CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta made with white meat chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce full of umami, this California Pizza Kitchen dish is easy to make at home.
CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta made with white meat chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce full of umami, this California Pizza Kitchen dish is easy to make at home. I mean it! Put the take-out menus away!
There is no doubt about it, we’re a noodle loving house. A surefire way to make sure I am not making extra grilled cheese sandwiches for anyone who refuses to eat is to make noodles, especially peanut noodles. Even if you have leftovers (which we sometimes don’t as we have been known to overeat pasta around these parts), you can’t count on getting any of the leftovers.
The next morning I woke up having dreamt about this CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta (I am a weird soul who can dream about carbs, I think it is the diets I was on as a young adult!) and when I made my way downstairs in the morning I knew I was going to take a cold bite of pasta only to find my husband had done away with the small amount left in the middle of the night. That is how good this pasta is…. it doesn’t even make it to the next morning.
This is where I would normally give you the play by play photos for this amazing CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta. Only problem is that my SD card bit the dust and I only noticed it after I had finished making the dish. Thankfully I was going to offload the pictures before taking the glamour shots, so the delicious proof of the meal still exists!
During dinner, my husband suggested I draw a stick figure (this is about as artistic as I get) re-enactment of the cooking process for you while I was expressing frustrating with my SD card having failed me. The look I gave him in return said as much as I imagine it needed to because his next move was to take the kids upstairs for bath time and bedtime! This meant I got to watch some Real Housewives while enjoying the end of my pasta. Double win! PS, is there anyone out there who is actually Team Ramona? She makes my head hurt. Watching her also makes me miss RHOBH and my darling Lisa.
Ok, ok I just went off on a tangent. Back to the food already! Right?
If you chop the ingredients while you boil the water and make the sauce while the veggies are cooking you will be done start to finish in 20 minutes. Just be aware this recipe does use pre-made chicken chunks. We had roasted a couple of chickens off in the oven the day before so it was easy enough to toss the pieces in.
If you don’t have any pre-cooked chicken on hand, dice up the chicken breast in ¾ inch cubes, season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet and add the chicken. Let cook undisturbed for 3-4 minutes, then turn. Give it another 2 minutes and you are ready to go! If you do make the chicken fresh, I highly suggest cooking the veggies in this pan, the chicken bits left behind can only add more flavor! 
Ingredients
- 1 pound thin spaghetti
- 3 tablespoons oriental sesame oil , divided use
- 1 cup julienned carrots
- 2 cups napa cabbage , sliced
- 2 cups chopped , cooked chicken breast meat
- 8 green onions , chopped
- 5 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger , peeled and minced
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Sriracha sauce
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to boil.
- Add 1-2 tbsp of salt to season the water.
- Cook pasta, al dente (I shoot for a minute shy of what the box says)
- Drain pasta and toss with 2 tbsp sesame oil.
- Pat dry the inside of the pot and add 1 tbsp of sesame oil.
- If you would like to add some green onions as a garnish at the end, reserve ¼ cup of them before putting the rest in the pan.
- Add the green onions, carrots, napa cabbage, chicken, garlic and ginger.
- Saute for a minute or two until they have softened and barely start to turn color.
- Add in the honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar and Sriracha.
- Stir all the ingredients together and add the pasta back into the pot.
- Toss the pasta with the rest of the ingredients and serve!
- Garnish with remaining green onions if you chose to reserve some.
Notes
Nutrition
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A friend made this today and it was AMAZING. I am deffinately making this dish very soon for my husband. He will love it.
I made this recipe last night and it was delicious! Even my picky son, who kept commenting, “there’s peanut butter in this?” And “you’re putting all that cabbage in that?”, he ended up loving it!!!! Thank you for the recipe.
Haha, love it! It’s so fun to win over picky eaters!!
Excellent! Comfort food at its best! Loved it!
Thanks for the 5 stars, Terry!
This was amazing. Not difficult to put together. Hubby loved it too!
Thanks for dropping by to let me know! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Loved it, and my kids asked for seconds. Definitely going into my rotation of recipes.
Made the peanut chicken tonight…and watch out for the Chile sauce! I added jus a bit, and it overwhelmed the dish. Also, I would cut the amount of pasta in half.
I’m wondering why the directions state to add sriracha when it isn’t listed in the ingredients list. Also why is peanut in the title and it doesn’t mention to add peanuts but the picture shows them.
I’m getting prepared to make this and I don’t know if I need peanuts or not
Sorry for the confusion.
Sriracha is a common condiment that many people like to add to this dish but it’s not part of the recipe. As far as the peanuts, I just added a few for a garnish. They are completely optional.
Hi Sabrina,
How much sriracha sauce do I use? I will definitely make this. Thanks!
