Nutty chicken noodles

Method

1. Heat about 750ml of water in a saucepan, with a lid, then crumble in and dissolve the optional stock cube.
2. Cut any fat from the chicken breast and lower into the water once it’s just below boiling. Just below boiling should be when tiny bubbles start to form on the bottom of the pan and a few make their way to the surface, but there isn’t too much movement. Keep the water/stock just below boiling and poach gently for 15 minutes.
3. Mix the peanut butter, soy, sesame oil, juice of the lime, grated clove of garlic, grated ginger and cracked black pepper in a small bowl or cup and add a couple of tablespoons of the poaching chicken stock to create a sauce the consistency of thick soup.
4. Deseed the pepper and cut into thin strips. Chop the chilli as small as possible, removing the seeds.
5. Peel and finely slice the onion, then peel and cut the carrot into thin strips. The best way to cut the carrot is to peel it into thin strips with a potato peeler, then line those strips up and slice fine strips with a sharp, straight-edged knife.
6. Boil a kettle full of water and place the rice noodles in a bowl, then pour enough of the boiling water onto the noodles to cover them and leave for 3 minutes.
7. Add the ½ tablespoon of vegetable oil to a large frying pan, saucepan or wok and heat over a high heat. Add the prepared pepper, onion and carrot all at once and stir-fry for 2 minutes, keeping everything moving in the pan, then mix in the chopped chilli.
8. Drain the noodles in a sieve, then add to the pan of veg along with the sauce and toss everything to combine. Transfer onto a serving plate.
9. Pluck the chicken out of the water, check that it’s cooked right through by cutting in half and making sure that the thickest part has no pink bits. Cut or tear the chicken up as soon as it’s cool enough to handle and pile onto the noodles.
10. Scatter with a few fresh coriander leaves and optional sesame seeds to serve.