Chicken Lo Mein
Soft egg noodles tossed rather than fried, coated in a glossy soy and oyster sauce with chicken and crisp vegetables. The gentler cousin of chow mein, and a twenty-minute weeknight dinner.
Photograph credit: Lo mein noodles · CC0 1.0 · Rawpixel
Chicken Lo Mein, Step by Step
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Toss the chicken with the cornflour and 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce and leave 15 minutes — this velvets it and keeps it tender.
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Whisk the remaining sauce ingredients together and set within reach of the hob.
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Boil the noodles until just tender, drain, rinse under cold water, and toss with a teaspoon of oil.
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Heat a wok until smoking, add the oil, and stir-fry the chicken in a single layer for 3 minutes until browned at the edges and just cooked. Remove.
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Add the garlic and ginger for 15 seconds, then the carrot and cabbage for 2 minutes, then the mangetout for 1 minute. Keep everything moving.
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Return the chicken, add the noodles, and pour the sauce around the edge of the wok so it sizzles as it hits.
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Toss with tongs for 90 seconds until every strand is coated and glossy. Add the spring onions, toss once more, and serve.
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Notes for Getting It Right
- Have everything cut, mixed and lined up before the wok gets hot. There is no time to chop once you start.
- Undercook the noodles by a minute — they finish in the wok and turn to mush otherwise.
- Pour the sauce down the side of the hot wok rather than into the middle. It caramelises slightly on the way in.
Swaps and Variations
- Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
- If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Serving Suggestions
- Spring rolls or hot and sour soup
- Chilli oil at the table
- Cold beer or jasmine tea
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Stir-Fried Water Spinach.
Keeping and Reheating
Refrigerate up to 3 days. Reheat in a hot wok with a splash of water; the noodles soften but stay good.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .