Chicken chow mein (pronounced chow main) is such a popular Chinese recipe.
Almost all of us love it. And now you can make it at home and make it just as good as in your favorite Chinese restaurant.
Cooking Chicken Chow Mein
When you learn how to cook Chinese food at home it opens up a world of taste right in your own kitchen.
This chicken chow mein recipe is a good place to start. It’s full of healthy fresh vegetables and wonderful flavors from the ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil.
The recipe I originally had didn’t call for oyster sauce, but I love it so I add it in. The oyster sauce is optional though so if you don’t have it or don’t like it, simply leave it out. Your chicken chow mein will still be delicious.
This really is a pretty easy Chinese food recipe. Don’t let the list of ingredients make you think that it’s not.
Lots of Healthy Vegetables
This chow mein recipe is full of wonderful, healthy vegetables.
I always try to add as many vegetables to my meals and I can, while still keeping the prep and cooking pretty easy.
I am a firm believer that the road to health is paved with lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, so my meal plans usually take that into consideration.
In this chicken chow mein recipe, we add in lots of vegetables. Onions of course and celery. These are two mainstays in many Chinese recipes.
We also add in colorful peppers, mushrooms and bean sprouts. Shredded cabbage, either regular green cabbage or Chinese napa cabbage are optional additions, as well as water chestnuts.
The water chestnuts are the only thing that I add that is not fresh. I use canned sliced water chestnuts (I think we all do, don’t we?). I love the crunch that they add.
That said, leave them out if you want. That’s one of the joys of making dinner yourself, you can usually adjust the recipe to include things you love and leave out what you don’t enjoy.
Use a Hot Pan
Cooking chow mein is easy. It is done in a wok with sizzling hot oil.
Don’t have a wok? No worries. I usually use a large frying pan. It will always work well.
Just make sure it’s a deeper pan. You’re going to have lots in it.
Note that the recipe calls for you to add salt and pepper when cooking the chicken. You do need a bit of salt for sure to bring out the best of the chicken flavors, but make sure you don’t over salt at this stage.
You will be adding more salty flavor when you add the soy sauce. You can also always adjust the salt level at the end if you find that you didn’t add enough.
Please note that if you need this recipe to be gluten free, make sure you use gluten free noodles. Rice noodles are perfect. That’s what I use.
I hope you enjoy this recipe for Chinese chicken chow mein.
Chicken Chow Mein
Equipment
- 1 wok or large, deep frying pan
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound egg noodles, dry
- 1 1/2 cups chicken, cut into bite size pieces
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon ginger root, , grated
- 1 onion, medium, coarsely chopped
- salt to taste
- 2 cups celery, sliced diagonally
- 1 1/4 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 1/2 cup water chestnuts, sliced (optional)
- 1/2 cup red pepper, or green, sliced
- 1 cup bean sprouts, or 1 1/2 cup shredded cabbage
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce, (optional)
- 4 tablespoons oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 3 green onions, chopped
Instructions
- Place the chicken pieces in a small bowl and add the grated ginger and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce to it. Let it sit while you prepare the other ingredients.
- Prepare and slice all of the other vegetables.
- Cook the noodles in salted boiling water and drain them in a colander, running cold water over the noodles to remove excess starch from them. Set the noodles aside until you are ready to add them to the chow mein.
- Heat the oil and sesame oil in a wok almost to the smoking point (so quite hot).
- Add the chicken, ginger, onions and salt and stir fry for three minutes, stirring often. Then add the celery, cabbage (if using) and peppers. Stir fry briefly, cover the wok, and cook the ingredients for two more minutes.
- Remove the cover from the wok and add the water chestnuts, mushrooms, oyster sauce and soy sauce, and cook for three minutes longer, with wok uncovered, stirring the ingredients often. When the vegetables are almost cooked, add the bean sprouts. Cook for 1 minute longer.
- Mix in the drained egg noodles, and stir everything together thoroughly. Serve topped with the chopped green onions.
- Serves 4 to 6
Notes
Notes and Variations:
Use egg noodles in this recipe, not macaroni. Macaroni does not contain egg and will breakup when stir fried for chow mein.
Change it up! Substitute shrimp or pork for the chicken meat above or for a super deluxe chow mein, use 1/2 shrimp and 1/2 chicken. Or 1/3 chicken, 1/3 shrimp and 1/3 pork (Chinese barbecue pork would be wonderful in this chow mein recipe).Nutrition
Here is a wonderful recipe for wonton soup to enjoy with your chicken chow mein.
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Love it. So easy and good.