CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta

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 chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce, 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.CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta made with chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce, this California Pizza Kitchen dish is easy to make at home.  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 Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta made with chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce, this California Pizza Kitchen dish is easy to make at home.

California Pizza Kitchen Copycat Thai Chicken Pasta is full of chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce full of umami. Easy to make at home, put the take-out menus away!
CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta made with chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce, this California Pizza Kitchen dish is easy to make at home.
4.94 from 43 votes
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CPK Inspired Thai Chicken Pasta

A version of a very popular California Pizza Kitchen dish, this Thai Chicken Pasta is restaurant quality, with easy to find ingredients. The mix of vegetables and chicken with the spicy-sweet and umami sauce is one your family will want over and over again.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Thai
Keyword California Pizza Kitchen Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta, copycat recipe, CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta (Copycat)
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 6 servings
Calories 734 kcal
Author Sabrina Snyder

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

  1. Bring a pot of water to boil.
  2. Add 1-2 tbsp of salt to season the water.
  3. Cook pasta, al dente (I shoot for a minute shy of what the box says)
  4. Drain pasta and toss with 2 tbsp sesame oil.
  5. Pat dry the inside of the pot and add 1 tbsp of sesame oil.
  6. 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.
  7. Add the green onions, carrots, napa cabbage, chicken, garlic and ginger.
  8. Saute for a minute or two until they have softened and barely start to turn color.

  9. Add in the honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar and Sriracha.
  10. Stir all the ingredients together and add the pasta back into the pot.
  11. Toss the pasta with the rest of the ingredients and serve!
  12. Garnish with remaining green onions if you chose to reserve some.

Recipe Notes

Heavily adapted from Recipelink.

Nutrition Facts
CPK Inspired Thai Chicken Pasta
Amount Per Serving
Calories 734 Calories from Fat 351
% Daily Value*
Fat 39g60%
Saturated Fat 4g25%
Sodium 823mg36%
Potassium 597mg17%
Carbohydrates 81g27%
Fiber 8g33%
Sugar 18g20%
Protein 17g34%
Vitamin A 3825IU77%
Vitamin C 12.3mg15%
Calcium 90mg9%
Iron 2.8mg16%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta made with chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce, this California Pizza Kitchen dish is easy to make at home.

CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta made with chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce, this California Pizza Kitchen dish is easy to make at home.
CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta made with chicken, vegetables, and a honey-peanut sauce, this California Pizza Kitchen dish is easy to make at home.

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. 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

    1. 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!

  2. 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!

  3. 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!

  4. 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

  5. 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.

  6. 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?

  7. 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!

  8. 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!!!

  9. 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!!

  10. 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.

    1. 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?

  11. 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

    1. 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!

  12. 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?

  13. 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!

  14. 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.

  15. A friend made this today and it was AMAZING. I am deffinately making this dish very soon for my husband. He will love it.

  16. I made this recipe last night and it was delicious! Even my picky son, who kept commenting, “there’s peanut butter in this?” And “you’re putting all that cabbage in that?”, he ended up loving it!!!! Thank you for the recipe.

  17. Made the peanut chicken tonight…and watch out for the Chile sauce! I added jus a bit, and it overwhelmed the dish. Also, I would cut the amount of pasta in half.

  18. I’m wondering why the directions state to add sriracha when it isn’t listed in the ingredients list. Also why is peanut in the title and it doesn’t mention to add peanuts but the picture shows them.
    I’m getting prepared to make this and I don’t know if I need peanuts or not

    1. Sorry for the confusion.
      Sriracha is a common condiment that many people like to add to this dish but it’s not part of the recipe. As far as the peanuts, I just added a few for a garnish. They are completely optional.

  19. Made this tonight with what I had on hand. It wasn’t too colorful but was delicious. Used curly Japanese noodles – cauliflower (locally grown) left over chicken roaster I had purchased cooked and your delicious sauce. Very good – hubby loved it. Will add it to the rotation.

