How to Make Yellow Cab's Charlie Chan Pasta

Charlie Chan Chicken pasta is a recipe by Yellow Cab Pizza Co. It is a sweet and spicy type of pasta. I'm not sure why they named it after a fictional character but they may have done so because of this pasta's Chinese ingredients. Its creators may have wanted to emphasize that origin.

So anyway, I fell in love with this dish from the very first time we ordered it through Yellow Cab delivery. I remember that day clearly. I was watching the film Eat Pray Love. In the "Eat" part of the movie, Julia Roberts, who played the main character, was in Italy and was devouring in pizza and gelato and yes...pasta! In the middle of watching the close-up pasta scenes, I hit pause and rushed to my sister and asked her - would you like to Yellow Cab? I always knew she'd say yes anytime. LOL! And so we ordered a box of their pizzas AND the Charlie Chan pasta. After that, it was on my fave list.


A couple of days ago I was craving for it again. But for some reason, wanted to cook, instead of just buy it. And so just looked up the ingredients online and came across the Charlie Chan recipe from food.com. I realized how easily I'd find the ingredients and hit the mall the day after to look for them.

The recipe from food.com will give you a finished product that isn't at all spicy. The original Charlie Chan pasta always made me wanna drink soda or water in between devouring in it. But one could eat this food.com version quite quickly without blowing any spiciness off. So I'd suggest that if you want a really spicy Charlie Chan, add more chili-garlic sauce. Here's is the slightly modified Charlie Chan recipe.

Charlie Chan Pasta Ingredients

• 1 whole boneless chicken breast
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 pieces onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 1/4 tablespoons Char siu sauce (lee kum kee)
• 1/4 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce (1-2 teaspoons for a spicy version)
• 9 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons water
• 400 g cooked pasta
• cashew (optional)

Estimates
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: around 35 minutes

Directions
1. Slice garlic and onions
2. Sauté onion and garlic in a little olive oil
3. Cook chicken until it is brownish
4. In a separate bowl, mix sesame oil, char siu sauce,, oyster sauce, chilli garlic, sugar, and water.
5. Add liquid mixture to chicken and simmer for a few minutes.
6. Mix in pasta
7. Serve and enjoy!

Serving
This will feed 5-6 people with normal appetites or 3-4 hungry-like-wolves people

My next Charlie Chan Pasta will surely have mushrooms and will be a lot spicier! I also wanna improve on the texture. That's it! Til next time folks. :)