Chicken Chow Mein

Noodles pressed into the pan until one side crisps, then turned.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, oyster sauce.

Ingredients

• 300 g fresh thin egg noodles
• 300 g chicken breast, in thin strips
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 2 teaspoons cornflour
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 200 g bean sprouts
• 3 spring onions, in 4 cm lengths
• 1/2 onion, sliced

Sauce

• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Method

1. Toss the chicken with the wine and cornflour and leave it 15 minutes.
2. Boil the noodles until barely tender, drain well, and spread them out to dry for 10 minutes. Wet noodles will not crisp.
3. Stir the sauce together. Note there is NO WATER in it, unlike the lo mein: this sauce has to season without softening what you are about to crisp.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a wide pan, add the noodles in an even layer, and PRESS THEM DOWN FLAT. Leave them completely alone for 4 minutes.
5. Slide the noodle cake onto a plate, invert it back into the pan, and give the other side 3 minutes. Both faces should be browned in patches with the inside still soft.
6. Lift the noodles out. Add the last tablespoon of oil, fry the chicken 2 minutes until just past pink, then the onion, bean sprouts and spring onions for a minute.
7. Return the noodles, pour the sauce over, and toss just two or three times. Any more and you lose the crisp you spent seven minutes making.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes