Tagliatelle with Lime Chicken Recipe
This is an old favourite of mine. The torn out recipe is so battered I could hardly see where I had found it from in the first place. I have to say the thought of the “lime” puts me off ever serving this dish to friends or family as I imagine it is an acquired taste, but give it a go, I really love it.
2 large skinless chicken breast fillets
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp chilli sauce
300g dried tagliatelle
4 spring onions, thickly sliced
For the sauce
300ml chicken or vegetable stock
200ml carton coconut cream
1.5 tsp Thai fish sauce
6 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
1 garlic clove, sliced
pinch of sugar
salt and pepper
For the garnish
Coriander leaves
(1) Cut the chicken into strips and toss with the sesame oil, soy sauce and chilli sauce. Cover and leave to marinate in a cool place for 1 hour. (BBCGF)
I like to cut the chicken into long, thin strips so they absorb more of the flavours. I don’t have sesame oil so just went with sunflower instead. I’ve used both spicy chilli sauce and sweet chilli dipping sauce in this and both work just as well although for the sweet variety I use at least 1 tsp.
(2) Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Place all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer until reduced by half. Pass through a fine sieve and keep warm. (BBCGF)
Right, I usually use stock from an Oxo cube as I’ve always used fresh stock in a soup. I also can’t find coconut cream here in Spain so have to use coconut milk. This thins the sauce down a bit and takes an age to simmer to half volume but tastes lovely all the same. When I say an age, it’s a good 20-30 minutes, but keep an eye on it as otherwise it will boil over. I’ve still got some Thai fish sauce I brought from England but that reminds me I could probably do with a new bottle – note to self, scour the internet for suppliers! I could do with oyster sauce too I think. As for the kaffir lime leaves, well I can’t get them either. These ingredients are a bit of a nightmare aren’t they really? Instead I take the yest and juice of one lime and bung them in instead. The other good thing about this is that I don’t need to sieve any dodgy leaf bits out at the end.
(3) Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. (BBCGF)
I never cook with salted water as I never remember and we prefer our pasta a bit softer than al dente but it’s up to you.
(4) Meanwhile, heat a wok or large frying pan until hot. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 4-5 minutes until browned and cooked through. Add the spring onions, toss well and remove from the heat.
This is nice and easy. You don’t need any extra oil to cook with as the marinated chicken is quite oily
(5) Drain the pasta and spoon into warmed bowls. Top with the chicken and spring onion mixture and drizzle over the lime sauce. Serve at once, garnished with coriander leaves.
My lime sauce is generally sloshed, rather than drizzled as there’s quite a lot of it for two of us, probably due to my coconut cream versus milk issue.