Chicken chow mein is a stir-fried noodle dish with chicken and vegetables. The noodles can be soft or crunchy, and the dish is typically made with egg noodles. The chicken and vegetables are fried in oil and then combined with the noodles and a soy sauce-based sauce. The dish can be made with pre-boiled noodles for a softer texture or deep-fried noodles for a crispy texture.
Chicken chow mein refers to a dish of stir-fried noodles with chunks of chicken. The term “chow mein” is Chinese for “fried noodles,” and chow mein noodles can be either soft or crunchy. Chicken is the most common meat used in the dish, especially when prepared in Western Western restaurants. In addition to chicken, many cooks also add a variety of vegetables into chicken chow mein, making the dish nutritionally well rounded.
Traditionally, chow mein noodles are a type of egg noodles. As long as the noodle is prepared using a stir-fry method, a dish is technically “chow mein,” whether the noodles are crunchy or soft. Crispness is determined by the amount of oil used and the length of time a cook fries the noodles. Softer noodles are fried in less oil for a shorter amount of time, while crispier noodles are cooked longer and in more oil. The popularity of crunchy versus soft noodles largely depends on the region where the chow mein is made.
Although the noodles must go through a stir-frying process, a cook making soft chicken chow mein typically begins by boiling the noodles in water. While the noodles are boiling, the cook starts frying the other ingredients. Strips or pieces of chicken are thrown into a wok or skillet and quickly fried in enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Some cooks prefer to pre-season the chicken with spices or toss it in a soy sauce-based marinade, but other cooks simply add the chicken to the pan without any preliminary preparation.
Vegetables may be added to the pan before, while, or after the chicken is browned, depending on the type of vegetable and the size of the chicken pieces. Larger pieces of chicken take longer to cook than many vegetables and are usually cooked first, but shredded chicken cooks quickly and is sometimes added after many of the vegetables are already fried. The vegetables used in chicken chow mein vary according to a cook’s individual preferences. Popular additions include bok choy, mushrooms, water chestnuts, celery, carrots, onion, snow peas, broccoli, sweet pepper, and bean sprouts.
Once the chicken and vegetables finish cooking, the cook adds the pre-boiled noodles to the pan. These noodles are stir-fried for a few minutes with the other ingredients, long enough to take on a slightly stiffer texture without losing all springiness. Finally, the cook adds a sauce. A chicken chow mein sauce almost always contains soy sauce as a base and often contains a mixture of chicken broth and cornstarch, which creates a thick sauce that can cover all the ingredients. Additional spices, such as ginger and garlic, can also be added at this point to enhance the flavor.
For a crispier chicken, the noodles are stir-fried before any of the other ingredients. Instead of flash-frying the noodles in the remaining oil at the end of the preparation, the cook deep-fries the noodles in several inches of hot oil for a few minutes until crispy. The crunchy noodles are removed from the pan and kept warm while the chicken, vegetables and sauce cook. Sometimes the noodles are added back to the pan at the end to reheat them, but often the cook chooses to pour the pan-fried chicken mixture over the crispy noodles on a serving platter or platter.
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