This Sesame Chicken Zucchini Noodle Dish Is a Weeknight Win
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There are two types of people in the world: those who love calling zucchini noodles “zoodles,” and those who would be much more likely to eat them if we could all just agree to call them “zucchini noodles” or “zucchini strings” or “just a big pile of shredded zucchini in sauce.” Whatever we call them, spiralized zucchini noodles are a good way to get some extra vegetables into your diet while still giving you something satisfying to twirl around your fork.
This recipe pairs zucchini noodles with chicken in a thick, creamy, sesame-garlic sauce for a healthy, 20-minute recipe you can whip out on any weeknight.
The sesame-garlic marinade does double duty as a pasta sauce, which makes this recipe extremely quick to execute. Start by mixing equal parts soy sauce, sesame oil, and tahini, which will give the end result its rich, creamy texture. Then add rice vinegar, honey, garlic-chili sauce, and grated fresh ginger, and mix it all together. Pour half the sauce over the chicken, mix it up, and set the chicken aside to marinate while you prepare the zucchini noodles.
If you have a spiralizer, you can use that to cut fresh zucchini into long, thin, noodle-like strips. But if you don’t have a spiralizer and don’t want to buy one, you can buy frozen zucchini noodles at many grocery stores.
Let the chicken sit in its marinade for a few minutes, then pour the chicken and its marinade into a hot pan with a bit of sesame oil. Cook the chicken in the pan, making sure to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan occasionally. Once the chicken is cooked through, add the zucchini noodles and the rest of the sauce to the pan, stir it to combine, and cook it until the noodles are soft. Sprinkle the dish with sesame seeds, and you’re ready to go.
All the garlic, sesame, soy sauce, and ginger give the recipe a ton of flavor, and it cooks in about 20 minutes. It’s a healthy weeknight option, and a few tweaks make it fit a number of diets. Use a gluten-free soy sauce if you avoid gluten, or swap the soy sauce for coconut aminos and leave out the honey to make it Whole30- and Paleo-compliant. And if you want a vegan or vegetarian dish, just swap the chicken for tofu and you’ll have a meatless version that’s just as good.
Get the recipe: Sesame Chicken Zoodles from The Endless Meal