  20. This was very good–a little on the dry side. I might use less pasta next time. Has anyone tried adding cilantro to this dish? I think it would go great with the peanut sauce.

  21. Made this tonight and my whole family loved it!  Thank you for the recipe.  I used tofu (cubed and baked at 400 degrees for 25 minutes prior to adding) instead of chicken for the protein.  It was fantastic.  Definitely will make again!  

  22. This recipe states 4 T. of Sesame Oil in the ingredient list, and only 3T in recipe??? Did I miss something??? I still loved it, but maybe I’ll add a little olive oil in the end.

  23. I just made this with rice noodles instead of spaghetti. My “chef” husband said it was delicious and gave it an A+. Next time we’ll add a few chopped peanuts as garnish

  24. Great recipe. Had my husband and SUPER picky 4 year old gobbling it up. I sauteed chicken, used pre-shredded cabbage slaw mix and broccoli/carrot slaw mix, and sambal olek. I left out the onions and vinegar on accident and it still turned out fine. Neither of them knew they were eating broccoli!
    It was a little bit thick, but I used some water to thin it a little. Next time I’ll put the vinegar in and see if that helps with the consistency. Might scale the PB back a tad too.

    1. Awesome! I know how hard it is to please a picky eater so I’d call this a definite win! Thanks for coming back to let me know how much you all enjoyed it!

  25. I love the Thai peanut chicken noodles. It was quick and easy. Next time I’m going to try with pork. I think shrimp and chicken would also be good. Thanks for the recipe.

  26. I went through the cupboard and realized that I have a ton of soy sauce and sriracha that I need to use up. I also have some pasta that isn’t my son’s favorite so I am totally going to try this. I currently have all but the cabbage already in the house so if I get to this soon it might be a little more carb and less vegetable but I can’t wait to try the real thing! Thanks for the great recipe! I know that this will be enjoyed soon!!!

  27. Love making Thai food at home. Made this yesterday and am enjoying this. Only modification was to decrease Sriracha to 1 teaspoon…that was enough for me. Will definitely make again.

    1. Yay! I do love that you can adjust to your liking. Thank you for taking the time to come back and let me know how much you enjoyed it!

  28. Made this & has very good flavor. However, go light on the garlic chili sauce. I made for m mom & I. We love spicy food, but this was a bit much. Maybe it was the brand I used. I did offset the spice with peanut butter to keep our mouths from turning into lava ?

    1. The dish is meant to have some kick and it’s possible that specific brand made it a bit spicer but yes, you can always adjust to whatever your liking is. Glad you and your mom enjoyed it 🙂

  29. Hi there! Thanks for posting. I’m trying this tonight but was wondering about the ingredients. The ingredients list chili garlic sauce, but the instructions use sriracha. Does it matter which one, or is it both? Thank you! I’m sure it’s yummy with either (I love them both.)

    1. Eek! This got lost in spam sorry! I’ve used either sriracha or the chili garlic paste where you can see the seeds. Both delicious. Hope it turned out well!

      1. I used the paste in the sauce and put a few drizzles of sriracha on my own serving (too much spice for hubs) and it was delicious. It was yummy!

  30. I think half of the pasta is enough or the measurements are not right for the sauce, its delicious but it comes out dry .

    1. It’s definitely not a lot of sauce (like the one in the restaurant) but it shouldn’t have been dry. Did you let it cook after tossing it? Sometimes a bit of pasta water helps too if that happens.

  31. Thanks so much! A quick and easy recipe that tastes delicious! Warmed me up on a cold wet day in Germany.
    I left out the chicken and added in some extra veggies instead…will definitely be making it again! Can’t wait to try it with chicken too 🙂
    -Ashley

  32. This was soooooo good! The whole family loved it. I subbed bow ties for spaghetti but other than that left the recipe alone. I think next time I might up the napa cabbage, but honestly it’s super delicious as-is! Thanks for the great recipe!

    1. I’m so glad to be able to share some of my family’s favorites and have them become other families favorites! Thanks for coming back to let me know – and if you wanted to share a pic of your dish on my Facebook page, I’d love to see it!

