Hokkien noodles
I know that I’ve repeatedly bleated about how you can throw “any vegetables you want!” into stir fried noodles. But if speed is of the essence, and you want a good amount of vegetables in your dinner, you do actually need to think about what vegetables are quick to chop, quick to cook, won’t make your stir fry watery, and you know you can get at any grocery store. No pre-cooking required (like broccoli). Doesn’t take 5 minutes to soften (like mushrooms). And not one of those vegetables you can’t always find (like Asian greens). Scratch all that. Today is about convenience, speed, yet undeniable deliciousness that everybody loves. Introducing – my everyday Hokkien Noodles!
Ingredients for Hokkien Noodles with chicken
Here’s what you need to make these hokkien noodles. There’s enough protein and vegetables in this to be a complete meal. Gotta love a one-pan dinner!
HOKKIEN NOODLES
Hokkien noodles are medium thickness yellow noodles made from wheat. Get them from the fridge if you can, rather than vac-packed varieties from the aisle. Better texture, better flavour, and less tendency to break easily when tossed in the pan.
Other noodle options – This recipe can be made with pretty much any type of noodles – thin, flat, thicker, white, rice noodles, egg noodles. Or even pasta. There, I said it! Hand on heart, once tossed with the sauce, flavour-wise they are very similar though actually, noodles do have a chewier texture than pasta. 🙂 Dried noodles (like ramen, dried egg noodles, rice noodles, vermicelli noodles) can also be used but you need to use less than the weight specified in the recipe because they expand a lot more in volume when cooked. See the recipe notes for directions.
The hokkien noodle sauce
You can’t just use soy and sugar for a stir fry sauce. It’s too bland! In today’s recipe, oyster sauce is our shortcut ingredient here. It adds depth of flavour, touch of sweetness as well as thickening the sauce so we don’t even need to use cornflour/cornstarch like you typically need to.
Dark and light soy sauce – We’re using a combination of both in today’s sauce because together they deliver really great flavour and colour. Dark soy sauce has a more intense flavour and stains the noodles and chicken a beautiful mahogany colour you can see in the photos. The light soy sauce adds extra salt without too much colour and the soy flavour is milder. If we only used dark soy sauce, the intense flavour would overwhelm the dish as well as it an almost black colour!See recipe notes for how to switch each of these soy sauces out, and more on different soy sauces here. Oyster sauce – Punches high above its weight when it comes to adding complexity, flavour and umami all at once to any dish you add a few dashes of the stuff to. It’s a staple sauce in Chinese and South-east Asian cooking made from oyster extract that is sweet, salty, thick and pungent. However it doesn’t tasty oyster-y or fishy at all once cooked. See recipe notes for substitutes. Mirin – This is a sweet Japanese cooking wine that is the other shortcut ingredient that brings flavour to this dish. Typically in Chinese recipes you’d see Chinese cooking wine used with a touch of sugar added when needed. But today, I’m taking a shortcut by using mirin which already has sugar in it. One less ingredient needed! See recipe notes for substitutions, including non-alcoholic options. Sesame oil – Toasted (ie brown-hued) as opposed to un-toasted (yellow-hued, with less sesame flavour). Here in Australia, toasted sesame oil is the norm. It’s actually hard to find un-toasted. Note the sesame oil is added to the sauce and not used for as frying fat, because it loses flavour the longer it’s cooked. White pepper (or black) – Asian cooking typically uses white rather than black pepper. One of the reasons is so you don’t get unsightly black specks in clear, light brown stir fry sauces that are popular in Asian cooking. The flavour is also a little more citrusy than black pepper which is more earthy. We only use a tiny amount so you can substitute black pepper in a pinch.
Quick cooking vegetables and chicken
Quick chop vegetables selection. Ease is the key in today’s recipe! See recipe notes for how to switch each of these soy sauces out, and more on different soy sauces here.
