A quick midweek Chinese dinner for two

If you don’t know already, I am a sucker for Chinese food. But that doesn’t mean I want to be ordering a takeaway every evening – I think my bank balance and waistline would have a few things to say about that.

Sometimes I just want to cook an easy, midweek dinner which still embodies all of those Chinese flavours I love. So starting with one of the basics is a great way to begin.

Chicken chow mein is often a firm favourite to add to your takeaway order. But this stir-fry style dinner recipe is quite simple to recreate at home. It also can be a fantastic meal to prep on a Sunday evening ready for some tasty work lunches.

To keep it nice and basic (but still super tasty), this dinner recipe isn’t 100% authentic. There’s nothing worse than finding an incredible looking recipe and realising half of the ingredients are completely baffling, or impossible to grab at your local supermarket.

With my simple chicken chow mein, all you’ll need are some Chinese food staples such as soy sauce, cornflour and oyster sauce – and only 30 minutes to cook it. (Ok 10 extra for marinating…)

To try to keep this one on the healthy side, I’ve omitted the use of sugar, like most chow mein recipes. You certainly won’t be missing out on flavours with this one though.

Recipe ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• Medium egg noodles
• 3 tablespoons of light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons of rice wine
• 1 small white onion
• 50g of mangetout
• 40g of baby corn
• 2 carrots
• 100g beansprouts
• 1 tablespoon of cornflour
• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
• Half a teaspoon of white pepper
• Vegetable oil

Cooking utensils

• A pan or work
• A medium saucepan
• A sieve
• Chopping boards
• Sharp knives
• Mixing bowl
• Kitchen tongs

1. Thinly slice your chicken breasts widthways and add to a mixing bowl.
2. Add 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of rice wine, a teaspoon of garlic powder, half a teaspoon of white pepper and one tablespoon of cornflour. Give it a good mix to coat the chicken and let marinate for 10 minutes.
3. Start prepping your vegetables. It’s all about narrow slices here, so thinly chop your onions, carrots and mange tout. Slice your baby corn into circular chunks and pop all of your veg aside in a bowl.
4. Bring some water to the boil in a saucepan and begin cooking your egg noodles. You can follow packaging instructions, but these can take up to 10 minutes. You want them al dente!
5. Once your noodles are ready, drain them in a sieve and rinse with cool water.
6. Add your vegetable oil to the wok and switch onto a medium to high heat. When the wok is nicely hot, add your marinated chicken.
7. Fry your chicken until it takes on a golden colour, stirring often to minimise sticking.
8. Add your sliced carrot, onion, baby corn and mange tout and keep things moving around the wok for 5 minutes.
9. Add your beansprouts and fry for another 5 minutes.
10. Tip in your cooked egg noodles and coat everything with your remaining sauces – that’s 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of rice wine and 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce.
11. Let the sauce heat through for one minute and then plate up. Time to enjoy your super simple chow mein!

Tasty tips!

• Turn this dinner recipe into a vegetarian delight – simply remove the chicken and swap the oyster sauce for either hoisin or extra soy sauce. Add more veggies to your content – asparagus, spring onions, peppers…the list is endless!
• Swap or even add some prawns to turn this chicken dish into a chow mein special. Simply get your hands on some cooked king prawns and add to the wok just before your noodles.
• Can’t find egg noodles? I’ve actually reworked this recipe to include rice noodles before and it was an absolute delight! As long as you follow the correct noodle cooking instructions, this dish will always come together.
• Thinly slicing vegetables can be tiresome. With your mange tout, pile them up and slice all in one go. Or splash out on a slicing gadget to save you time, just like this one from Pro Cook.