You’ll want to use 1 1/2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce for this recipe. Enjoy!
Made this tonight with what I had on hand. It wasn’t too colorful but was delicious. Used curly Japanese noodles – cauliflower (locally grown) left over chicken roaster I had purchased cooked and your delicious sauce. Very good – hubby loved it. Will add it to the rotation.
Thanks for the 5 stars Elizabeth!
This was delicious! We loved it!
I have made your dish several times now and everyone absolutely loves it!
This was very good–a little on the dry side. I might use less pasta next time. Has anyone tried adding cilantro to this dish? I think it would go great with the peanut sauce.
This was FANTASTIC. Thank you for sharing
So glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe . It was on point .
You’re welcome!
Made this tonight and my whole family loved it! Thank you for the recipe. I used tofu (cubed and baked at 400 degrees for 25 minutes prior to adding) instead of chicken for the protein. It was fantastic. Definitely will make again!
You’re welcome! So glad you all enjoyed it!
I have had this pinned for quite awhile. Going to try it today!
This recipe states 4 T. of Sesame Oil in the ingredient list, and only 3T in recipe??? Did I miss something??? I still loved it, but maybe I’ll add a little olive oil in the end.
Oops, sorry about that. It should read 3T total. I’m glad you still loved it!
I just made this with rice noodles instead of spaghetti. My “chef” husband said it was delicious and gave it an A+. Next time we’ll add a few chopped peanuts as garnish
Oops, finished with cilantro & lime too!
Fantastic! Thanks for dropping back by to let me know.
Great Dish. Thanks, for this post.
Great recipe. Had my husband and SUPER picky 4 year old gobbling it up. I sauteed chicken, used pre-shredded cabbage slaw mix and broccoli/carrot slaw mix, and sambal olek. I left out the onions and vinegar on accident and it still turned out fine. Neither of them knew they were eating broccoli!
It was a little bit thick, but I used some water to thin it a little. Next time I’ll put the vinegar in and see if that helps with the consistency. Might scale the PB back a tad too.
Awesome! I know how hard it is to please a picky eater so I’d call this a definite win! Thanks for coming back to let me know how much you all enjoyed it!
I love the Thai peanut chicken noodles. It was quick and easy. Next time I’m going to try with pork. I think shrimp and chicken would also be good. Thanks for the recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it Jeannette!
I went through the cupboard and realized that I have a ton of soy sauce and sriracha that I need to use up. I also have some pasta that isn’t my son’s favorite so I am totally going to try this. I currently have all but the cabbage already in the house so if I get to this soon it might be a little more carb and less vegetable but I can’t wait to try the real thing! Thanks for the great recipe! I know that this will be enjoyed soon!!!
You’re welcome!
Came out beautifully! Everyone loved it!
Yay!! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know how much everyone loved it!!
Has anyone tried making this ahead and freezing?
Love making Thai food at home. Made this yesterday and am enjoying this. Only modification was to decrease Sriracha to 1 teaspoon…that was enough for me. Will definitely make again.
Yay! I do love that you can adjust to your liking. Thank you for taking the time to come back and let me know how much you enjoyed it!
Oh I’m definitely pinning this! I got hungry just looking at your pics!
Thanks for the pin!
Made this & has very good flavor. However, go light on the garlic chili sauce. I made for m mom & I. We love spicy food, but this was a bit much. Maybe it was the brand I used. I did offset the spice with peanut butter to keep our mouths from turning into lava ?
The dish is meant to have some kick and it’s possible that specific brand made it a bit spicer but yes, you can always adjust to whatever your liking is. Glad you and your mom enjoyed it 🙂
Which brand of chili garlic sauce do you use ?
Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce, the original!
Hi there! Thanks for posting. I’m trying this tonight but was wondering about the ingredients. The ingredients list chili garlic sauce, but the instructions use sriracha. Does it matter which one, or is it both? Thank you! I’m sure it’s yummy with either (I love them both.)
Eek! This got lost in spam sorry! I’ve used either sriracha or the chili garlic paste where you can see the seeds. Both delicious. Hope it turned out well!
I used the paste in the sauce and put a few drizzles of sriracha on my own serving (too much spice for hubs) and it was delicious. It was yummy!
Glad you liked it! 🙂
I think half of the pasta is enough or the measurements are not right for the sauce, its delicious but it comes out dry .
It’s definitely not a lot of sauce (like the one in the restaurant) but it shouldn’t have been dry. Did you let it cook after tossing it? Sometimes a bit of pasta water helps too if that happens.
Thanks so much! A quick and easy recipe that tastes delicious! Warmed me up on a cold wet day in Germany.
