Chicken Chow Foon (more Chinese Noodles)

[fitfool]

This isn't an authentic chow foon recipe by any means but I came up with this one night while I was staring at the various jars of Chinese sauces that I didn't quite know what to do with. My mom had given me this bottle of XO that just scared me so it's been sitting unused in my fridge for months. But I hate to waste food so I try to figure out a way to eat things unless I really hate it. Good thing I played around with this. Michael loved these so much that he's bumped these to the top of his list of favorite noodles (unseating the mafaldine con funghi). I still prefer the mushrooms over pasta but I enjoyed this enough that we made it again the next day. Plus this dish was faster to whip up and is a great way to use up leftover chicken.

Chicken Chow Foon (more Chinese Noodles)
about 7 oz of wide rice noodles (1/2 of a 375g package)
2 Tbsp of Chinese Garlic Marinade (see ingredients at bottom of page) (or black bean sauce)
1 tsp of XO sauce (or maybe use oyster sauce) (see ingredients at bottom of page)
1 or 2 cups of shredded napa cabbage
2 large handfuls of shredded already-roasted chicken (used leftovers)
1 cup chicken stock or broth
1 Tbsp corn starch
some water
some canola oil

1. Soak noodles in hot water for 5-7 minutes until softened.
   
   
   
   
2. Make a corn starch slurry by mixing 1 Tbsp of corn starch with 1 ounce of water (a shot glass's worth of water). Mix it up and it'll be a cloudy white suspension. Set aside. You'll use this later to thicken the sauce.
   
3. Heat 1 Tbsp of canola oil and then fry the noodles until they're hot. Easiest to use a non-stick pan since even with the oil, I've had problems keeping these noodles from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once hot, set noodles aside.
   
4. Pour about 1 cup chicken broth into the pan. Mix in about 2 Tbsp of the Chinese marinade (or black bean sauce if you have that) and 1 teaspoon of the XO stuff. Bring to a boil.
   
5. Toss in the shredded cabbage
   
   
   
   
6. Toss in the shredded chicken.
   
7. When heated through, stir up the corn starch slurry once more just before adding it to the pan.
   
8. The sauce will then thicken as the corn starch mixture heats up.
   
9. Once the sauce thickens, add back the noodles and mix everything up.
   
10. Serve right away.
    
    
    
    
    

I'm listing the ingredients of the sauces so you can substitute any similar kinds of sauces if you like. All Purpose Chinese Marinade - Garlic Flavored (Mee Tu brand) - Ingredients were: water, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, white vinegar, modified corn starch, apricots (contains sulfites), peaches, salt, caramel color, garlic puree, garlic powder, hydrolyzed corn and soy protein, onion powder, citric acid, mustard flour, sodium benzoate, (preservative), spices, hickory smoke flavor, red #40 Lee Kum Kim XO Sauce - Ingredients: Soybean oil, Conpoy (dried scallop), ham, red chili pepper, dried shrimp, shallot, garlic, sugar, oyster extractives, salt, spices, flavor enhancer (Monosodium Glutamate / E621)

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Comments

[thestovetop.livejournal.com]

looks tasty :) snowpeas would be really yummy in that.

[anwyn18.livejournal.com]

And maybe some mushrooms. *licks lips*

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Keep the recommendations coming. I hadn't had chow foon in a while and couldn't remember which things went into it.

[anwyn18.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what's supposed to go in it, but I imagine thinly sliced water chestnuts would be excellent also.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion. I had been struggling trying to remember what things I had eaten in chow foon before.

[thestovetop.livejournal.com]

lol, for some reason i was looking at that pic and thinking "where are the veges?!?!?" cabbage is always yum though.

[snarkactual.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty good recipe. I think that the variants on Chow Fun are essentially a way to prepare Chinese leftovers. I know that was what it was around my house. You can use beef, pork, seafood, and all sorts of vegetables in it with great variations. It can make leftovers interesting though. :-)

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

While I was making this I wasn't sure which additional ingredients to include. Nice to know it would've been hard to go wrong :)

[xaintius.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm talking about, it looks great!

X.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[mysticchyna.livejournal.com]

i've been thinking of getting a jar of XO sauce...i hear about it all the time on Iron Chef. I actually have a package of wide rice noodles...

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

It's pretty cool. Sadly, I told my boyfriend what's in the sauce and the scallops part wigged him out and now he doesn't want to eat it anymore -- even though he LOVED this dish when he ate it. I think I'll leave it out of his half and still include it in my half of the dish. I hate to let food go to waste and I like how it tastes all mixed together. (trying the sauce on its own is a little too pungent for me though)

[chez-margot.livejournal.com]

fabulous post!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

why thank you :)

[cmmunchkin.livejournal.com]

I looked at that and thought... could we add mushrooms? If I try it, I will. It looks awesome!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

From other comments above, I can apparently mix in all kinds of vegetables. So next time I'll try to add shredded carrots, thinly sliced water chestnuts, mushrooms, and broccoli. (assuming they're in the house at the time) Now I'm hungry for it too.

[cmmunchkin.livejournal.com]

That sounds great! Let us know if you try it again with more of those great veggies.