Sesame Chicken Noodles

Categories: East, Recipes
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Published on: September 18, 2013
 

A quick and easy dish that anyone can try.  Noodle dishes are my way of slapping together a quick dinner in the middle of the week.  They don’t need much in the way of ingredients and most of the stuff you need, you can keep in the cupboards for months on end.

I like to use different kinds of noodles, ramen, soba, udon, rice vermicelli, cellophane, ho fun, etc… There are so many types of noodles and each have their uses.  With this recipe I like to use a noodle typical for gon-lo mein, thinner than most soup noodles and quite curly which makes it good for picking up a sauce but you can use whatever you have at home.

The key to a good fried noodle dish, aside from the quality of the noodle, is the sauce.  Most fried noodle dishes I see just consist of a mix of light and dark soya sauce, which isn’t bad but it’s not very exciting.  If you want your fried noodles to be special then you need a little more variety in your sauce.  In this particular recipe two ingredients are key: Chinese black rice vinegar and sesame oil.  The black rice vinegar not only adds a nice acidity to the dish but it is also sweet and very moreish.  Depending on where you live it might be a little hard to obtain but most Chinese supermarkets will sell it.  Sesame oil is quite widely available and is used in a lot of asian cuisine.  It adds a slightly deeper flavour but most of all it has a fantastic fragrance.

GnY_SChickNoodles

I like to use a wok for this, it’s perfect for noodle dishes.  A wok’s high sides make it most suited for stir frying and all the sauce and juices collect in the middle.  I’ll save the wok lecture for another day but ideally you want to avoid a non-stick wok.  If you don’t have a wok at home you can use a sauté pan or a high-sided frying pan.

 

Ingredients (serves 2):

500g Chicken (thigh or breast)

300g Noodles (fresh or dry)

1 Green Pepper

1 Large Onion

2 Cloves Garlic

2 Large Red Chillies (optional)

2 Tbsp Dark Soya

4 Tbsp Light Soya

2 Tbsp Black Rice Vinegar

1 Tbsp Sesame Oil (toasted)

Rapeseed Oil (for frying)

 

Method:

1.  If you are using dry noodles then start by boiling the noodles in water until just soft.  Dice your chicken and chillies.  Then cut the onion and pepper into large chunks.  Finely slice the garlic.

2.  Put the wok on a high heat (max setting), once up to heat add the frying oil, enough to give a good all round coating but not so much that it sits in a puddle at the bottom.

3.  Add the chicken and stir fry.  After a few minutes add in the onions and chillies.

4.  Add 1 tbsp of Light Soya to coat the chicken then add in the green peppers.

5.  Once the chicken is nearly cooked, add in the noodles and garlic and stir well.

6.  After a minute or two, add in the rest of the soya (dark and light) then black rice vinegar and mix well.

7.  Check for seasoning, if the dish isn’t dark enough or has some “white” patches, just add some more dark soya.  Add in the sesame oil and give it a final stir then serve.

 

Tips:

– Double check what Sesame oil you are using, the toasted kind should not be cooked as it will lose all flavor.  The cold-pressed, lightly coloured sesame oil should be added earlier when the rest of the sauces are being added.

– Don’t add too much light soya, it doesn’t add an intense salty flavour like plain salt but it will make you really thirsty for the rest of the day, besides you don’t want the whole thing to just taste like light soya.

– If you find the dish lacking enough flavour add more black rice vinegar or a pinch of MSG. Yes, MSG is particularly good at bringing out the flavour in a dish and it makes a little bit of salt go a long way.  Soy sauce already has quite a bit of MSG in it, so you’re just adding a purer form of it.



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