Thursday, November 15, 2007


I made chicken lomein the other day and it turned out fantastic. Here is my recipe.

NOTE: Before you think this is TOO complicated, it's not. Make sure you have all the ingredients beforehand and do all the prep work in advanced. If you don't have these ingredients, I would suggest going to an Asian grocery store and buy everything you need there, it will save you a lot of time. Also, sauces I used here will be standard for most Asian dishes so it is worth investing in. Before you begin, read over the whole recipe so you know the general gist of what you need to do, trust me, it will seem a lot simpler to you. The recipe is kinda general because it depends mostly on how much food you make so taste test as you go. Feel free to add/subtract more sauces if you need. Besides the sauces, it won't really matter how much Lomein, mushrooms, or bok choy you use because it won't really alter the taste, so add more mushrooms if you like mushrooms. Call me if you have questions.

-You can use any kind of meat/seafood you want. I used chicken. Cut up one or two pieces of Chicken breasts into bit size pieces. Put in about 1 tsp of cornstarch to soften the meat. Cornstarch makes the meat very tender, be careful not to use too much.
-2 carrots peeled and cut into matchsticks
-a handful of shitake mushrooms. If you use dried ones, you can boil them in hot water for a few minutes and then drain the water out. Cut into smaller pieces lengthwise.
-I used baby bok choy. You may also use napa cabbage if you don't know where to find baby bok choy.
-Lomein noodles. As you can see, I used thick egg noodles. They are usually in the freezer section at the oriental store. If you can't find them, you can use dried egg lomein noodles but they do not have the same texture. The kind I use have a chewier texture.
-minced garlic
-soy sauce
-hoisin sauce
-oyster sauce
-chili pepper sauce or jus plain hot sauce (preferably Asian kind)
-Chinese cooking wine or sherry

Take out Lomein noodles and loosen them out with your hands unless you are using the dry kind. Boil some water in a quart size pan, enough to boil the noodles in. You can use however much noodles you need depending on how much you will eat. Put the noodles in the boiling water and separate them apart. After a few mins, when the noodles looked al dante, drain them and run cold water on them (This will prevent the noodles from sticking together). Heat a Lg NONSTICK pan with veg/canola oil over medium heat. Saute the garlic for 30 secs, add carrots, and mushrooms. Saute for another few mins or until the mushrooms and carrots appear soft. Remove mushrooms and carrots and put in a side dish. Lower the temperature to a med-low heat. Add more oil to the pan, wait until it is warm but NOT BURNING HOT and then add the drained cold noodles. This is important (keep separating the noodles with a pair of chopsticks in the pan so that it does not stick to the bottom). Let the noodles sit and become somewhat fried on the bottom. After the noodles are soften on top and crunchy on the bottom, slide it off the pan to a large plate. Add the mushrooms and carrots back to the pan, add 2 tablespoon of hoisin sauce, 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce, 3 squirts of soy sauce, a tsp of chili pepper sauce, a tbsp of chinese cooking wine, and a quarter cup of cold water mixed with cornstarch. Taste the sauce and adjust it to your liking. (The cornstarch will make the sauce thicker, make sure it looks like gravy consistency before you add it to the noodles). When the sauce is heated up, poor the mixture to the noodles and serve.

Chinese store: Da Hua on Preston Highway.

1 comment:

Mary said...

I am definitely going to try this! i was just thinking that I needed to find a good recipe to use up some of my hoisin sauce! I'll let you know how it turns out.