The finished dish photos in this post were taken by Rob Palmer.
Singapore chicken vermicelli noodles
These noodles are a simpler “I can make this tonight!” version of Singapore Noodles, a firm takeout favourite here in Australia. It’s made with yellow curry flavoured vermicelli noodles stir fried with vegetables, egg ribbons, Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siu) and fresh prawns. It’s fast to make – if you happen to have the pork and prawns on hand. Which I never do. So here’s a version you can make using more regular weekly grocery items. Bacon, chicken, baby spinach and bean sprouts (useful no-chop vegetables I always have). Plus red capsicum strips and egg ribbons (literally just a thin omelette cut into strips), both of which are Singapore Noodle staples, all tossed in the Singapore Noodle curry flavoured sauce.
Ingredients in Singapore vermicelli noodles
This one’s a great versatile recipe you can make with whatever vegetables you’ve got on hand. I think you’ll also like that there’s a good amount of vegetables in it, so it’s a well-rounded complete meal.
The proteins
A mix of chicken, bacon and egg keeps things interesting. Feel free to change the chicken to another protein. But I really urge you to use the bacon. It adds a great flavour pop that replaces the little bits of Chinese BBQ Pork that you get in traditional Singapore Noodles.
Chicken – I like to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs because they are juicier than breast and tenderloin, though they work just fine too. We only use 150g/5 oz, which is around one large thigh. Don’t forget we have bacon and egg too! Curry powder and salt – To season the chicken. Simple but never boring, because we get flavour from the sauce too! For the curry powder, you just need the regular kind you get from grocery stores, like Clives and Keens (Australian brands). No need to hunt down an obscure Singaporean curry powder! Avoid hot curry powder – unless you want your noodles spicy. 🙂 Bacon – Streaky bacon, for the best flavour. Though lean bacon will work too (we call it “shortcut bacon” here in Australia, the round eye part that’s devoid of flavour – oops, I mean fat 😂). Eggs – Two eggs which we will use to make a thin omelette crepe which we then slice into ribbons. Signature feature of traditional Singapore Noodles which we’re keeping!
FOR THE STIR-FRIED NOODLES
Vermicelli noodles – The thin white dried “pokey” noodles that are prepared by soaking in hot water. Very common these days, in the noodle or Asian aisle in grocery stores. Not to be confused with glass noodles / bean thread noodles which are the clear kind (see Glass Noodle Salad recipe for a closer look at these). While you can make this recipe with glass noodles, it is not quite as good because the noodles are so slippery, the sauce doesn’t stick to them very well! Garlic and onion – Stir fry staples! Capsicum (bell pepper) – I like the red strips in traditional Singapore Noodles so I kept them for this recipe. Bean sprouts and baby spinach – “Grab and toss” vegetables that helps make this recipe fast to make while adding more vegetables so it’s a well rounded me. Feel free to use more of either, or substitute with other cook-able leafy greens. Or you could be a real rebel and make the effort to chop some vegetables yourself!
SINGAPORE NOODLE SAUCE
And here’s what you need for the sauce, which is the same as the sauce used in traditional Singapore Noodles. Not to be confused with glass noodles / bean thread noodles which are the clear kind (see Glass Noodle Salad recipe for a closer look at these). While you can make this recipe with glass noodles, it is not quite as good because the noodles are so slippery, the sauce doesn’t stick to them very well!
Soy sauce – Use either light or all purpose soy sauce. But not dark soy sauce – flavour is too strong and the colour is too intense! More on which soy sauce to use when here. Chinese cooking wine (“Shaoxing wine”) is an essential ingredient for making truly “restaurant standard” Asian noodles. Without, the flavour is missing something. Substitute with Mirin, cooking sake or dry sherry. Non alcoholic substitute – 1/3 cup (80 ml) low sodium chicken stock. Expect to toss the noodles for an extra minute or two as it will require a little extra time for the sauce to reduce. Curry powder – Just the regular stuff you get from grocery stores, like Clives and Keens (Australian brands). Avoid hot – unless you want the heat! White pepper rather than black is the standard in Asian cooking. The flavour is a little fresher than black pepper, and you also cannot see it. Whereas if you use black pepper (which you totally can) you will see little black specks on the noodles.
