Chow Mein

Method

1. Velvet the chicken. Toss the slices with the cornflour, soy sauce and oil and leave 15 minutes while you prepare everything else.
2. Mix the sauce in a jug, cornflour last, and stir it again right before use.
3. Cook the noodles a minute under. Boil fresh noodles for about 1 minute or dried according to the packet, stopping while they still have real bite. Drain them thoroughly, rinse briefly in cold water, then drain again and spread them out to dry. Wet noodles are the enemy; every drop of water on them becomes steam in the wok and steam is what makes chow mein soggy.
4. Sear the chicken and remove it. Get the wok smoking hot, add half the oil, spread the chicken in one layer, leave it 60 seconds, then toss for another minute until just cooked. Tip it onto a plate.
5. Stir-fry the vegetables hard and fast. Add the rest of the oil, then the garlic for 15 seconds, the carrot for 1 minute, then the cabbage for 2 minutes. It should soften but keep a crunch and pick up a little colour at the edges.
6. Add the noodles dry. Put the noodles in with no sauce at all and toss for a full minute, letting them sit still for a few seconds at a time against the hot metal so they take on colour and a faint smokiness. This is the step everyone skips and it is where the flavour comes from.
7. Sauce last, and briefly. Return the chicken, pour the stirred sauce around the edge of the pan rather than into the middle, and toss hard for 30 to 60 seconds until it thickens and coats. Fold in the bean sprouts and scallions off the heat and serve at once.

Variations

Same sauce, same method, roughly 200 g protein or 300 g vegetables per batch.

• Chicken, beef or pork chow mein. As written. For beef use flank sliced thinly across the grain; for pork use loin or shoulder.
• Vegetable, mushroom or tofu chow mein. No meat. For mushroom, brown 250 g dry first. For tofu, use 250 g firm tofu, torn, dusted with cornflour and fried crisp separately, folded in at the end. Vegetarian oyster sauce in the sauce.
• Shrimp chow mein. 250 g peeled prawns, velveted, seared 60 to 90 seconds only and returned with the sauce.
• Special Cantonese chow mein, crispy noodle style. Boil and dry the noodles, then press them into a hot oiled pan as a flat cake and fry undisturbed 3 to 4 minutes a side until crisp and golden. Slide it onto a plate, make the stir-fry with prawn, chicken and char siu and a little extra sauce, and pour it over the top so the noodles soften unevenly. That contrast is the whole point of the dish.
• Cantonese seafood chow mein. The crispy cake above topped with prawns, squid and scallops, each seared briefly and separately since they cook at different rates.

Notes

• Chow mein means fried noodles, and the frying is literal. The noodles need direct contact with hot metal and a minute of near stillness. Constant stirring makes them soft.
• Do not sauce the noodles early. Sauce in the pan before the noodles have taken colour turns the whole thing into a braise.
• Crispy versus soft is a house decision, not a recipe change. The same sauce and stir-fry serve both; only the noodle handling differs.
• Bean sprouts at the very end, off the heat, as everywhere on this shelf.

Ingredient substitutions

• Chow mein noodles are thin fresh egg noodles, sold refrigerated or frozen at Asian grocers in Germany and Canada, often labelled Hong Kong style pan-fry noodles. Dried thin egg noodles are the everyday substitute. Italian pasta does not work; the egg noodle texture and alkalinity are the dish.
• Oyster sauce substitutes with vegetarian mushroom oyster-style sauce.
• Shaoxing wine substitutes with dry sherry, or stock plus a splash of rice vinegar for an alcohol-free version.

Sources consulted

• RecipeTin Eats: Chicken Chow Mein
• The Woks of Life: Chicken Chow Mein