A delicious Chicken Lo Mein Recipe adapted from a real takeout chef. Egg noodles tossed in a homemade lo mein sauce with lots of crispy veggies and chicken. This Chicken Lo Mein is better than your favorite Chinese restaurant takeout. Try it today!
WHAT IS LO MEIN?
Lo mein is a classic Chinese dish made from wheat flour noodles, often combined with mixed vegetables and meat or seafood. If you’re serving vegetarians or don’t feel like meat, lo mein is perfectly acceptable served as a vegetarian dish – keep the meat away from the bowl and serve the wheat noodles with vegetables. For vegetarians and vegans, you can use eggplant as an unorthodox, but delicious, meat substitute that won’t compromise on the flavor or texture of your lo mein noodles.
VEGETABLES FOR LO MEIN
For maximum authenticity, you want to use the freshest Asian vegetables that you can find. Bok choy and cabbage are extremely popular in lo mein, but one of the greatest strengths of this lo mein recipe is its unparalleled versatility. The diversity of Chinese peasant cuisine is probably greater than that of any other nation in the world. This might have something to do with China’s enormous surface area, which makes China the third largest country on the planet, and with the sizeable rural peasant class who fed their families with whatever they had available at the time.
This quick, easy-to-make lo mein recipe can accordingly be a great way for you to use up any vegetables lingering in your fridge after a big cookout, or after you miscalculated the proportions of vegetables in another dish. You don’t want rotting plant matter stinking up your fridge, nor do you want to let good food go to waste. Although, as previously mentioned, fresh vegetables can make or break your lo mein noodles, many Chinese and Chinese-American people choose to use lo mein as a fridge clearer, particularly those with busy jobs who are always on the go.
LO MEIN RECIPE
Although lo mein is a signature dish of Chinese takeout food throughout the United States, this recipe is far healthier and fresher than the fast food alternative. It’s a quick, easy way to satisfy your Chinese food cravings without worrying about excessive sodium content or other health-related issues associated with fast food. Americans love to stir their noodles with soy sauce, which gives this dish its distinctive umami flavor profile, but be sure to include plenty of crisp, crunchy vegetables to counteract the acidity of soy sauce. Chinese cuisine is much like that of other in that the complexity of intermingling ingredients is the real centerpiece of the meal, not any one ingredient. That’s one of the reasons that Asian food is so popular with vegetarians. Traditional European, and particularly English, fare features meat front and centre, but great Chinese food doesn’t allow a single flavor to dominate the palate.
LO MEIN NOODLE SUBSTITUTE
As a final note, while it’s extremely far from authentic or traditional, if you can’t find lo mein egg noodles anywhere, simple spaghetti will do the trick just fine. Some people theorize that Marco Polo actually brought noodles back from China to Italy, and that’s when Italians developed their signature cuisine. If you do choose to take this bold step, be sure to cook your spaghetti al dente, or slightly hard, so it retains its shape against the other ingredients when served.
LO MEIN
Ingredients
- Lo mein noodles/ egg noodles- 500 gm/ 1 lb
- Chicken breast sliced- 500 gm / 1 lb
- Celery stalks sliced-2
- Red bell pepper sliced-1
- Cabbage shredded- 2 cups
- Mushrooms sliced- 250 gm/ 0.5 lbs ( Crimini mushrooms, Portobello mushrooms,Shiitake mushrooms or Oyster mushrooms)
- Large carrot julienned -1
- Fresh ground black pepper- 1 tbsp.
- Vegetable oil - 4 tbsp.
- FOR THE SAUCE
- Dark soy sauce-4 tbsp.
- Oyster sauce-2 tbsp.
- Sesame oil- 3 tbsp.
- Rice vinegar- 1 tbsp.
- Corn flour - 2 tbsp.
Instructions
- Noodles.Cook Lo Mein noodles/ egg noodles as per instructions on the package, then drain and toss with some sesame oil to coat. Keep aside.
- Sauce. In a medium bowl mix all the ingredients and whisk until lump free. Keep aside.
- In a large wok heat vegetable oil , add chicken, season with fresh ground black pepper and fry until cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Add the celery and cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently until just softened. Add carrot, cabbage , red bell pepper and mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes on high heat , stirring continuously.
- Pour in the sauce and add noodles. Toss, using 2 wooden spoons for 1-2 minute.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
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