracha, too, since I love spicy food.) After cleaning up, I got myself a bowl, a bottle of water, and made myself comfortable in my sister’s room. I figured I could taunt her with it, so she’d get up earlier for school. But alas, she simply rolled over in bed, and turned her back on me. “Oh well,” I said, while helping myself to the product of my labors. “I’ll just enjoy this myself then.”
And enjoy, I did.
Thank you so much for this recipe; it was absolutely delicious and so simple to make.
P.S.: I’m sorry about my super long comment. For some reason, I just felt like the buildup was necessary. 😀
Have a great day!
I also sometimes get recipes stuck in my mind and can’t think about anything else until I make them! Thanks for sharing your story! 🙂
Yum, turned out simple and warming. Comfort food at its best.
Thanks for coming back to let me know about it! I’m so glad you liked it!
This looks delicious! I’m so boring with my pasta, but this looks easy enough for me to do
YES! Super simple!
This looks amazing and with only 5 ingredients, how can you beat that?!?! Your photography is beautiful as well! Thanks for joining the Link-It To Me Link Party, I hope you will party with us again next week!
How sweet! Thank you!
This looks really good. Thank you for sharing at the #AnythingGoes Link Party.
Love your link up! I will definitely share again!
Stop it! You are making me feel hungry with 3 hours until dinner! Thanks so much for sharing this delicious recipe with us at #AnythingGoes link up
Hahaha! Make this for dinner! I love your link up too!
It made me smile when you clarified that the Martha Steward recipe was “heavily adapted”. 🙂
I always marvel at people who can take an existing recipe and then have the wisdom to be able to play around with the ingredients to come up with their own delicious variation.
It looks like the Lord has blessed you with a gift. 🙂
Thanks for sharing.
That is so sweet of you! Thank you for the kind words! I have to say I chuckled a little while writing “heavily adapted” too.
My family would love these! They look SO good, will have to put this on our try list!
Thanks! I hope you love them!
Easy recipes are my favourite ones to make! This looks delicious.
Thanks!
Sabrina you had me at three steps my dear! This looks amazing!
Thanks! As much as I love recipes that are complicated, I have days it has to be easy or it is cereal for dinner!
If Pinterest can’t help, Martha definitely can! hehe 🙂 The salad sounds so good! This is definitely happening this summer.
Thanks! Yeah, Martha knows all!
I must try this sauce! I love asian peanut sauce in many varieties and this one looks delicious! Thanks for sharing how to make it.
I bet you probably already have all the ingredients too! That is one of my favorite things about this sauce!
Pinned this to try, it sounds amazing! I love the possibilities it provides!
Yay! Thank you for the pin!
This looks so yummy! I pinned it to try soon.
Thank you for the pin!! I hope you love it 🙂
Now I know what’s for lunch! I love the idea of the spaghetti instead of ramen. The cooked chicken is in the fridge, so I’m good to go.
AWESOME! I love that it is a spur of the moment dish!
My husband picks up udon , rice and ramen noodles from a local Asian market. They taste so much better then those 10c dehydrated packets. lol He’ll be thrilled to see your recipe.
A man after my own heart! Hope you guys love them!
Looks delicious and so easy! I seem to make all Italian food so I need to try something different 🙂
Try this dish! You probably have all the ingredients in your cupboard! I hope you love it 🙂
I love better than bouillon paste! That stuff has saved me so many times when I need some special flavoring. It’s so great. This recipe looks delicious, and so easy! Pinned 🙂
Yay! I was talking to my mom today and she said she’d never heard of it. In the kitchen it is pretty much my go to so I was kind of in shock. Instead of continuing our conversation I launched into my love of it for 10 minutes. Also, thanks for the pin! I’m still so new I get so excited when people love enough to pin for later!
Wow does this ever look amazing. I’m not sure my kids would love this as much as myself and my husband but I’m for sure going to have to try this!
My oldest had some a couple of days ago, it is one of their favorites! Our trick to cooking it for kids is I hold back on the sriracha in the meal, then just add it to my portion. But only if your kids are super young and can’t handle any spice at all 🙂
Wow does this ever look amazing. I’m not sure my kids would love this as much as myself and my husband but I’m for sure going to have to try this!
Hats off to you for getting so creative and refusing to eat the ‘flavor packet’! I’m gluten-free now but used to love Ramen, really for the texture of the noodles. I totally agree on the packet. You’ve elevated the ramen experience tenfold; this sounds fantastic!
Aww thank you, that is so sweet of you! I definitely have my ramen packet moments with other things that aren’t as fresh as can be but I try to minimize where I can. It really took my first pregnancy and all the “paranoid about to be a new mom” research to learn about the harm of them and the dangers of things like nitrates/nitrites. I can’t tell you how hard of a shift it was!
Looks absolutely delicious and simple to make!
It’s a favorite at our house! I hope you get a chance to try it!
I have never had ramen noodles. But my husband loves them. He would love this recipe.
I’d love to hear from him then! 😉
This looks so delicious. I will have to try this recipe on the weekend. I am sure it will be a big hit.
Thank you! I look forward to hearing how it turns out for you!
Peanut sauce is to die for. This looks incredible! Pinned 🙂
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it!
This looks and sounds really good. I tried some sort of Asian chicken type salad the other day and it was delicious, had very similar ingredients. Must make this at home!
Thanks! Let me know how it turns out if you end up making it!
We love Asian noodles and I always have Ramen and Cup O Noodle on hand for quick easy meals or random cravings. The added spice is a real treat too!
I think this is a great twist on those noodles and it’s almost as easy to make! I hope you get a chance to try it!
Awesome nice meal. Looks so good.
Thank you!
This looks really yummy. I need to make them soon.
This looks really good. I think I will make this in place of spaghetti this week. Thanks for the recipe.
Wonderful! I hope you love it!
I was just finishing my plate with noodles when I saw this! What a delicious addition this recipe would be to my collection. Pinned, too.
Thanks for the pin! I hope you love it! They are so easy to make, I even make them for my oldest if we have started dinner and there is a battle I don’t want to fight! haha!
That looks fantastic! The best recipes are the ones that are easy to make but look like they took serious effort!
Thanks!
I use to LOVE chicken cup o’ noodles! Ok I still love them haha but this looks so much better!
I can till taste them in my mouth when I think back to them!
That is a quick easy meal idea. I think my family would love this!
As quick as making plain pasta! I love this meal 🙂
Can’t wait to try this one!
Awesome! And if you hold back on the sriracha just a bit the youngest kids would love it to. Our oldest had some for dinner last night 🙂
Way too salty! Other flavors blend but need to cut back on soy sauce for saltiness. I also added sautéed mushrooms and broccoli. Next time will make with 1/2 the soy sauce. Served with fried rice.
Sorry it was too salty for you! Maybe using Lite soy sauce would help?