Ramen with Chicken & Vegetables

My kids keep seeing a commercial for Ramen noodles, so I recently bought a 12-pack at the grocery store so they could try them. It was a trip down memory lane to my post-college, working-as-an-intern days when I often ate cooked and drained ramen mixed with a little butter, the seasoning packet and (canned) chicken.

My kids now bring ramen soup (in a thermos) for their school lunch about once a week. For the dinner table, I decided to see if I couldn't expand my old college recipe a little bit.

Adding lots of veggies and some Asian seasonings did the trick. Go ahead and add more or different vegetables or leave out the chicken for a vegetarian meal and/or experiment with the sauce to find a blend that fits your tastebuds.

The great thing about this recipe is that the day after we have this for dinner, there's enough leftover ramen for my lunch, too!

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Ramen with Chicken & Vegetables

4 packs of ramen noodles, cooked and drained (reserve seasoning packet for another use)
2 tablespoon oil, divided
1 cup carrots, julienned (Make life easy and buy a bag of shredded carrots!)
1 cup snow pea pods, julienned
1/2 a large red bell pepper, julienned
2 cans (5 ounce) or 1 can (10 ounce or 12 ounce) of chunk white chicken, packed in water OR 1 1/4 cups to 1 1/2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 or 2 tablespoons Hoisin sauce (depending on your taste)
1 or 2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger (depending on your taste)
Salt and pepper to taste
Sliced green onions for serving
Chopped fresh cilantro for serving

Cook ramen noodles according to packet directions. Drain and set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet. Add vegetables and cook, stirring often until tender-crisp, about 5 minutes.

Remove veggies from pan and set aside in a bowl.

Add remaining oil to skillet and add chicken. Cook until heated through. Add vegetables back into pan and stir to combine.

Add soy sauce, Hoisin sauce, ginger, salt and pepper. Stir and cook for a few minutes until sauce begins to thicken. Add more soy sauce, Hoisin and ginger to taste.

Add ramen noodles to pan and stir to combine and to coat noodles in sauce. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes to heat through.

Top with green onions and cilantro and serve.