Sticky, sweet and savory crispy baked Honey Ginger Garlic Chicken over crunchy spiralized strands of carrot noodles are a match made in healthy, fake-out take-out heaven! Easy to prepare and even easier to devour!
Hello Friends and happy almost weekend! How has your week been going?
Apparently this past Monday – Blue Monday – was the most depressing day of the year. So if you are here, reading this (nonsense), and made it through that manic Monday, you should be doing A-Okay.
Smoothing sailing for the rest of the 340+ days of 2016… hopefully. #PositiveThinking
This year I’m trying to be all about that bass variety on this here blog, where spoons are sometimes necessary despite the name.
Healthy, indulgent. Vegetarian, carnivorous. Sweet, savory. Boozy, non-alcoholic.
You name it, I’m going to try and provide it, so feel free to email me or drop requests in the comments section at the bottom of any post.
We started out the year with delicious vegetarian salads and skinny eats, because New Year, New You goals. And then, we indulged with some baking and hearty meals, because WINTER!
Now I’m coming at you with a healthy, yet seriously satisfying dish with an Asian and spiralized twist.
Honey Ginger Garlic Chicken Carrot Noodle Bowls
These bowls are bomb, my friends. They are a healthy spin on fake-out take-out, and they were inspired by my favorite Asian ginger-carrot dressing, which I could seriously guzzle by the gallon. No joke.
I am always looking for ways to turn that dressing into a meal. Remember my ginger carrot dressing Hummus?
No? Go check it out now. I’ll wait…..
So, I took the components of that dressing and turned it into these bowls, obviously I added a lot of creativity. And chicken. Because that’s just how I roll. #ProteinPower
The sauce in these carr-oodle bowls (<– totally just made up that word) is sticky, sweet, savory, garlicky, gingery and seriously scrumptious.
The bite sized pieces of chicken are crispy, while the inside remains tender and juicy without deep frying. This is possible thanks to a dredge in cornstarch and quick flash in the pan before being baked. And since the chicken is baked instead of fried, you can keep up with those healthy New Year’s goals and still devour a few pounds of this chicken.
At least that’s what I did. 😉
But you can’t have a carroodle bowl without the carrot noodles. If you like zucchini noodles, I can guarantee you are going to like carroodles. They are slightly crunchy and when tossed with the honey ginger garlic sauce they are veg-tastically delicious.
Honestly, I was eating the carroodles by the bowlful when I realized we had polished off all the chicken.
If you love take out, but don’t love all the calories that come with it, I highly recommend you try these Honey Ginger Garlic Chicken Carrot Noodle Bowls. I pinkie promise you will love them!
Until next time friends – Cheers to carroodles being all the rage.
XOXO
Cheyanne
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How to make Honey Ginger Garlic Chicken Carrot Noodle Bowls recipe👇
Sticky, sweet and savory crispy baked chicken over crunchy spiralized strands of carrot noodles are a match made in healthy, fake-out take-out heaven.
- 1 Pounds Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts – cut into bite sized pieces (roughly 1- 1 ½’’ cubes)
- ½ tsp Salt , plus more to taste
- ¼ tsp Fresh Cracked Black Pepper , plus more to taste
- ½ Cup Cornstarch
- ¼ Cup + 1 TBS Vegetable Oil (can substitute Canola) - divided
- 5-6 large Carrots – peeled, ends trimmed & spiralized*
- Crushed Red Pepper Flakes , to taste
- Sauce:
- 8 Cloves Garlic – minced
- 6 TBS Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce
- ¼ Cup Sake
- ½ Cup Honey
- 3-4 tsp Fresh Ginger – grated (depending how strong of a ginger taste you want)
- 1/8 tsp Kosher Salt
- Garnish:
- ½ Cup Scallions – thinly sliced
- Sesame Seeds , to taste
- Prepare a 8x11’’ baking pan with cooking spray and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- For the Chicken: Place the chicken pieces, cornstarch, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Shake the bag until the chicken is well coated in cornstarch.
- Heat ¼ cup oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, in batches if necessary to not crowd the pan*, and sauté until lightly browned, turning to cook all sides, about 2-3 minutes. (chicken will be raw on the inside) Transfer to prepared baking pan and spray the top of chicken with cooking spray.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through.
- Meanwhile: Wipe pan of excess oil and reduce heat to medium high. Add 1 tablespoon clean oil to the pan. Add the carrot noodles and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove to a bowl and set aside.
- Add the garlic to the pan and sauté until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add the remaining sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally. Simmer for 3-5 minutes or until sauce in thickened. Turn heat off under skillet.
- When chicken is done cooking add it to the sauté pan and toss to coat. (Alternatively, pour the sauce over chicken in the baking pan and toss to coat. Or, toss both noodles and chicken with sauce)
- Serve chicken over carrot noodles. Garnish with scallions, sesame seeds and additional red pepper flakes.
*If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can use a vegetable peeler to shred the carrots.
*If you don’t like a lot of sauce for the noodles, ½ the sauce recipe
*If cooking the chicken in batches, add more oil to pan as needed.
Raegan says
May 22, 2019 at 5:23 pmWhat type of sake do you get? I’ve never bought any but i have been wanting to grab some
Cheyanne says
May 26, 2019 at 2:48 pmHi Raegan,
I never purchase “cooking sake” because the salt content is way too high for my preference. I normally just purchase whatever smooth drinking sake my store is carrying (stay away from the unfiltered Nigori sake – it is cloudy or milky in appearance). That said, I currently have a bottle of Junmai sake that I have been using – it is great for cooking, drinks well enough and doesn’t break the bank! You can obviously use a more premium type of sake – such as Honjozo, Ginjo or Daiginjo – if desired, but it isn’t really necessary for cooking. I hope that helps!! Cheers!
Amberglas says
March 15, 2019 at 8:46 pmJust had this for dinner and it was seriously yummy! Had to substitute mirin for sake, and next time I need to leave out the kosher salt, since the mirin had sea salt in it. Hubby was initially dubious about this whole carroodle thing, but wound up saying this was “actually really good!”
Lindsay says
August 22, 2018 at 4:08 pmIs it really a 1/4 cup of ginger. I’ve never used that much fresh ginger in anything.
Cheyanne Bany says
August 22, 2018 at 7:29 pmHi Lindsay,
Thank you so much for pointing that out! I switched recipe cards to make them more user friendly, and unfortunately there were a few hiccups. It is supposed to read 4 teaspoons! However, if you don’t like a strong ginger flavor, definitely decrease the amount of ginger to suit your own taste. 😉 Again, thank you for catching that! Cheers!
Sarah says
May 15, 2018 at 10:08 amIf I omit the sake, do you think that will have a big impact on the flavor?
Cheyanne Bany says
May 15, 2018 at 11:59 amHi Sarah!
Instead of simply omitting the sake, I would substitute rice wine vinegar mixed with water. For a similar flavor match, you can mix sake with water at a 1 to 3 part ratio. So for this recipe, I’d use 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar mixed with 3 tablespoons of water. Granted the result will not taste exactly like the original recipe made with sake, but you will be pretty close! Hope that helps! Cheers and thank you for stopping by!