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4.45 from 9 votes

Skinny Sesame Chicken w/Veggies & Noodles

This 30-minute, "skinny" and completely digestion-friendly sesame chicken is lacking nothing. Its full of delicious flavor that rivals any takeout. Slightly sweet and salty, full of sesame flavor, it's a must-have recipe for anyone with dietary restrictions or looking to be healthier.
Prep Time10 mins
Total Time10 mins
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 398kcal

Ingredients

For Noodles:

  • 6 oz gluten free spaghetti (uncooked) - For IBS/Low FODMAP, avoid any that are whole grain (insoluble fiber). I use Tinkyada Pasta Joy Ready Brown Rice Pasta, Spaghetti Style which work great for this! - if you're not gluten free or following a Low FODMAP diet, you can use whatever kind of noodles you want

For Veggies:

  • 120 g carrot (washed and peeled, ends trimmed - weight is of the weight of the rinsed/ends-removed carrot), cut into ~3-4 inch sections, then each section halved or quartered, depending on size
  • 68 g snow peas (washed, ends trimmed off)

For Sesame Chicken:

  • 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds
  • 12 oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts (uncooked) - pounded into even size, then cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1/3 cup gluten free flour (I use King Arthur Gluten Free Multi Purpose Flour)
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (it must be pure maple syrup, not pancake syrup, or it will not taste right)
  • 3 Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce (it needs to be low sodium or the dish will be way too salty)
  • 2 tsp. sesame oil
  • 1/2 Tbsp. oyster sauce (read labels and find one that is gluten free, or skip this ingredient)
  • 2+1/2 tsp. brown sugar (level, unpacked teaspoons - very important for IBS and/or GERD)
  • 1 Tbsp. fresh chives (chopped) - plus more for garnish, if desired

Instructions

For Noodles:

  • Begin by putting the pasta on to cook according to the package directions. While the water is heating up and the pasta is cooking, you can work on starting the vegetables steaming and getting the chicken ready/cooked.

For Veggies:

  • Place the prepped carrots and snow peas in a medium-sized saucepan with ~1/4-1/3 cup water (you want enough to cover the bottom of the pan, but not to have the veggies soaking in water).
  • Cover the pan and cook, over medium-high heat, for ~10 minutes, until the veggies are fork-tender but not mushy (add additional water as needed during cooking if it evaporates). While these are cooking, work on making the chicken.
  • When the veggies are done cooking, remove from heat and from the pan and place on a cutting board. After they cool for a minute or 2, chop them up into smaller, bite-sized pieces.

For Sesame Chicken:

  • Place the sesame seeds in a dry, medium-sized skillet over medium heat and heat (yeah, this recipe has you using 3 burners at once but it's not bad!), stirring constantly, for 4-5 minutes until the seeds are lightly browned. Remove from heat and reserve the toasted seeds in a small dish.
  • Place the flour in a large ziploc bag, then add the chicken, seal the bag (leave air in the bag), then shake the bag around until the chicken pieces are coated with flour.
  • Place a large skillet over medium heat, spray with non-stick cooking spray and then add in the floured chicken pieces (try not to get any excess flour in the pan).
  • Cook the chicken pieces for ~4-5 minutes per side, until they have browned and the internal temperature of the larger pieces has reached at least 165 degrees F. *Note: When I had to flip them over, the cooking spray had pretty much disappeared. So I moves the pieces over to one side, sprayed the pan, flipped some in the sprayed part, then kept doing that until I made it all the way across the pan and all the pieces were flipped and on a spot with some cooking spray.*
  • When the chicken is done, transfer the pieces to a plate or baking sheet, then set the skillet aside (off the burner) to cool down for a couple of minutes. Once cooled down a bit (but still hot), carefully wipe it out with some slightly wet paper towels (you don't want any of the burned bits in there or the sauce will have a weird taste).
  • While the skillet is cooling down a bit, place the maple syrup, soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar and chives in a small dish and mix together until combined.
  • Once the skillet has cooled down and is wiped out, return the skillet to the burner and add in the maple syrup/soy sauce mixture, starting to stir immediately and continuing to heat, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens up quite a bit (this only takes ~20-30 seconds). *Notes: It's important to have waited for both the burner and pan to have cooled down before adding in the maple syrup/soy sauce mixture, otherwise the mixture will burn when it hits the pan. Also, the sauce will thicken more after the chicken pieces are added in (from the flour coating) and also once it cools, so don't leave it going too long. You do want to end up with a decent amount of sauce for the chicken pieces, especially if you serve the chicken over rice or noodles.*
  • When sauce has thickened, remove from heat, add in the chicken and sesame seeds and stir to combine. By this time, your noodles and veggies should be done, so you'll be ready to put plates together.

For Serving:

  • For IBS/GERD/Low FODMAP, I find the best way to serve this is to plate up each serving one at a time, in order to make sure you're getting the correct weight/quantity of each item. Snow peas are a pretty restricted food for Low FODMAP, so it's important to only get 17g or less per serving, and due to fat/sugar in this dish, you want to make sure for both IBS and/or GERD that you only have 3oz worth of chicken and a little extra sauce.
  • So, to do this I set the plate on the scale, weigh out 75g of noodles, then as much as 30g of carrots and no more than 17g of snow peas. Mix those together, then weigh out 3oz of the chicken (not drenched in sauce yet, just grab the chicken pieces). Then, drizzle some extra sauce on top (eyeball it, I can't say for sure how much your end result sauce will weigh, as it depends on how hot your burner/pan is, how long you cook it, etc. Just be careful and only use as much as you need). You can mix the chicken in with the noodles or leave set on top to serve.
  • Garnish with some additional chopped chives for color, if desired.

Notes

For IBS/GERD:
  • This dish is relatively high in both fat and sugar. It shouldn't give you problems on its own, but you will need to be careful with what you eat the rest of the day you eat this. Choose fat free or very low fat options for your other meals, and skip yogurt and other foods with high sugar content. This is only for those with IBS and/or GERD. Anyone without digestion issues would be fine.
  • When serving, See step No. 2 in the "For Serving" section above.
[nutrition-label]*Information above is based on the specific brands/types of ingredients I used (as one example, pink himalayan sea salt is lower sodium than regular salt). Values vary if using any other brands/types of ingredients.*
*The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.*

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Nutrition

Calories: 398kcal | Carbohydrates: 61g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 45mg | Sodium: 501mg | Potassium: 427mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 29% | Vitamin C: 23% | Calcium: 6% | Iron: 13%