    1. If you mean ramen, then it won’t have the same texture. If you want something that will cook faster, you could try thin spaghetti.

  33. I just made this for dinner and it was great! I halved the recipe and there was plenty for my family of 4! I only added half the chili sauce since my kids aren’t fond of spice and topped with cilantro and chopped peanuts for garnish. Delish! Thank you!

    1. Wonderful, I am so glad you enjoyed it! This is hands down one of my favorite pasta dishes ever. Thank you for coming back and letting me know how you enjoyed it!

  34. This looks great! I have chicken marinating in satay sauce right now. Would I be able to use the chicken/sauce to make this? Sorry a little bit of a cooking novice and I don’t want to make anyone sick. ????

    1. Hey there! You can use the chicken you already have marinating. The thing is that sauce you are probably using is super flavorful. So it is going to mix with a whole second sauce in this recipe, so there isn’t a way for me to tell you how awesome those two sauces are going to get along. It could taste just fine since there are similar ingredients or it could end up tasting pretty weird. If you wanted to try it I would suggest drain the marinade off the chicken, and pat it dry. As a rule I never rinse chicken, you are just asking for salmonella to get ALL over your kitchen (take this from a ServeSafe Manager Certified Chef) so just get as much of the marinade off and pat dry. Then even if the chicken has a bit of a marinaded flavor I can’t imagine it causing too much conflict. I hope you love the recipe! Let me know how it works out, or if you wanna talk more, you can always email me at [email protected] 🙂

  35. Funny! I did make pot stickers, like 60 of them!! I froze most of them. They were great, I’ll have to try them with the sauce next time.

  36. I made this the other night! The flavor is amazing!! I would recommend being skimpy with the chili garlic sauce, my son thought it was too spicy and he likes spicy foods usually. I would also make double the amount of the sauce and add it as needed, I felt it was a tad on the dry side. I’m still eating the leftovers though, it tastes fantastic.

    1. Katie, I am so happy to hear it!! Double the sauce sounds amazing! Then if you make potstickers or something you can use it as dipping sauce too!

  37. Just made this tonight and it is just perfectly amazing! Of course, mine wasn’t as pretty as yours (I cooked the cabbage just a smidge too long) but it tasted wonderful all the same. I added some bean sprouts for a little extra crunch and a little squeeze of lime but that was after I inhaled a large plate of “taste tester”. The recipe is soo easy to follow, and I made the chicken earlier in the morning so I didn’t have to wash an extra pan after dinner. This one is going into rotation FOR SURE!

    1. Yay! I am so glad it turned out so well! I love adding bean sprouts, I just hate going to buy them, haha.

  38. I am hungry and this is starving me to death. I love any kind of Asian meal with chicken in it.

  39. I have never had Thai food but u must say this looks amazing!!! I’m sure my husband would love for me to expand my culinary flavors!! I can’t wait to try this!!!

  40. This sounds like a delicious recipe. Chicken is on sale right now, so I’ll get some to make this. The recipe is easy to follow and has some yummy ingredients I like to eat.

  41. This dish looks amazing! I’ll have to try this. My kids would love. They are huge fans of anything with noodles! lol

  42. OMG this looks so good! I’ll have to make it one night for my and my hubby! My daughter is allergic to peanuts 🙁 but we love CPK so I think we may try it the next time we go!

  43. Yum! I cannot wait to try this. I always forget I can make Thai at home. Since I am the only one who will eat it. I am going to try your recipe and most of the family is out of town for the holiday it makes it that much more special. Your pictures are lovely.

  44. That looks so delicious! I made something similar on Monday and it was just incredible! Great recipe!

  45. Peanut sauce calls to me. I can’t wait to try this recipe. I love going out to eat, but it can be tricky and expensive. I’d much rather have yummy meals at home.

    1. Yes! I feel like anytime we go out to CPK for the 4 of us, we easily go over $80-$100 and I could make a great meal AND get a mani-pedi for that!

