Chicken with Avocado and Coconut Soba

Last night I was in the mood for pho, since I love making and eating pho. My wife, however, wanted something a little different. My challenge was to take all the great flavors of pho and put those into a dish that wasn't actually pho, and this was what I came up with.



The avocado was the perfect accomplice to pull this off. Essentially, I took all of the ingredients from my normal "pho" and condensed them into a creamy (yet healthy) sauce for the soba. The avocado added just the right texture to create the sauce out of what would normally be a soup, and the flavor balance and pairing was outstanding. Plus, avocados are healthy, so that was goodness as well.

Recipe is as follows:

2 servings whole wheat soba noodles (substitute linguine if unavailable)
2 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp sesame oil (untoasted)

1/8 cup chopped green onion

2 tbsp minced ginger

1 large stalk lemongrass, minced fine
2 tbsp chopped kaffir lime leaves (optional)
1 cup light coconut milk (approx. half of a can)

1 tbsp garlic-chili paste (more if you want more heat in it, but I'd suggest serving it on the side and being cautious)

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 tbsp agave nectar (substitute honey if you can't find)

1 large ripe avocado

juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp fresh thai or purple basil, roughly chopped
cashews - see note at bottom

Prepare the soba noodles per package instructions and drain. Try to time this so they are ready when the sauce is ready, and ideally you will be able to finish them for the last minute in the sauce.

In a separate pan, cook the chicken breasts in the sesame oil over high heat, turning once. The pan should have a surface area on the bottom sufficient to cook the chicken, and not much more, with higher sides in order to hold the sauce and noodles together. Once the breasts are cooked thoroughly, remove them from the pan and let them rest. Reduce the heat to medium-low, an add the onion, lemongrass, ginger, and kaffir lime leaves. Saute until soft, being careful not to let them burn. Add coconut milk, chili paste, vinegar, agave nectar, lime juice, and soy sauce. At this point you can blend the mixture with an immersion blender in order to get the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves minced extremely fine to make them edible - this will be more difficult once the avocado is added. Alternately, you can add the mixture to a blender or food processor and carefully blend it (hot liquids in a blender don't tend to behave). Add the avocado and blend again until you have a smooth paste - you can add additional coconut milk or the water from the noodles to thin the sauce if it is too thick. Add the noodles, toss together, and plate. Serve the chicken breast sliced on top of the noodle mixture, and garnish with fresh basil and cashews, if desired.

About the cashews....

There are two ways to go with this garnish, both of which are excellent. Most people will pick the "normal" way, which is to chop them finely and sprinkle them on top. This will add a nice nutty flavor and a pleasant crunch. When I prepared it, I went the "abnormal" way and had some fun with molecular gastronomy and created a light cashew powder. There were three reasons for this: 1) I'm a huge dork and loved the science of it, 2) the cashew powder is very light, almost disappearing when you eat it, and with it you can really fine-tune the amount of cashew flavor on the dish, and perhaps most importantly 3) I didn't have whole cashews, but I did have cashew butter and tapioca maltodextrin. So if you're like me, and God help you if you are, and want to do it this way, here's how you make the cashew powder:

1 tbsp cashew butter
2 tbsp tapioca maltodextrin

Mix together by hand making sure to crumble it as you mix in order to create a powder. Sure, you could dirty the food processor, but why bother. And yes, of course you can substitute peanuts for cashews (or peanut butter for cashew butter).