Authentic Chinese Chicken Chow Mein recipe

Heat up a wok or pan over high heat. When it’s heated, add the oil to the wok/pan. Add the garlic and stir-fry until aromatic, follow by the chicken. Stir-fry until the chicken is half cooked or the surface turns opaque, then add in the cabbage and carrot, stir continuously. Add the noodles into the wok/pan, follow by the oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, water, white pepper, and pinch of salt. Stir back and forth and toss the noodles, for about 1 minute. Add the bean sprouts, stir to combine well. As soon as the bean sprouts are cooked, add the scallion, stir a few more times, dish out and serve immediately.

Chicken Chow Mein

Chicken Chow Mein – the easiest and best chicken chow mein noodles you’ll ever make. Healthy, budget-friendly and a zillion times better than takeout!

One of the most popular recipes on Rasa Malaysia is Chow Mein, or Chinese fried noodles. The current chow mein recipe on my site is made with pork (and shrimp), and many readers have asked me to share a chicken chow mein recipe. I have many readers from all over the world; some of them don’t eat pork and some don’t like shrimp or can’t get fresh shrimp easily. Hence, I made this chicken chow mein, which most people can enjoy. And if you are a vegetarian, you can still enjoy this recipe and just leave the chicken out.

Everyone could always use a good bowl of fried noodles, or chow mein (炒面)—glistening yellow-hued egg noodles with cabbage, bean sprouts, and the protein of your choice. Even when they are plain, such as this supreme soy sauce chow mein, noodles are always satisfying. I, for one, can’t live without noodles. I can eat noodles every day, be it stir-fried, pan-fried, in soup, or just blanched but served with a sauce/dressing. I love noodles of all sorts, Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, Malaysian, Thai, or Vietnamese. God bless the Chinese for inventing noodles, really, so we can all enjoy them today.

Now back to my chicken chow mein, I have to remind you that the best noodles are greasy, because oil is the number 1 reason why fried noodles are so sinfully good. Each strand of the noodle is nicely coated with oil so the noodles have a glossy (greasy) sheen, and each mouthful offers the perfect texture of the slippery noodles, crunchy and fresh bean sprouts and vegetables. While grease is good in this sense, you don’t want to soak your noodles in too much oil. So the perfect balance of oil is key. If you are health conscious, you can feel free to cut down the oil to fit your needs.

For the silky smooth and tender chicken ala your favorite Chinese restaurants, I treated the chicken meat with some baking soda. I then rinsed off the baking soda thoroughly with water before I marinated the chicken with soy sauce and corn starch. This process is called “velveting” in Chinese cooking. If you wish to learn more about the techniques and more recipes with the, you can buy my cookbook “Easy Chinese Recipes.”