I left out the chicken and added in some extra veggies instead…will definitely be making it again! Can’t wait to try it with chicken too 🙂
-Ashley
Loved it. Made it twice
This was soooooo good! The whole family loved it. I subbed bow ties for spaghetti but other than that left the recipe alone. I think next time I might up the napa cabbage, but honestly it’s super delicious as-is! Thanks for the great recipe!
Made it. Yum! Will be in dinners rotation. Thanks!
Kung Pao chicken spaghetti is next.
I’m so glad to be able to share some of my family’s favorites and have them become other families favorites! Thanks for coming back to let me know – and if you wanted to share a pic of your dish on my Facebook page, I’d love to see it!
Hi, can I make this with Asian noodles instead of spaghetti? Thnx!
What kind of Asian noodles? Chances are, yes, it can be swapped for another kind of noodle.
Hi, can I use noodles (those 3-minute ones) instead of spaghetti?
If you mean ramen, then it won’t have the same texture. If you want something that will cook faster, you could try thin spaghetti.
I LOVED it!
Awesome! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
I just made this for dinner and it was great! I halved the recipe and there was plenty for my family of 4! I only added half the chili sauce since my kids aren’t fond of spice and topped with cilantro and chopped peanuts for garnish. Delish! Thank you!
Wonderful, I am so glad you enjoyed it! This is hands down one of my favorite pasta dishes ever. Thank you for coming back and letting me know how you enjoyed it!
this was soooooo tasty! I would change nothing about it. I used rotisserie chicken in mine.
Awesome! Thank you for coming back and telling me how you liked it!
Made this tonight. The recipe came together quickly and easily. Tastes amazing!!!!!
Awesome!! So glad you enjoyed it and thanks for coming back to let me know how you enjoyed it!
This looks great! I have chicken marinating in satay sauce right now. Would I be able to use the chicken/sauce to make this? Sorry a little bit of a cooking novice and I don’t want to make anyone sick. ????
Hey there! You can use the chicken you already have marinating. The thing is that sauce you are probably using is super flavorful. So it is going to mix with a whole second sauce in this recipe, so there isn’t a way for me to tell you how awesome those two sauces are going to get along. It could taste just fine since there are similar ingredients or it could end up tasting pretty weird. If you wanted to try it I would suggest drain the marinade off the chicken, and pat it dry. As a rule I never rinse chicken, you are just asking for salmonella to get ALL over your kitchen (take this from a ServeSafe Manager Certified Chef) so just get as much of the marinade off and pat dry. Then even if the chicken has a bit of a marinaded flavor I can’t imagine it causing too much conflict. I hope you love the recipe! Let me know how it works out, or if you wanna talk more, you can always email me at [email protected] 🙂
So nice to have a recipe work out even better than expected. Must try it! Keeper for sure.
Debbie thank you so much!! That is so sweet. 🙂
I made this tonight and we LOVED it! Thanks for sharing!
Yay! Thank you for coming back and letting me know! PS, I love your name 😉
Funny! I did make pot stickers, like 60 of them!! I froze most of them. They were great, I’ll have to try them with the sauce next time.
I love that about potstickers! One recipe makes a ton of them!
I made this the other night! The flavor is amazing!! I would recommend being skimpy with the chili garlic sauce, my son thought it was too spicy and he likes spicy foods usually. I would also make double the amount of the sauce and add it as needed, I felt it was a tad on the dry side. I’m still eating the leftovers though, it tastes fantastic.
Katie, I am so happy to hear it!! Double the sauce sounds amazing! Then if you make potstickers or something you can use it as dipping sauce too!
Just made this tonight and it is just perfectly amazing! Of course, mine wasn’t as pretty as yours (I cooked the cabbage just a smidge too long) but it tasted wonderful all the same. I added some bean sprouts for a little extra crunch and a little squeeze of lime but that was after I inhaled a large plate of “taste tester”. The recipe is soo easy to follow, and I made the chicken earlier in the morning so I didn’t have to wash an extra pan after dinner. This one is going into rotation FOR SURE!
Yay! I am so glad it turned out so well! I love adding bean sprouts, I just hate going to buy them, haha.
Looks delicious! What is the garlic-chili sauce? I’m having a hard time finding it. Thanks!
Hey there, it is actually like the older brother of Sriracha. Here is a link to it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Huy-Fong-Vietnamese-Chili-Garlic/dp/B0006SKCVI If you cannot find it, Sriracha is perfectly acceptable as a replacement 🙂
I am salivating right now. I have to make this dish.
This does sound pretty easy. It’s also a good recipe for left over chicken.
This looks amazing. I love CPK and their pasta so I’m going to try this.
Thanks, hope you enjoy it!
What an amazing recipe. I think I might try it! Thanks Sabrina!
No problem!