CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta made with white meat chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce full of umami, this California Pizza Kitchen dish is easy to make at home.
CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta made with white meat chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce full of umami, this California Pizza Kitchen dish is easy to make at home. I mean it! Put the take-out menus away!
There is no doubt about it, we’re a noodle loving house. A surefire way to make sure I am not making extra grilled cheese sandwiches for anyone who refuses to eat is to make noodles, especially peanut noodles. Even if you have leftovers (which we sometimes don’t as we have been known to overeat pasta around these parts), you can’t count on getting any of the leftovers.
The next morning I woke up having dreamt about this CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta (I am a weird soul who can dream about carbs, I think it is the diets I was on as a young adult!) and when I made my way downstairs in the morning I knew I was going to take a cold bite of pasta only to find my husband had done away with the small amount left in the middle of the night. That is how good this pasta is…. it doesn’t even make it to the next morning. This is where I would normally give you the play by play photos for this amazing CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta. Only problem is that my SD card bit the dust and I only noticed it after I had finished making the dish. Thankfully I was going to offload the pictures before taking the glamour shots, so the delicious proof of the meal still exists!
During dinner, my husband suggested I draw a stick figure (this is about as artistic as I get) re-enactment of the cooking process for you while I was expressing frustrating with my SD card having failed me. The look I gave him in return said as much as I imagine it needed to because his next move was to take the kids upstairs for bath time and bedtime! This meant I got to watch some Real Housewives while enjoying the end of my pasta. Double win! PS, is there anyone out there who is actually Team Ramona? She makes my head hurt. Watching her also makes me miss RHOBH and my darling Lisa.
Ok, ok I just went off on a tangent. Back to the food already! Right?
If you chop the ingredients while you boil the water and make the sauce while the veggies are cooking you will be done start to finish in 20 minutes. Just be aware this recipe does use pre-made chicken chunks. We had roasted a couple of chickens off in the oven the day before so it was easy enough to toss the pieces in.
If you don’t have any pre-cooked chicken on hand, dice up the chicken breast in 3/4 inch cubes, season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet and add the chicken. Let cook undisturbed for 3-4 minutes, then turn. Give it another 2 minutes and you are ready to go! If you do make the chicken fresh, I highly suggest cooking the veggies in this pan, the chicken bits left behind can only add more flavor!
CPK Inspired Thai Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 pound thin spaghetti
- 3 tablespoons oriental sesame oil , divided use
- 1 cup julienned carrots
- 2 cups napa cabbage , sliced
- 2 cups chopped , cooked chicken breast meat
- 8 green onions , chopped
- 5 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger , peeled and minced
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Sriracha sauce
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to boil.
- Add 1-2 tbsp of salt to season the water.
- Cook pasta, al dente (I shoot for a minute shy of what the box says)
- Drain pasta and toss with 2 tbsp sesame oil.
- Pat dry the inside of the pot and add 1 tbsp of sesame oil.
- If you would like to add some green onions as a garnish at the end, reserve 1/4 cup of them before putting the rest in the pan.
- Add the green onions, carrots, napa cabbage, chicken, garlic and ginger.
Saute for a minute or two until they have softened and barely start to turn color.
- Add in the honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar and Sriracha.
- Stir all the ingredients together and add the pasta back into the pot.
- Toss the pasta with the rest of the ingredients and serve!
Garnish with remaining green onions if you chose to reserve some.
Recipe Notes
Heavily adapted from Recipelink.
Hi ….. this looks amazing
Just a quick question
Can I use monk fruit sweetner instead of honey …. will that work
Please can u lemme know as want to make it for dinner tonite
Thankyou
I’ve not tired it but I don’t see why not. If you decide to try, I’d love to know how it turns out. Thanks!
Aftet a few bites my husband says ‘Is this hard to make? ‘ . This means he likes it and and wants to have it regularly. I ALSO LOVE IT!
Sounds like a winner to me too, Sue.
My family loved this! I used Quorn meatless pieces because that’s what I had. I made half a recipe extra of the sauce because a few reviewers mentioned it could do with a bit more. I think the amount of sauce was perfect with the extra. I threw in some fresh chili and topped it with cilantro, peanuts and extra green onion. Delicious! Simple and quick to make. Thanks!