Boneless chicken thighs – I’m using thighs because they stay juicy when fried up in stir fries without having to tenderise or marinate for too long. You can switch out for chicken breast – because these noodles cook in 6 minutes flat, it won’t overcook and dry out. But, chicken thigh is juicier! 🙂 You can also substitute with more vegetables. Green onion – Onion is a staple in stir fries because it adds fresh flavour and frying up the onion at the beginning flavours the oil. Green onion makes a good shortcut option, without the need to peel and slice! Just chop into 5cm / 2″ batons. Substitute with regular onion cut into thin wedges, but cook it before the chicken.Note: As the softer dark green part cooks in literally a minute, we add that in at the end whereas the firmer white/pale green part (the onion-y flavoured part) is stir fried at the beginning because it takes longer to cook and also flavours the oil. Cabbage – One of my favourite ways to add a stack of veg into a meal, fast! It’s so quick to chop up a large mound and it softens in just a few minutes in the pan. Plus, by cutting it into strips, it flops, clings and mingles nicely with the noodles. Substitute with baby spinach or tuscan kale (also cut into strips) or a couple of handfuls of bean sprouts. Capsicum/bell pepper – I like the flavour capsicum brings to stir fries as well as a little splash of colour. And again, easy to chop – if you know the trick to avoid getting little seeds flying everywhere! You’ll see me demo it in the video. 🙂Substitute with carrot or zucchini cut into batons. Garlic – Finely minced with a knife is best because it disperses throughout the noodles and fries up better. However, in this recipe, you can get away with using a garlic press. But don’t talk to me about jarred garlic! (Sour. Wet. Barely resembles garlic!).
Other vegetable options – As with virtually all stir fries, feel free to substitute the vegetables with what you’ve got. Use 5 cups in total. Just add the longer cooking ones earlier and the quick cooking vegetables towards the end. Note: As the softer dark green part cooks in literally a minute, we add that in at the end whereas the firmer white/pale green part (the onion-y flavoured part) is stir fried at the beginning because it takes longer to cook and also flavours the oil. Substitute with carrot or zucchini cut into batons.
How to make Hokkien Noodles with Chicken
The sauce in today’s recipe is doing double duty as the sauce for the noodles and marinade for the chicken (just 10 minutes marinating time). So get the sauce and chicken done first, then move onto preparing the rest of the recipe.
1. Noodle sauce & marinated chicken
2. Prepare noodles
3. Noodle sauce & marinated chicken
Rinsing also prevents the noodles from hardening into a block as they sit in the colander before tossing into the pan.
- This is quite a big batch recipe to try to make in a wok. You run the risk of the chicken and vegetables getting watery because of the smaller surface area in contact with heat, unless you use a very large one with a very large burner. It is safer to use a very large pan. Between transient living situations*, changes within my team, an increasingly high maintenance dog well into his senior years* and a workload that never seems to ease, I’ve been making these noodles regularly in recent months. It’s not just the speed, but also because cabbage, green onion and some type of noodles are pantry staples in my world. The capsicum is easily substituted with another vegetable (carrot, zucchini etc). Chicken is optional (I often use more vegetables). And the sauce is made with a mix of my absolute bare minimum Asian sauce essentials. You can’t beat Hokkien Noodles freshly made, steaming, shiny and slippery. But honestly, they are still really great for one, two, three days afterwards with just a quick microwave reheat, and they freeze well too. I hope you enjoy them! – Nagi x
- Not complaining about either of these! I know I’m fortunate to have a roof over my head, full stop. As for the other? My greatest company asset. 🐶❤️
Watch how to make it
My noodle life
I’m a noodle-crazed lady, and I make no apologies for it!
Life of Dozer
Who here is surprised that I bake for Dozer’s vet? 😂 Took him in for check ups and treatment of on-going seniors problems, including his funky joints and early sign of age related spinal issues. Here he is at the magic dog doctor, Neil Barnsley of Holistic Animal Therapies. It takes over an hour to drive there but I’ve been taking Dozer for the last 8 years – because he’s that good, and I have so much faith and trust in him. He treats Dozer for muscle, bone and joint related issues, of which there have been many over the years because he was such an active dog in his youth! And here he is at our local vet, Gladesville Vetinary Hospital, where I took him in for vaccinations and a check up. Got the all clear – yay! Lordy, this dog is getting high maintenance in his senior years. Lucky I kinda love him.
