- 5 hours ago
Beat the summer heat with this cold noodle dish! In this video, Chef John teaches you how to make chili crisp cold noodles, a Chinese-inspired dish that brings plenty of flavor in a hot and spicy dressing with crisp cucumbers and carrots. Serve as is or over a bed of leafy greens with sliced protein and an extra drizzle of chili crisp for a filling, refreshing dinner.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Chili Crisp Cold Noodles.
00:08That's right, I'm going to show you what I think is the perfect hot weather dish,
00:11which besides being extraordinarily flavorful, comes together very quickly.
00:16And whether you eat this as is or use it for a base for some sliced meats,
00:20this is something you're going to be making all summer and possibly fall, winter, and spring.
00:25And to get started, we're going to boil some noodles in salted water,
00:29so those can be cooking while we make our dressing,
00:32since I like to play a little game called Time Bomb.
00:35Right, you know in the movies where the hero has to deactivate the explosive
00:38before everybody gets blown up, and the timer's ticking, and you're on the edge of your seat?
00:43Well, that's what I'm going to pretend I'm doing,
00:45as I try to make the dressing before the noodles are cooked.
00:48And it might sound silly, but it adds a little bit of excitement to the operation.
00:52And for the dressing, we'll start with some peanut butter of the smooth, natural variety,
00:57and then to that, I'm going to add some Chinese black vinegar.
01:00But really, any vinegar is going to work here.
01:03And I've subbed for this before with half balsamic and half rice vinegar,
01:06and that would work well here.
01:08And then speaking of rice vinegar, I'm also going to toss in a couple tablespoons of that.
01:13And then we'll definitely need a generous amount of soy sauce,
01:16followed by some finely minced or crushed garlic,
01:19as well as some finely minced or grated ginger.
01:22And then to help balance all these intense flavors,
01:25we'll add a little bit of white sugar before we finish up with some toasted sesame oil.
01:30And once all that's in there, we'll take a whisk and start to break this up and give it a
01:33quick stir.
01:35And if we kept stirring, this would eventually smooth out.
01:37But to make this step a lot faster and easier,
01:40we'll go back to our pot of noodles, which is almost cooked by now.
01:44And we'll grab some of that hot, starchy water,
01:46and we'll splash that into our bowl and continue mixing.
01:50And that's going to warm up our peanut butter just a little bit.
01:53And you'll see with just a few more seconds of stirring,
01:56that's going to smooth out beautifully.
01:58Plus, that little bit of water has also thinned out the dressing a bit,
02:01which is good because this is a very, very intense dressing.
02:05Not only because of what we just put in,
02:07but because of what we're going to put in,
02:09which is the star of the show,
02:11a generous amount of your favorite chili crisp.
02:14And the brand I'm using is extra hot,
02:16so I'm not going to put a crazy amount in.
02:19And once that's been stirred in, our dressing's done.
02:22And because we are, after all, the hero
02:24of finishing this dressing before the timer hits zero,
02:28if everything's gone according to plan,
02:30that just went off.
02:31And once again, we've won the time bomb challenge.
02:34So we will quickly pull those noodles off the heat
02:37and carefully dump them into a strainer.
02:40And then what we'll do is put those back in the pot
02:42and quickly fill it up with cold water.
02:45Since we're doing two things right now,
02:47we're, of course, cooling the noodles down with cold water.
02:50But we're also trying to rinse off as much starch as possible.
02:53So once those are covered,
02:55we'll dump it back in the strainer
02:57and then back in the pot.
02:59And as that fills up,
03:00we'll give it a good swishing around with our hand,
03:03which is going to help remove any residual starch from the surface.
03:06And you might be thinking,
03:07but Chef John,
03:08you've told us to never rinse pasta or macaroni
03:11when you're going to make a salad.
03:12Well, I don't think I said never.
03:14I almost never say never.
03:15But it is true for a lot of salads we don't do that
03:18because we want that starch on the surface to hang on to the dressing.
03:22But in this case,
03:23to get the proper texture,
03:24we want these noodles nice and cold
03:26and the surface virtually starch-free.
03:29And once we're confident that's happened,
03:31what we'll do is let those sit and soak in the cold water
03:34for just a couple minutes
03:35while we quickly prep our veggies for the noodles.
03:38And for that,
03:39I'm going to julienne some carrots on this mandolin.
03:41And if you happen to get a too thin floppy tip,
03:44just go ahead and bite it off.
03:46If no one's watching, that is.
03:48All right, if people are watching, use a knife.
03:50And by the way,
03:51using one of these things without the guide
03:53or protective gloves is really dumb.
03:55So as I move on to do the same thing
03:57with some sections of English cucumber,
03:59let me actually be smart for a change
04:01and throw on one of these cheap cut-proof gloves,
04:05which is what you should use every time.
04:07Okay, it's not a matter of
04:09if you'll cut yourself on one of these.
