Ginger Chicken Udon

Someone yesterday had the audacity to call Wagamamas the McDonalds of the Japanese world. He really hurt my feelings. In order to alleviate the pain of his truthless and vicious invective I decided to concoct my all-time favourite Wagas dish... Ginger Chicken Udon. My flatmate and I bought enough ingredients for 4, asked around if anyone wanted to join, realised we had no mates and couldn't even bribe anyone into letting us feed them and so, decided to cook pretty much the same amount of food for just the two of us. Delightful.

It's a whizz to knock up, rather healthy and deeply satisfying.

It does not look this yellow in life. I blame my dingily lit student flat and propensity to use too much saturation when editing photos.

1. Take the skin off the chicken thighs, take out the bone and chop them into chunks
2. Crush the garlic, peel and grate the ginger and chop up the chili (discard the seeds)
3. On a medium heat add the oil, the chicken and the garlic, ginger & chili

4. Slice the onion, mangetout, broccoli, sweetcorn, spring onions, beanspouts and noodles

5. After the chicken's been cooking for about 5 minutes turn up the heat to max and add the veg
5. After about 3 minutes make holes for the eggs, crack them in, let them set a little (about 30 seconds) and then stir them up

6. Add the soy sauce and cook for 2-3 more minutes
7. Serve up with the coriander sprinkled on top

If are feeling like dabbling in dietary restrictions in the gluten-department you can replace the udon with rice noodles ALTHOUGH IT WON'T TASTE THE SAME CAUSE UDON IS IN THE TITLE DUH. Or if you're feeling like FS is upon you and you want to look your best for fashion season, why not leave 'em out altogether and go ham on the vegetables.

It really is an ugly dish but it tastes divine and you must all try it.

SERVES 3 (or 2 fatties)

INGREDIENTS

• olive oil, a few glugs
• 4 skinless chicken thighs, deboned and diced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 thumbs of fresh ginger, grated (aka A LOT)
• 2 chilis, diced finely
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 1 pack of mangetout, broccoli, baby sweetcorn, spring onions
• beansprouts, a handful
• coriander, chopped to garnish
• 300g udon noodles (straight to wok)
• oodles and udons (lol) of soy sauce
• 2 eggs