Chow Mein

Name: Chow Mein
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 8 oz noodles (wheat, thin, par-boiled and dried well); 3 tbsp vegetable oil; 1 unit onion (sliced thick); 2 unit celery (sliced on the bias); 2 cup cabbage (green, shredded); 1 cup bean sprouts; ½ cup chicken stock; 2 tbsp soy sauce; 1 tbsp oyster sauce; 1 ½ tsp cornstarch (slaked in cold water); 2 clove garlic (minced)

Noodles & Rice · East Asian · American

11 ingredients · 30 minutes · 4 servings

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325kcal9.2g protein11.3g fat48g carbs~$0.79/ serving*

Contains gluten, soy, shellfish · only in an optional ingredient: sesame

Restrictions

Containsgluten · soy · shellfishIt is in an ingredient you cannot leave out.

Only if you add itsesame (oil sesame)Leave that ingredient out and the dish does not have it.

Diets

No porkNo alcohol

Worked out from the ingredient list. It knows nothing about brands, shared equipment or cross contamination, and it is not a certification — if you have an allergy, you still have to read the label.

Ingredients

Servings:

8 oz	noodles (wheat, thin, par-boiled and dried well)
3 tbsp	vegetable oil
1 unit	onion (sliced thick)
2 unit	celery (sliced on the bias)
2 cup	cabbage (green, shredded)
1 cup	bean sprouts
½ cup	chicken stock
2 tbsp	soy sauce
1 tbsp	oyster sauce
1 ½ tsp	cornstarch (slaked in cold water)
2 clove	garlic (minced)

Optional

Not counted above. The dish works without them.

1 tsp	sesame oil (toasted, at the end)
3 unit	scallion (sliced)
8 oz	chicken (breast, sliced thin)
6 oz	shrimp (peeled)
1 tsp	sugar

Steps

Boil4 min
a minute short of the packet, rinsed cold, then spread out to air-dry
- noodles
noodles, drained and left to dry on a tray for at least ten minutes if there is time. Surface water is the enemy of crisping: it has to boil off before the noodle can reach browning temperature, and while it does the pan cools and the noodles steam. Dry noodles brown in a fraction of the time
Mix3 min
two bowls: sauce, and cornstarch slaked in 2 tbsp cold water
stock + soy sauce + oyster sauce (+ sugar) in one bowl; cornstarch and cold water in another. Cornstarch must be slaked in cold liquid first — dropped dry into hot stock it gelatinises on the outside of each grain instantly and sets into lumps that cannot be whisked out
Fry7 min
2 tbsp oil, high, noodles spread flat and left alone 3 minutes a side
noodles, pressed into an even layer and not touched until the underside is golden and crisp at the edges, then turned in sections. The stillness is the technique — every stir resets the browning and the difference between chow mein and lo mein is exactly this crust. Set the noodles aside on a rack, not a plate, so the steam escapes
Saute5 min
remaining oil, highest heat, hardest vegetables first
+ garlic for fifteen seconds, then onion + celery (+ chicken or shrimp cooked first and reserved), then cabbage, each given a minute before the next. Order follows density: celery holds up to five minutes of hard heat, cabbage collapses in two, sprouts in thirty seconds
Reduce3 min
sauce in, boiling, slurry stirred in at the end
+ sauce brought to a boil, then + cornstarch slurry, stirred until it turns glossy and thickens in about twenty seconds. The starch has to actually boil to thicken fully — pulled off at a simmer it stays thin and tastes chalky
Fold2 min
off the heat, crisped noodles returned last
+ noodles + bean sprouts (+ scallions, + sesame oil), tossed briefly and served at once. The noodles go back in at the very end and everything is eaten immediately: sauce on a crisp noodle is a texture with a lifespan of about two minutes