Lo Mein or Lo Mien

Posted byNoriePosted inbeef, Chicken, Legumes, Pancits, Pastas and Rice, Pork, Recipe, SeafoodTags:

(With Chicken, Beef, Pork or Shrimp)

Chicken Lo Mein

Lo Mein is my favorite dish to order when I go to a Chinese restaurant along with fried spring rolls.  I’ve been wanting to eat this but I did not want to eat out so I looked at what I had available in the fridge and the pantry.  I did not have the proper egg noodles for this dish but I had Linguini.  I thought, “Why not?” So I made Lo Mein with Italian noodles and everybody liked it.  My son Jerome even took the leftovers to work for his lunch. 

For a vegetarian Lo Mein, omit the chicken.

This is actually very good and surprisingly much better tasting than Lo Mein served in restaurants.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 8 oz. Linguini or egg noodles
  • 1 piece of skinless and boneless chicken breast halves (or ½ of a chicken breast, de-boned and sliced)
  • 2 TBS light soy sauce
  • 2 TBS dry sherry
  • 1 tsp. Aji Mirin (sweet rice wine) or 1/2 tsp. sugar
  • 2 tsp. cornstarch
  • 1 TBS cooking oil
  • 1 TBS Sesame oil
  • 1 TBS Oyster sauce
  • 1 bunch (4 or so) Scallion (green onions) cut 2 inches long
  • Half of a red or green bell pepper cut in strips
  • 8 oz. sliced mushrooms (canned mushrooms will work)
  • ¼ cup water
  • ¼ of a chicken bouillon cube or ¼ tsp. chicken bouillon granules

The above ingredients are the must have.  A handful of snow peas, strings removed, would be good to have but not mandatory.  Broccoli florets would be a good substitute or you can use both. Add a few dried Chinese hot peppers if you like it spicy as in Hunan or Schezwan style.

Mix the soy sauce, sherry, and cornstarch in a small bowl.  Slice the chicken in thin strips and add them to the soy sauce mixture.  Stir to coat the chicken pieces.  Cover and let stand in the fridge for about 30 minutes or so.

Boil the linguini in water according to package direction with 1 TBS salt.  Boil hard for 15 minutes to be softer than “al dente”.  Drain the noodles well.

Add the 1 TBS cooking oil and 1 TBS sesame oil in a wok or a wide pot and preheat over medium-high heat.  Stir-fry the chicken strips but do not include the liquid. Reserve the liquid.  Sauté the chicken until no longer pink then add the vegetables and stir-fry until the vegetables are crisp tender. Remove from wok. 

If using canned mushrooms, drain and add the mushrooms with the vegetables.  If using fresh mushrooms, cook them in the same wok after you removed the vegetables so the vegetables are not over done.  When the mushrooms are done, add the ¼ cup water and chicken bouillon plus the reserved cornstarch mixture and the Oyster sauce.  Stir and cook until thick. Drop in the drained noodles and the cooked vegetables with the chicken and stir to coat and cook until heated through, about 1 minute.  Serve warm.

Note:  If the noodles will not be used right away, drizzle a few drops of oil and toss to coat the noodles evenly to prevent sticking to each other.

You can use the same recipe and method for Beef Lo Mein, Pork Lo Mein or Shrimp Lo Mein. 

You can also cut the recipe in half.

Shrimp Lo Mein