This recipe is so good that I panicked when I lost it. But thank goodness I found it again. Of course everyone has different tastes. I have made it several times and with just a few minor adjustments now it is just perfect for my husband and I. I hope others find it and love it as much as we do. Thanks Sabrina
You’re welcome!
Very flavorful. I made this last night and it’s all gone now and I’m left wanting more. I will have to make it again soon. Thanks for the crave worthy recipe.
You’re welcome, Lori!
I plan on making this over the weekend. Someone mentioned chili-garlic sauce. I did not see that in the recipe. Am I missing something?
It’s not needed for this recipe. Enjoy!
Is this the equivalent of Pad Thai?
https://dev.dinnerthendessert.com/chicken-pad-thai/
Desperately craving Asian flavors so I knew Sabrina would have something quick and delicious. This recipe was glorious…I made it for my lunch without the chicken and then served it again for dinner to the hubs with shrimp. He LOVED it. The food processor did all the chopping so it was easy to prep. I used brussel sprouts instead of cabbage as it’s what I had on hand. I pretty much doubled the sauce as a personal preference. Thanks Sabrina! Your recipes are a favorite around here!
Yay!! You’re welcome, Carolina. So glad you all enjoyed it.
Meh… tasted good, but the taste wasn’t the same as CPK’s.
Really,reaaally goooooood!
Just wanted to let you know about the shortcuts I used. I used bagged shredded carrots, Bagged coleslaw mix, Ginger that comes in a tube (refrigerated section in produce) and jarred chopped garlic. It was fantastic!!! Next time I may make a little extra of the sauce to add in when its time for 2nd plateful! It was getting a little dry as it sat but ohhhh, sooo good!!!
I had 3 plates full…so delicious!!!!! It’s the next morning and I’m still full!!!
I absolutely loved this recipe! I’m not a fast chef and this took me 30 minutes and that was including cooking the chicken- thanks Sabrina!!
Yay! So glad to hear it was a success for you, Liz. Thanks for the 5 stars.
There is no way this is a 20 minute recipe unless you have all ingredients pre-prepped. All the slicing and mincing you have to do? No way you can get it done in 20 minutes.
If you’ve pre-prepped, the congratulations. But mere mortals like myself take note: this is closer to a 45 minute total recipe, and that’s not counting gathering all ingredients and mixing cups and measuring spoons. This is *not* a ‘so easy’ recipe.
It did taste good but again give yourself more than 20 minutes to get it all done.
Agreed. It takes a “little longer” for us mere mortals when we don’t have our own sous chef (which I am to my wife). But, with this great recipe, it sure beats the prices that places like CPK are charging now. I’d rather spend more time in my kitchen, than spend that same time at work to earn the money. Grin with me, right?
I am making this tonight. What brand of chili-garlic sauce do you use. I haven’t been able to find any.
So sorry I didn’t see this until now – I use Hoy Fong, the same brand that makes sriracha:
https://www.amazon.com/Huy-Fong-Chili-Garlic-Sauce/dp/B0016L34GO/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=hoy+Fong+chili+garlic&qid=1571687828&sr=8-10
What if no one in my house including me likes green onions?? Is that going to make a huge impact on flavor ? I bought everything to make this but those #FeelingWorried
Hi Christy! Holding back the green onions won’t change the flavor of the dish too much, so you can just reserve some for yourself to sprinkle on top and leave the rest out of the cooking process. Hope this helps and your whole family can enjoy!
I made this yesterday, and while it’s really tasty I found it wasn’t saucy at all? I even used less pasta because I didn’t have as much as the recipe called for. Any tips to make it less thick and more liquidy? Or should it be really thick?
You can always add pasta water to help make it more liquidy. I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
Hello! I plan on trying this recipe tomorrow night. I am wondering about the sesame oil though – 4 tablespoons seems like a HUGE amount, because a little goes a long way with sesame oil. Are you using some kind of sesame oil *blend* – or 100% sesame oil?
Thanks!
You’ll use 3 tablespoons of sesame oil for this recipe. I hope you enjoy it!
Sounds yummy. Making it now. But, “Add 1-2 tbsp of salt to season the water.” for the pasta is TOO much! I assume you mean tsp (teaspoon). Even the pasta instructions say tsp. Please correct recipe. Thank you.
Nope, it’s the correct amount. You want your water to taste like the ocean. Enjoy!