How to make Singapore Chicken Vermicelli Noodles
As with all stir fries, have all the ingredients chopped and ready to toss into the pan. Because once you start cooking, there is no time to stop!
Soak vermicelli noodles
Prepare the vermicelli noodles per the packet directions. Usually it says to soak in warm or boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes, then drain. Nice and easy! TIP: Don’t soak the noodles until you’re ready to start cooking. The longer the noodles sit around, the more prone they are to breaking. This tip applies to most noodles.
MAKING THE STIR FRIED NOODLES
Once your ingredients are chopped and measured out, it takes around 10 minutes to cook from start to finish. Nice and fast, as most stir fried noodles are!
Today’s photos – shot by Rob Palmer!
Before I sign off, I just want to make mention of the photos in today’s post. The finished dish photos were taken by Rob Palmer who is a professional photographer here in Sydney I have worked with on various projects, including my cookbook. These photos were taken at my house in a make-shift studio we set up for the day. Getting Rob to take the photos for my website is part of my longer term plan to try to get a better work-life balance. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’ve been struggling in recent years with my workload as my team, business and activities has expanded. And I am determined to fix it! Life is too short, and I am genuinely worried I will burn out. There will be a transition period. And I’d always like to do some of the photos because I genuinely enjoy it. But I hope to eventually have Rob taking most of the photos for the website. Plus, we can do more photos with Dozer and I in them! I’d like to do a bit of a RecipeTin-world update soon, because there’s actually a lot that’s been happening which is why I’ve been publishing less than my typical 3 new recipes a week. So I won’t go into more details today, I’ll sign off here. For now, please enjoy today’s new recipe! I really hope you try it. It’s a terrific complete-meal stir fry that’s simple to make, with adaptable ingredients and just requires a trip to your everyday grocery store. Enjoy! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Life of Dozer
Ahh, poor Dozer! He’s had a rough week. Rough few months, actually! In the last week, he’s been to the vet 7 times due to what was finally determined to be acute gastro, though at one stage there was a concern it was a much more serious issue (such as megaesophagus). In the almost 12 years I’ve had him, I’ve never seen him in such distress, pain and not to mention the floods of un-controllable💩 (the words “explosion” and “flood gates” come to mind). There’s been a handful of midnight hospital visits, a couple of all-nighters, and much time spent trying to figure out food he’ll eat that’s laryngeal paralysis* and gastro-friendly. Let’s just say canned dog food doesn’t make the cut. I know, I know, no one is surprised!
- This is the condition he was diagnosed with earlier this year in which his larynxes are paralysed which means he is at high risk of food getting into his lungs. This causes lung infections which can be deadly. So he is on a special diet these days. Anyway, in a nutshell, it’s been a rough week for poor Dozer. Well, actually, it’s been 10 days now. He seems to be at the tail end of it now though still not back to his normal self. Right now he’s sitting under the table at my feet, clearly feeling a little nauseous though nowhere near as extreme as it was last week. (He has anti-nausea pills. I skipped this morning thinking he was ok. I’ll be putting him back on them for a while, I think!). But he is much, much better than he was on the weekend which was pretty horrific. The worst part was seeing him in such pain, finding him curled up in the middle of the night under a bush in the far corner of the garden. I knew something was really wrong. 😢 I’m so thankful he’s feeling better now! Oh – but finishing with a little fun: here he is in the early stages of his gastro when I resorted to man-buns: But by the time the weekend rolled around and after the 20th butt wash, we caved and shaved his butt. You don’t need to see a photo of that. 😂 Hope to bring more positive Dozer news in the next post! – Nagi x
