Teriyaki Chicken Pasta

September. My birthday month. But before my birthday: Rosa's baby is coming. Due in November, but the September appointments and the September preparations and the September energy of a woman in her eighth month are all consuming. Rosa has the nesting instinct — Carlos reports that she reorganized the nursery three times last week and alphabetized the spice rack and cleaned behind the refrigerator, which are all signs that the baby is close and the body knows it and the body is preparing the environment with an urgency that the mind cannot explain but the instincts demand.

I am knitting. I do not mention this often because I am not a knitter the way I am a cook — cooking is identity, knitting is hobby — but I am knitting a baby blanket for Rosa's child, a yellow blanket because they do not know the sex and yellow is neutral and cheerful and the color of the ají dulce in my garden. I knit in the evenings while Eduardo reads and the house is quiet and the needles click and the clicking is rhythmic and the rhythm is peaceful and the peace is what my hands need after a day of managing a hospital kitchen and before a night of cooking dinner. The hands need rest that is not stillness. The hands need a different kind of work. The knitting is that different kind.

At the hospital, the fall transition has begun — the menu shifting from summer to autumn, the soups returning, the warm bread, the comfort food that September demands. My sopa de pollo con fideos — 'Ms. D's soup' — returns to the rotation. The first batch of the season is always ceremonial: I make it myself, not delegating, standing at the large kettle in the hospital kitchen, adding the sofrito and the potatoes and the noodles and the garlic, the recipe that has been on the hospital menu for five years because I fought for it and won and the winning was for the patients, for the Puerto Rican patients and the Hartford patients and all the patients who deserve soup that tastes like home. The soup tastes like home. This is not a boast. This is a fact.

The soup at the hospital is for the patients — that ceremony belongs to them, to the Hartford mornings and the people who need to taste something true. What I make at home in September is a different kind of thread: something quick enough that I can still sit beside Eduardo in the evening with the knitting needles clicking, something with noodles because the noodles are always where the comfort lives. This teriyaki chicken pasta has become my off-duty answer to the same impulse — savory, saucy, the chicken tender, the pasta pulling the whole thing together into a bowl that says the season has arrived and the kitchen is still mine.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

12 oz spaghetti or linguine
1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup broccoli florets
1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water
3 green onions, sliced
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, for garnish
Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti according to package directions until al dente. Drain and set aside, reserving 1/4 cup of pasta water.
Make the teriyaki sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, cornstarch, and water until smooth. Set aside.
Sear the chicken. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6–8 minutes until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a plate.
Cook the vegetables. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the same skillet. Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add bell pepper and broccoli and cook for 3–4 minutes until just tender but still crisp.
Combine and sauce. Return the chicken to the skillet. Pour the teriyaki sauce over everything and stir to coat. Let simmer for 2 minutes until the sauce thickens. Add a splash of reserved pasta water if the sauce is too thick.
Toss with pasta. Add the drained pasta to the skillet and toss well to coat everything evenly in the sauce. Cook for 1 additional minute to warm through.
Serve. Divide among bowls and top with sliced green onions and sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Teriyaki Chicken Pasta — The Noodles That Carry the Season Home