Chow Mein
Serves 4–6 Time 1 hour Difficulty 3/5 Ingredients 23 Steps 7
Chow mein is a generic Chinese term for a dish of stir-fried noodles, of which there are many varieties. Authentic chow mein is generally made of soft noodles, whereas chow mein in Westernized Chinese Cuisine may also be made from thin crispy noodles.
Ingredients
- 1 pound mung bean sprouts
- 15 ounces seitan
- ½ pound dry wonton noodles
- 2 medium stalks celery
- 1 pound bok choy or broccoli
- ½ pound fresh mushrooms
- 1 red bell pepper
- ½ red onion
- 1 green onion
- Vegetable oil for frying, as needed
- ¼ cup toasted sesame seeds
Marinade
- ¼ cup finely-chopped shiitake mushrooms
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- Salt to taste
- Pepper, to taste
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
Sauce
- ¼ cup water or low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- Salt to taste
- Pepper, to taste
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 4 tablespoons water
Steps
- 1–2 hours before cooking, rinse mung bean sprouts and drain thoroughly.
- Cut seitan into thin strips. Add marinade ingredients, cornstarch last. Marinate 20 to 25 minutes.
- While seitan marinates: dissolve 1 tablespoon cornstarch in 4 tablespoons water in small bowl. Whisk water or vegetable broth with oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt, pepper and cornstarch mixture. Set aside. Soften noodles in boiling salted water. Plunge into cold water. Drain thoroughly. Wash vegetables. Cut celery and bok choy into ½-inch diagonal pieces. If using broccoli instead of bok choy, peel stalks until no strings remain and slice thinly on diagonal. Wipe mushrooms with damp cloth. Slice. Halve red bell pepper. Remove seeds. Cut into chunks. Peel and chop onion. Dice green onion.
- Heat wok or frying pan over medium-high to high heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil. When hot, add noodles. Fry in batches until golden. Remove noodles.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil. Add onion and seitan, keeping remaining marinade aside. Brown seitan briefly. Stir-fry until redness is gone and seitan is nearly cooked through. Remove seitan and onion.
- Cook remaining vegetables separately, except green onion, salting each lightly while stir-frying if desired. For bok choy or broccoli, add ¼ cup water and cover. Remove each vegetable when done. Add oil as needed.
- Re-stir sauce. Return all ingredients to wok, making well in middle for sauce. Add sauce and remaining marinade. Stir quickly to thicken. Mix everything. Stir in green onions. Pour vegetable and sauce mixture over noodles. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds. Serve hot.
Notes from the original
- For crispy chow mein noodles, add more oil than the recipe calls for and cook the noodles longer to dry them out.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Chow Mein” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-19, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Chow mein 1 by yuen.jpg by ♡yuen♫, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.