Instructions: Trim, rinse, and (paper) towel dry the ready to cook chicken breasts. Slice ito medalions. Season with pepper.

Stir fry the chicken in a skillet or wok to brown quickly without drying the meat. Make a space in the skillet for the sauce. Add the sauce mixture.

Sprinkle on the mushroom powder. When the sauce start to bubble more vigorously, add the very hot water and stir to combine. Add the other ingredients. Turn down the heat and simmer. Thicken the sauce with potato starch dissolved in a little water; add as much as it needed to create a gravy that will coat chicken and the noodles.

Serves 2 with some leftover.

Side:baby artichokes; asparagus; broccoli cluster.

PANTRY 1: Karen Lee (author of The Occasional Vegetarian) mentioned porcini mushroom powder "as a fast and easy way to get mushroom taste into a dish. It does not need to be reconstituted." Advantages: uses the mushroom dregs or powdery stuff at the bottom of the container; no salt; keeps well in a clean glass jar at room temperature (up to 1 year).

Porcinis have an intense flavor and aroma that enhance pasta, bean soups, stocks and sauces like this one for chicken. Just grind the small bits and pieces and the dregs of dried porocini mushrooms. Save big pieces for other dishes. Use your coffee mill or mini-processor. 2 I used Grey-poupons new mustard, black peppercorn, in this sauce. Soften the tomatoes by combining the sauce ingredients in the morning. 3 Substitute crumbled or minced sun-dried tomatoes.

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