  46. This dish combines two things I can’t live without, pasta and Thai food. I would totally inhale this recipe!

  47. Wow, this looks great! I just had thai today and thought how awesome it would be to know how to make it myself!

  48. YUM!! That looks so good. I love Thai food! I will definitely be making this recipe very soon! Thanks!

  49. This looks super delicious, I really want to make it! I have a peanut allergy kid though so will have to use almond or cashew butter instead. I know, not quite the same but a necessity 😉

    1. I have made it with cashew butter actually!! I almost love it as much. Peanut is just such a familiar flavor!

  50. Beautiful photos! Sorry you weren’t able to get as many as you like, but the post is very gorgeous anyways. I have a warm place in my heart for peanut noddles because a friend made them for me after the birth of my daughter. I had never had anything similar, and they were so incredible. Thanks for sharing.

    1. Aww thank you! That is so sweet to have such a great food memory. I craved In ‘n Out while pregnant so now when I drive by one I always remember those days too.

  51. I have never made anything like this before. I will have to try making this on the weekend. I am sure my kids will love it.

  52. This looks so good! I love making special dinners that we would normally order out for!

  53. I would love to try this, it looks SO good! It reminds me of chicken fried rice with noodles added, love it!

    1. Ok, now I totally need to eat some fried rice with noodles! Starch on top of starch is my happy place, haha.

  54. I never knew California Pizza Kitchen had pasta dishes but do enjoy their menu items I have tried. I will never turn down a Thai dish with a bit of spice and (total side note) I love RHOBH too.

    1. It is so hard to look away from the list of pizzas but they have 2 pasta dishes I obsess over. This one is no longer on their menu but the other one (which I will make shortly for the blog) that I LOVE is their Kung Pao Chicken Spaghetti. It is so delicious, I order it every time we go! PS, RHOBH is the best, hands down, especially now that they let Brandi go!

  55. I jut picked up a Thia meal helper to make a similar dish but yours looks simple enough to do on my own! I’ve never had the CPK version, and didn’t know CPK had Thai selections either.

    1. Yes! It is really easy! It is amazing how quickly things like ginger, garlic and sesame oil build amazing flavor!

  56. A beautiful presentation! While I’m not big on thai food, my husband is a big fan.

  57. This looks so good. Def a dish I’ve never had but would love to try some day. I’m very interested in Peanut Chicken!

  58. This looks really good. I need to make this I think my husband and son will like it. Thanks for the recipe.

  59. This is seriously my favorite Thai recipe. I could eat it everyday! Making this one soon. The picture looks amazing!

    1. Thank you! I am trying really hard to take good photos… my husband gets so impatient when dinner is ready! haha.

  60. Oh my this looks SO good! I love Thai food and my hubby would go crazy over this yummy dish!

  61. This looks GOOD! This would be great for a rainy night when you don’t feel like doing anything but cuddling up and watching a movie!

  62. That looks so good! I’m going to have to give this a try. Oh, and I would have loved to see the stick figure reenactment! 🙂

  63. This is one of my favorite things to make. I always make too much chicken when we’re grilling because I know we’ll find a way to eat it. This might actually be on the menu tonight. My daughter’s going to a sleepover so hubby and I can really kick it up a notch. Sounds delish!

  64. This looks delicious! This dish reminds me a little bit of pad thai that my husband makes. This dish looks like something my family would love and I can’t wait to try to make it!

  65. This is definitely going on my to make list. I love Asian food, so I’d love to try my hand at making it.

  66. That looks delicious. I’ll have to give this recipe a try. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at making my own Asian food.

  67. I made the CPK Thai Chicken- 2X’s- this week. My family loved it. The first time I made it with chicken and the 2nd time I made it with flank steak. This will become a staple in my menu. I forgot the peanut butter the first time, so, I just added some extra sweet & spicey Thai sauce and whatever else I needed to give that Asian Thai flavor. It turned out just fine.

  68. So glad you enjoyed it! I appreciate you coming back to let me know and couldn’t be more pleased about your decision to make it a staple in your house!!