04:10It's a matter of when,
04:12unless you're wearing one of these gloves,
04:14in which case it will be never.
04:16And that's it.
04:17Once our veggies are prepped,
04:19we will drain our noodles
04:20and we will dump those now cold noodles
04:22in our very hot and spicy dressing.
04:25And we will toss in our veggies,
04:27along with a whole bunch of freshly sliced green onions,
04:31as well as a generous amount of toasted sesame seeds.
04:34And then we'll grab some tongs
04:36and give this a very thorough mixing.
04:38Oh, and I should have mentioned already,
04:39I used an Udon noodle,
04:41which I think works great,
04:43but literally any noodle is going to work here,
04:45including just some good old regular spaghetti,
04:48which is probably what I've used most often
04:50when I make these kind of noodle salads.
04:52But no matter what you're using,
04:53we'll mix that very well.
04:55And then if we want,
04:56we can go ahead and serve it immediately.
04:58But if we can,
04:59I think the salad's even better
05:01if we give it time for the flavors to develop,
05:04which is why I'm going to scrape the dressing
05:05on the sides back into the salad,
05:08and then wrap it up and pop it in the fridge
05:09for about an hour,
05:11although longer is totally fine,
05:13including overnight.
05:14And once we are ready to serve,
05:16we will transfer that
05:17into some kind of serving bowl or platter,
05:19and proceed with whatever garnishes we're into,
05:23which for me is going to be
05:24another sprinkling of sesame seeds.
05:26Plus, since we're calling this
05:27Chili Crisp Cold Noodles,
05:29I'm going to spoon over some more of that.
05:31And then I finished up with a scattering
05:33of freshly sliced green onions,
05:36and these easy, fast, absolutely gorgeous
05:38Chili Crisp Cold Noodles
05:40we're ready to enjoy.
05:42So I grabbed some chopsticks
05:43that I stole from Whole Foods Sushi Bar
05:45earlier in the day,
05:46and I went in for the official taste,
05:49and that, my friends,
05:50on a hot day,
05:51is just about the best thing
05:53you'd ever want to eat.
05:54Although I hope you don't wait
05:55for a heat wave to try this,
05:57since if I was you,
05:58I would try to make this
05:59as soon as I could.
06:00And while it is fabulous
06:01just eating on its own,
06:03my favorite way to use this
06:04is on some crispy greens,
06:06is a base underneath
06:07some kind of sliced meat,
06:09which this time
06:10with some very simple
06:11soy honey glazed chicken breast,
06:13and after finishing the top
06:14with some chili oil,
06:15some chopped peanuts,
06:17and a little bit of
06:17freshly chopped cilantro,
06:19I grabbed a fork and dug in.
06:21Oh yeah, the chopsticks
06:22would have been fine,
06:23but thanks to previous experience,
06:26I know that a fork's
06:27going to get this stuff
06:27into my mouth faster and easier.
06:30And as you've probably
06:31heard me say before,
06:32great cooking is all
06:33about great contrast.
06:34And what makes this so amazing
06:36is the contrast between
06:38the cold temperature of the noodles
06:39with that intensely flavored
06:41spicy dressing,
06:42which is also cold
06:44and yet hot on the palate.
06:46And I just find that combination
06:47so irresistible
06:49and highly addictive,
06:50which is why you want to be careful
06:52with the spice level
06:53because you will hurt yourself.
06:55Oh, and as I start eventually
06:57digging into the lettuce
06:58component here,
06:59I'm reminded what great
07:00lettuce cups these noodles make.
07:02All right, get yourself
07:03some butter lettuce
07:03or bib lettuce
07:04or even romaine leaves,
07:06and then put a nice
07:07tangle of noodles
07:08on each one.
07:09And then you could top it
07:10with some chicken
07:11like I used here
07:12or some grilled steak
07:13or maybe barbecue pork.
07:15So there are lots
07:16of different things
07:17you can do with these noodles.
07:18Although just eating them
07:19as is in a bowl
07:21is a pretty fantastic way to go.
07:23And of course,
07:24any and all seasonal vegetables
07:25are welcome to the party.
07:27So make sure you check
07:28the garden
07:29or the farmer's market
07:30or the back of your fridge
07:31before you make this.
07:32But no matter what
07:33you add to yours,
07:34when you don't feel like
07:35hanging out in a hot kitchen
07:37and you want something
07:38very fast and cold
07:39and refreshing,
07:40but also extremely flavorful
07:42and satisfying,
07:43these chili crisp cold noodles
07:45are exactly what
07:46you're going to want to make.
07:47And I really do hope
07:49you give them a try soon.
07:51So please follow the links below
07:52for the ingredient amounts,
07:54a printable written recipe,
07:55and much more info as usual.
07:58And as always,
08:01enjoy.
08:07As always,
08:08there's eso,
08:08as always.
08:12In thegré stream,
08:14there's also
08:14he can find you
08:14as always.
08:14It's always
08:14There's also
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