Chow Mein Skillet Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the ingredients in chow mein? ›

What is Chow Mein? Chow mein is a stir-fry noodle dish that is made in many different variations, but typically made with noodles, cabbage, celery, green onions, and garlic. Traditional chow mein is made with fried noodles but often it is prepared with boiled lo mein, chow mein, or yaki-soba noodles.

Prepare your noodles so that they are al dente and still have some bite. For most noodles, this means cooking them for a few minutes in boiling water, but thinner noodles, like cellophane rice noodles, usually just need to be soaked.

Sometimes also labeled as chow mein noodles, these look similar to thin wonton noodles. The main difference is that noodles labeled "Hong Kong" or "pan-fried noodles" are par-cooked in boiling water, which makes them ready to stir-fry.

An expert chef's tip for perfect chow mein

The ideal Cantonese style chow mein is not soggy, with aromatic crispiness here and there. Before frying them, it's best to steam the noodles rather than boil them, then dunk them in the hot water for just a minute. Remember to let the noodles cool down.

Combine soy sauce, light sesame oil, oyster sauce, granulated sugar, cornstarch, and chicken broth to make the signature sweet and savory sauce that makes chow mein taste authentic.

Simple sauce: While chow mein sauce is unbelievably easy to make, it still brings a complexity of flavors to the dish. The careful combination of ingredients like soy sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce and sugar results in a chow mein sauce that has hints of both savory and sweet notes.

The first is to cook your protein and your vegetable separately, and combine them only after both are fully cooked. A second rule of thumb for stir-frying: Choose one vegetable per stir-fry. Finally, always remember to add liquid only after everything is more or less finished cooking.

Rinse Immediately In Freshwater

Once the noodles are cooked, pour onto a strainer to remove the extra water. Ensure that it is entirely dry. Add 5-6 cups of cold fresh water to the noodles and drain them again. Be careful not to break the noodles while doing this.

There are two main types of chow mein: steamed chow mein and crispy chow mein. To make steamed chow mein, chefs flash fry the egg noodles before tossing them with the rest of the ingredients and coating them in a light sauce. For crispy chow mein, chefs press the noodles flat while frying them.

Crispy chow mein is usually topped with a thick brown sauce, while steamed chow mein is mixed with soy sauce before being served. There is a regional difference in the US between the East and West Coast use of the term "chow mein". On the East Coast, "chow mein" is always the crispy kind.

What is the main difference between lo mein and chow mein? ›

Chow Mein And Lo Mein Use Different Noodles

Lo mein typically uses fresh noodles, while chow mein can be made with fresh or dried. Lo mein noodles are typically thick and chewy. Stir-fried noodles in chow mein are thinner and cooked to a golden crisp.

All you need is soy sauce, black vinegar, sugar, oyster sauce, black pepper, and sesame oil. The flavor that is often missing in homemade chow mein is the tanginess. Black Vinegar is less harsh than regular vinegar, which gives the chow mein a subtle hint of tanginess that brings the dish together.

At my local Chinese, they call this Crispy Chow Mein Noodles. It's a Hong Kong / Cantonese style dish, and there are a lot of variations but the core of it is a bed of deep fried crunchy noodles topped with a saucy stir fry.

Use one tablespoon cornstarch mixed with one tablespoon cold water (aka a cornstarch slurry) for each cup of medium-thick sauce. Thoroughly mix the cornstarch and water together, then pour into your sauce. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.

“Lo mein usually uses the fat, chewy noodles, while chow mein uses the thin type of noodles that sometimes contain egg.” Lo mein uses fresh noodles that are boiled for a few minutes, while chow mein uses dried noodles that are parboiled for five to six minutes. Then there's the difference in cooking method.

With chow mein, you cook noodles and add them to your wok of other ingredients, cooking everything together in one pan. However, with a chop suey recipe, you will cook the noodles or rice and other ingredients separately before combining them in a bowl, serving up the noodles or rice with the sauce served over the top.

The noodles used for making chowmein are made of refined flour/maida, which is difficult for the intestine to digest and can cause severe stomach aches. Chowmein is usually stir-fried or deep fried, the amount of oil used in making this dish is usually more than the recommended intake.

Chow mein is a dish of stir-fried Chinese-style noodles that can be served with proteins, vegetables or gravy. Chow mein is the English derivative of the word chau meing and comes from the Taishan dialect of Chinese. Chau means stir-fried and meing means noodles.