Easy Homemade Chicken Chow Mein makes fantastic midweek family dinner that is both delicious & healthy. Ready in under 30 minutes, who needs a takeaway!
Do you often find yourself reaching for that takeaway menu at the end of the working week as you are simply too tired and fed up to cook anything yourself? Well, it’s fine if you want a treat once in a while but if you are looking after your pennies than this simple homemade version of takeaway classic chicken chow mein is for you! It’s quick, it’s really easy, much healthier than takeaway plus you can use any veg you like or go with my suggestion in the recipe below.
This easy recipe is one of my midweek & Friday night favourites and I hope it becomes your too!
Leftover roast or fresh chicken for chow mein?
To make this simple stir-fry recipe even quicker and easier I like to use leftover roast chicken. However, if you don’t have any on the go it’s really as simple to use fresh chicken breast or skinned and deboned chicken thighs!
If you’re using fresh chicken breast or chicken thighs simply cut the meat up into small chunks and season with some salt and pepper. When using fresh chicken as opposed to leftover roast I like to cook it in the hot wok/frying pan first as it usually releases quite a bit of water which you don’t really want in your stir fry. Simply pan fry it in one tablespoon of hot oil for about 5 minutes until cooked through. Take it out onto a plate and then proceed as per recipe below adding your cooked chicken chunks for the last couple of minutes together with noodles and the sauce.
Equipment
Believe it or not but I still (to this day) don’t own a proper wok even though I cook all sort of stir-fries pretty regularly. My favourite wok substitute is my large (28cm) carbon non-stick pre-seasoned frying pan* which I got some time ago at a really good price in Aldi and which I use all the time.
For this chicken chow mein you can use any large frying pan you’ve got (I’m stressing LARGE here as nobody likes food escaping the pan) or indeed a wok* if you own one!
Tips & possible substitutes when making this Easy Chicken Chow Mein!
This easy stir-fry is super adaptable so feel free to use any veg you like or happen to have in the fridge. Broccoli, peppers and carrots would be my standard choice but I also like to use green beans, thinly sliced cabbage or tenderstem broccoli.
As far as your protein goes, you could easily replace the chicken with tofu cubes or go veggies only.
I’m not a huge fan of “straight to wok” cooked noodles and much prefer cooking my own which is not only cheaper but almost as quick. However, you could use them here if you wanted to. As they tend to be quite sticky I would recommend putting them in the colander over the sink and pouring a little of freshly boiled water over them to loosen the up and then quickly running them under the cold tap and popping in the large bowl with a tablespoon or so of sesame oil.
How to make Easy Homemade Chicken Chow Mein
Prepare all your ingredients & stir-fry sauce.
- Start with preparing all your ingredients which you need to have handy as once you start cooking things are happening quickly.
- Prepare your stir fry sauce by mixing hoisin sauce in a small bowl together with soy sauce and sesame oil.
Cook your noodles
- Cook egg noodles in a large pot of boiling water according to your package instructions. Drain and run under cold tap to stop cooking process. Put it aside in a large bowl with a tablespoon of sesame oil which will prevent noodles from sticking and keep them nice and shiny.
Stir frying
- Heat tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add broccoli florets, carrots and bell pepper and stir fry on high heat until slightly softened but still slightly crunchy about 5 minutes.
- Add half of the sliced green onions, garlic and ginger and stir fry another couple of minutes.
- Add leftover roast chicken and mix it well with the veggies allowing it to heat through for a couple of minutes.
- Add noodles and your stir fry sauce to the pan or wok and mix well. Fry for a couple of minutes stiring and mixing all the veggies through and heating the noodles up.
- Serve immediately sprinkled with saved spring onions.
Easy Homemade Chicken Chow Mein
Ingredients
- 250 g medium egg noodles (uncooked) or you could use "straight to wok noodles" - see notes below
- 1/2 large head of broccoli cut into small florets
- 1 yellow or red pepper deseeded and thinly sliced according with your preference
- 1 carrot peeled and cut into small matchsticks
- 3 garlic cloves minced or finely chopped
- 1 thumb size piece of ginger peeled and grated
- 2 large spring onions finely sliced and divided
- 250-300 g leftover roast chicken or fresh chicken breast/thighs see notes below
- 1 Tbsp rapeseed /olive oil
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil for the noodles
Sauce
- 3 tbsp Hoisin sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
Instructions
- Start with preparing all your ingredients which you need to have handy as once you start cooking things are happening quickly.
- Prepare your stir fry sauce by mixing hoisin sauce in a small bowl together with soy sauce and sesame oil.
- Cook egg noodles in a large pot of boiling water according to your package instructions. Drain and run under cold tap to stop cooking process. Put it aside in a large bowl with a tablespoon of sesame oil which will prevent noodles from sticking and keep them nice and shiny.
- Heat tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add your broccoli florets, carrots and bell pepper and stir fry on high heat until slightly softened but still slightly crunchy about 5 minutes.
- Add half of the sliced green onions, garlic and ginger and stir fry another couple of minutes.
- Add leftover roast chicken and mix it well with the veggies allowing it to heat through for a couple of minutes.
- Add noodles and your stir fry sauce to the pan or wok and mix well. Fry for a couple of minutes stiring and mixing all the veggies through and heating the noodles up.
- Serve immediately sprinkled with saved spring onions.
Notes
- Nutritional information is approximate, per serving and should be treated as a guideline only.
- If you’re using either fresh chicken breast or chicken thighs simply cut the meat up into small chunks and season with some salt and pepper. When using fresh chicken as opposed to leftover roast I like to cook it in the hot wok/frying pan first as it usually releases quite a bit of water. Simply pan fry it in one tablespoon of hot oil for about 5 minutes until cooked through. Take it out onto a plate and then proceed as per recipe below adding your cooked chicken chunks for the last couple of minutes together with noodles and the sauce.
- I'm not a huge fan of "straight to wok" cooked noodles and much prefer cooking my own which is not only cheaper but almost as quick. However, you could use them here if you wanted to. As they tend to be quite sticky I would recommend putting them in the colander over the sink and pouring a little of freshly boiled water over them to loosen the up and then quickly running them under the cold tap and popping in the large bowl with a tablespoon or so of sesame oil.
- Feel free to substitute the veggies for anything you like. Green beans, tenderstem broccoli or thinly sliced cabbage work particularly well.
- Store leftovers in the fridge and eat within 1 day (hot or cold).
- Not suitable for freezing.
Nutrition
Other 30-minute recipes you might enjoy:
30-minute Vegetable Egg Fried Rice
One Pot Leftover Ham & Pea Pasta
Easy Chickpeas & Carrot Falafel Burgers
Easy Veggie Lentil & Bean Chilli (Vegan)
Cheat’s Jerk Chicken with Rice & Peas (Beans)
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Helen - Cooking with my kids says
This looks like my kind of dinner. We don’t eat chinese food often enough because of my fussy kids, but I might be able to pursaude them with this! #CookBlogShare
joskitchenlarder says
Thank you Helen! 🙂 My kids love this chow mein with broccoli and carrots being eaten no problem and pepper pushed away with disgust lol. Little wins 🙂
Jacqui Bellefontaine says
Love a good homemade chow mein and this looks delicious. Thank you for linking to #CookBlogShare
joskitchenlarder says
Thank you Jacqui! 🙂