Delicious wok fried noodles with onions and beansprouts, add the perfect side dish to your next fakeaway with this Chinese takeaway style chow mein with beansprouts recipe!
Chinese takeaway noodles are a great example of cooking skill and equipment coming together to create a unique flavour. With the roaring hot heat of the wok, the noodles and ingredients catch just enough in the pan to create that delicious smokey flavour (known as ‘wok hei’ or, ‘the breath of the wok’). Whilst difficult to recreate fully in a home kitchen, with the right ingredients and cooking technique, we can make some very tasty noodles indeed.
Ingredients For Chow Mein With Beansprouts
This Chinese takeaway style chow mein with beansprouts uses dry noodles like the ones used in many restaurants. If you’re lucky enough to have a Chinese supermarket nearby, you’ll find huge boxes of lucky boat brand noodles that you can use to make chow mein. These noodles are commonly used, and you can buy the same noodles in smaller amounts now online too.
Supermarket soy sauces are often thin and watery compared to the brands typically used in Chinese takeaway kitchens. Look for Lee Kum Kee or Pearl River brand soy sauces.
- Noodles: Lucky Boat brand noodles are widely used in Chinese takeaways and restaurants.
- Seasoning: Dark Soy Sauce, Light Soy Sauce, Sugar, MSG, White Pepper
- Other Ingredients: Vegetable Oil, Fresh Beansprouts, Onion, Spring Onion, Rice Wine, Sesame Oil or Aromatic Oil.
How To Make Chow Mein With Beansprouts
To make chow mein with beansprouts, dry noodles are soaked in freshly boiled water until just softened, then drained and set aside to cool. Onions and beansprouts are fried in hot oil along with the noodles, with dark soy sauce added for colour. Light soy sauce, sugar, MSG and white pepper add flavour, and spring onions add freshness before the noodles are finished with a dash of rice wine and sesame oil or aromatic oil.
Step 1: Soak The Noodles
Add the dry noodle nest to a bowl. Cover with boiling water. Stand for 2-3 minutes until the noodles are just softened. Separate with a chopstick. Rinse briefly with cold water, drain and set aside to cool.
Step 2: Fry The Noodles
Add the vegetable oil to a hot wok over high heat. Add the sliced onions, beansprouts and prepared noodles. Add the dark soy sauce, water, light soy sauce, sugar, msg, white pepper and spring onion.
Step 3: Serve Chow Mein With Beansprouts
Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes over a high heat or until the noodles are well fired. Finish with rice wine and sesame oil or aromatic oil and serve.
Chow Mein With Beansprouts Recipe Tips
Use Your Noodle: Soak dry noodles in freshly boiled water just long enough to ensure they’re soft before rinsing and setting aside to rest. Soaking the noodles for too long will make them mushy and harder to stir-fry in the wok.
Oil Go Easy: Plain Chow Mein needs just a dash of sesame oil or aromatic oil to finish. If you’re going to use sesame oil, I like this Korean Ottogi Sesame Oil which is used by Andy Cheung, chef and owner of Wok Star in Glasgow.
I hope you’ll try this Chinese takeaway style chow mein with beansprouts recipe. If you do, let me know in the comments how it went!
Chow Mein (with beansprouts)
Equipment
- 1 Large Bowl
- 1 Sieve or Colander
- 1 Wok or Large Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 1 nest egg noodles
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 large onion sliced
- 100 grams beansprouts
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 50 ml water
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon msg
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 spring onion sliced
- Dash rice wine
- Dash sesame oil or aromatic oil
Instructions
- Add the dry egg noodle nest to a bowl. Cover with boiling water. Stand for 2-3 minutes until the noodles are just softened. Separate with a chopstick. Rinse briefly with cold water, drain and set aside to cool.1 nest egg noodles
- Add the vegetable oil to a hot wok over high heat. Add the sliced onions, beansprouts and prepared noodles. Add the dark soy sauce, water, light soy sauce, sugar, msg, white pepper and spring onion.1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1/2 large onion, 100 grams beansprouts, 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce, 50 ml water, 1 teaspoon light soy sauce, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon msg, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, 1 spring onion, 1 nest egg noodles
- Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes over a high heat or until the noodles are well fired. Finish with rice wine and sesame oil or aromatic oil and serve.Dash rice wine, Dash sesame oil or aromatic oil
Chow Mein With Beansprouts Recipe FAQ
What kind of noodles do Chinese takeaways use?
Lucky Boat brand noodles are widely used in Chinese takeaways and restaurants. You can find them in Chinese supermarkets, or online.
How do Chinese takeaways make noodles taste so good?
MSG! And the skill of your local takeaway chef, of course. MSG is a flavour enhancer that makes food taste delicious – it’s entirely safe to use and you can find it in Chinese supermarkets, or online.
Do I need a carbon steel wok to cook Chow Mein With Beansprouts?
You can cook Chow Mein in any large wok or frying pan. But, investing in a carbon steel wok is a great way to improve your Chinese takeaway style cooking. With the wok properly seasoned, ingredients can be cooked quickly over high heat, adding delicious flavour to stir fry dishes.
Do you like this Chinese takeaway style chow mein with beansprouts recipe? If so, buying a copy of my book might appeal to you! In The Chinese Takeaway Secret you can find a host of restaurant and takeaway style recipes that you can make at home. You’ll learn how to make egg drop soup, spare ribs, chicken satay, salt and chilli king prawns and more! You can buy The Chinese Takeaway Secret in paperback or kindle form here.
- McGovern, Kenny (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 240 Pages – 06/09/2022 (Publication Date) – Robinson (Publisher)
Would omitting the msg make too much of a difference to the taste? If so, can you recommend a substitute?
You could omit the msg and add a touch more salt instead if desired Stuart – unless you have a specific allergy to msg it’s worth getting hold of some, it’s a flavour enhancer and brings out the flavour of the other ingredients which is particularly useful in a simple chow mein dish.
Ordered the book! I’m a bit of an Indian aficionado. Looking forward to trying the indo Asian recipes.
Thanks so much for ordering the book! I hope you enjoy the recipes, do let me know what you think when you get cooking!
As good an explanation and recipe of how to get that British takeaway chow mein flavour that I’ve seen. I used lower sodium soy sauces and cut the salt and msg back to .5g each and it was still perfectly seasoned. Doing that reduced the dish down from 8g of salt to just under 4g.
Thanks so much TJ! I appreciate you taking the time to leave some feedback – low sodium soy sauce is always good to have in the storecupboard, it’s true that a lot of takeaway style dishes can soon reach high salt levels when lots of soy sauce and other flavourings are included, great tip for reducing the salt levels!
As good a home cooked takeaway you’ll get. Tasted incredible