Sesame Chicken with Lo Mein and Green Beans

What's this? An actual recipe? Contrary to popular belief, I have been cooking - I've just had zero time to actually post the recipes. Last week, I cooked up a bunch of recipes from the Menu Magazine I received in the mail from our local grocery store, Wegmans. I feel like I am a walking advertisement for this store lately, but they truly have some excellent recipes. I promise after this week, I'll go back to a more eclectic mix of sources.

Sesame Chicken with Lo Mein and Green Beans
courtesy Wegmans Menu Magazine

Ingredients
1 pkg Food You Feel Good About Cleaned & Cut 12 oz green beans, rinsed and cut
1 pkg (16 oz) Asian Classics Lo Mein Noodles thawed per pkg directions
1 lb Wegmans Seasoned Chicken Breast Strips for Stir-Fry chicken breast strips - cut into chopstick friendly sized pieces
3 Tbsp Wegmans Vegetable olive Oil, divided
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 pkg (12 oz) Asian Slaw
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup Wegmans Garlic Sauce - Since Wegmans is a store native to the northeast, this sauce was sort of like a garlicky stir fry sauce. I'm sure you can find a good substitute in your local grocery store
1 Tbsp JFC White Roasted Sesame Seeds

Directions
Blanch green beans in large pot of boiling salted water 3-4 min. (I just blanched mine in my spaghetti pot that has a built in strainer. I think this was much easier than removing them with the spoon) Remove beans with slotted spoon; drain and set aside. Add noodles to blanching water; blanch 2 min. Drain and set aside.(Oops - Looks like I skipped this step. I'll read the recipe more carefully next time!)

Drizzle 2 Tbsp oil around sides of stir-fry pan; tilt pan to distribute evenly. Heat oil in pan on HIGH until oil faintly smokes. (If oil smokes too much, pan is too hot.) Stir fry chicken 4-5 min; remove from pan and set aside.

Drizzle remaining Tbsp oil around sides of pan; tilt pan to distribute evenly. Heat oil in pan on HIGH until oil faintly smokes. Add garlic, Asian slaw, and green beans. Stir and toss, 2-3 min. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Add chicken, noodles, and garlic sauce to stir-fry pan. Stir briefly to heat through, 2-3 min. Garnish with sesame seeds.

Servings: 4



Chef's Notes
Like I've mentioned before, this recipe can definitely be made without all the store brand products suggested. In fact, the store was out of most of the listed items, so I had to substitute some. I used regular chicken and cut it myself, as well as beans that needed to be cut and cleaned. I didn't really mind this, because I sometimes find slicing and dicing sort of therapeutic. Anyway, the recipe was pretty good, but also a little indulgent. At 540 calories a serving, it wasn't very filling. My husband and I both found ourselves going back for seconds. Overall, it was pretty easy to prepare. Had I used the pre-cut chicken and beans, I think it would have only taken about 20 minutes start to finish. With the added prep, it took me about 30 minutes.