Chicken chow mein is a dish that most of us are familiar with, and it is often our introduction to Chinese cooking. It is a good recipe for learning how to use the stirfry technique of cooking.

Ingredients

1 pound of mung bean sprouts

Two boneless skinless chicken breasts

One tablespoon white wine*

A Chinese marinade:

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon of soy sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

Less than 1 teaspoon cornstarch

The stirfry sauce:

A quarter cup of water or low-salt chicken broth

Salt and pepper to taste

One tablespoon cornstarch

Four tablespoons of water

The base part of the recipe:

Half pound of dry wonton noodles

The other vegetables:

Two medium-sized ribs of celery

Half pound of sliced mushrooms

One head of broccoli or one rib of bok choy

One red bell pepper

One half of a red onion

One green onion which can be either a scallion or spring onion

Vegetable oil that is used for stirfrying, as needed

Quarter cup of toasted sesame seeds

*optional

Preparation

About two hours before starting the rest of the recipe wash the mung bean sprouts thoroughly and allow them to drain.

Cut the chicken into thin strips and add them to the marinade sauce. Add the cornstarch to the marinade sauce last. Marinate the chicken for 15 to 25 minutes.

While the chicken is marinating you can prepare the other three parts of the recipe.

To make the stirfry sauce dissolve one tablespoon of cornstarch into the four tablespoons water in a small bowl. Into this whisk the water or chicken broth along with the oyster sauce, soy sauce the salt pepper and the remainder of the cornstarch then set it aside.

To soften the noodles place them in boiling salted water. When they have softened sufficiently plunge them into cold water to stop the cooking process and drain thoroughly.

Wash all the vegetables thoroughly; cut the celery and bok choy into 1/2″ diagonal slices. If you are substituting broccoli for bok choy peel the broccoli stalks until no more strings come off then slice diagonally thin. Clean the mushrooms off with a damp cloth and slice. Cut the red bell pepper half removing the seeds and cut up into chunks. He’ll and chop the onion and dice the green onion or scallions.

Now that we have prepared the ingredients for cooking let us get down to the cooking.

Heat your wok or frying pan over medium to high heat, and then add two tablespoons of cooking oil. Once the oil is hot add your softened and drained noodles frying them till they are golden brown. If necessary fry your noodles in batches. Remove your noodles from the pan when they are finished and set aside.

In your wok heat two tablespoons of cooking oil then add the onion and chicken allowing the meat to brown briefly, and you then stirfry until all the redness in the meat is gone and the meat is nearly cooked through. Then you remove the cooked meat and onions from the pan and set aside.

Cook the rest of the vegetables separately by stirfrying and set them aside when done. You can season each of them little salt while stirfrying if desired. When cooking the bok choy or broccoli add a little water and cover while they are cooking. Remove each of the vegetables as they are stirfry and set aside. Add more oil as needed.

Give your stirfry sauce a quick stir; then add all the ingredients back into the wok. Make a well in the center of the ingredients to hold the stirfry sauce stirring it quickly to thicken. Mix everything together and stir in the green onion.

To serve:

This recipe makes four servings of chicken chow mein. Place the noodles onto a plate and pour the contents of the wok on top of them. You can use the toasted sesame seeds as a garnish to sprinkle over the top of the chow mien.

Notes:

Chinese cooking does not really depend on specific recipes their cooking is a skillful blend of texture, flavor, color and taste. To make this blend they generally don’t use specific ingredients instead they are more apt to put whatever comes to hand into a specific dish as long as it meets the criteria of a skillful blend.

In this recipe for chicken chow mien you may substitute an equal quantity of any other meat, seafood, shellfish or tofu.

When preparing the cooking oil you should put a minced clove of garlic and some minced fresh ginger root to give it some flavor.