Chicken & Veggie Chow Mein

Prep Time:10 mins, Cook Time: 15 mins, Total Time: 25 mins

March 5, 2014

Eat Your Veg | Chicken & Veggie Noodle Stir Fry

I actually made this as part of my wee Chinese New Year banquet for the kids back at the end of January, to go with the Baked Prawn & Veggie Spring Rolls, but as usual it’s taken me a while to find the time to post!. Considerably healthier than take-away Chow Mein and a very tasty and speedy eat indeed, this is perfect mid-week fodder. And is without fail happily wolfed down by the monsters and myself (I add a little chilli to mine) and the leftovers get boxed up for packed lunches the next day. Jacques’s not big on sandwiches so something like this is ideal for him.

Stir fries are a great way to easily bump up your 5-a-day quota and are a fun eat for kids, there’s something about noodles that they all seem to love. They’re still known as wiggly worms in our house.. My two have been eating stir fries like this since toddlerism, though back then I tactically sliced and diced the veggies to miniscule proportions so they wouldn’t, and couldn’t, pick them out. Luckily these days I don’t have to go this far and the overall flavour of a tasty sauce has enough appeal to get them greedily chowing down on a big bowl of veggies and noodles. Invariably there’re full tummies and one very happy Mummy.

APRIL 2015 Update: This is the exact same recipe that we followed at the first of my after-school National Lottery Funded ‘Healthy Dinners Club’ sessions (on 28 April). Year 6 children loved making it and genuinely made the entire stir fry themselves, and got to take enough home to feed their families too!.

Chicken Chow Mein Pic

I’m entering my Chow Mein to a few challenges:

1) To Family Foodies which I host with Vanesther, this month it’s over on Bangers and Mash with the theme of Fab Fast Food, very excited to see the entries on this one.

2) To Vanesther’s The Spice Trail challenge which this month so happens to be Ginger.

3) To Extra Veg, an event co-hosted by Fuss Free Flavours and Utterly Scrummy, as there’s a whole barrage of veggies going in here!

4) To A Mummy Too‘s Recipe of the Week 

Chicken Chow Mein Challenge Logos

The Good Stuff:

Lean Chicken, Broccoli, Carrots, Courgettes, Spring Onions, Red Peppers, Mushrooms, Bean Sprouts



Great For:

Toddlers, Big Kids, Grown Ups, Family Dinners, Mid-Week Wonders, Quick Dinners, Chinese New Year, Chinese Banquets, Making With Kids



Notes:

Makes enough for a family of four
Vary your veggies as to what’s seasonal or you have in. You could also use kale, sweetcorn, aubergine, peas, mange tout, runner or french beans, red or white cabbage.
Why not make with beef or pork strips instead of chicken, or some prawns. Omit the chicken for vegetarians.



Special Equipment:

A wok or a very large frying pan



Chicken & Veggie Chow Mein

Ingredients Prep Time:10 mins, Cook Time: 15 mins, Total Time: 25 mins

For a Family of Four:
150g medium egg noodles
2 dessertspoons toasted sesame oil
3 dessertspoon lower salt soy sauce (I use Kikkoman Less Salt)
1 dessertspoon sweet chilli sauce
1 heaped teaspoon Chinese 5 Spice
300g skinned chicken breast (about 2), preferably free range
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 tablespoons sunflower or rapeseed oil
1 large thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 carrots, peeled or scrubbed and cut into fine strips
½ head of broccoli, cut into small florets
1 red or orange pepper, cut into fine strips
½ courgette cut into strips or 100g mushrooms, quartered, or both
a little water
4 spring onions, sliced into 1cm pieces
125g bean sprouts

1. Cook the noodles to packet instructions until almost tender, drain and toss in 1 dessertspoon of sesame oil.
Set aside.
2. Meanwhile combine in a bowl 1 dessertspoon of soy sauce, 1 dessertspoon of sweet chilli sauce and 1 heaped teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice.
3. Slice the chicken into fine strips (about 1cm by 4cm) and then toss in the bowl with the sauces and spice until evenly coated. Spoon in the cornflour and toss again.
4. Grate the ginger. Prepare all the vegetables as per the ingredients list.
5. Heat 1 tablespoon of sunflower or rapeseed oil in a wok or a very large frying pan until hot. Add the chicken strips and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, moving around the pan, until cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside in a bowl.
6. Heat another tablespoon of the oil in the same pan and add the ginger and all vegetables except the spring onions and bean sprouts, plus a splash of water. Cook for 5 minutes, moving regularly around the pan, add another splash of water if the pan looks dry. Add the spring onions, and cook for 1 more minute.

7. Stir in the set aside chicken strips, bean sprouts and noodles and heat through.
8. Stir in the remaining 1 dessertspoon of toasted sesame oil and 2 dessertspoons of soy sauce and serve immediately.

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You might also like:

Baked Spring Rolls for Chinese New Year

Sweet ‘n Sour Pork

Rhubarb Crumble Muffins

Easy Peasy Meatballs for Kids (and Grown Ups)

40 thoughts on “Chicken & Veggie Chow Mein”

  6. Elizabeth

    This sounds lovely! Trying to work out if I can make it with pork (currently defrosting), no sesame oil, sweet chilli sauce or beansprouts. Have everything else! Think I will improvise 🙂

    Reply ↓
    1. Louisa

      For some reason most of our stir fries involve pork, and in all honesty I rarely use bean sprouts though they are lovely in a stir fry. You don’t really need the sweet chilli sauce, either leave out or add a little chilli. As for sesame oil, it’s just a little added flavour, I wouldn’t worry!.

      Reply ↓
    1. Louisa

      Oh go for it, my kids have been eating something like this since they were wee toddlers, though back them I used to cut the veggies very finely (mainly for disguise!).

      Reply ↓
    1. Louisa

      Certainly is a 5-a-day wonder meal! I can’t tell the difference between the ordinary and low salt so I’ve taken to always buying it now.

      Reply ↓
  14. Choclette

    Chow mein used to be a favourite take away treat as a teenager – I think I was allowed about one a year! I bet I’d enjoy your version a whole lot more than any takeaway one.

    Reply ↓
  16. Heidi Roberts

    We often have a stir fry and I love thinly slicing the chicken the same as the veg, helps it all cook evenly. I also take any left over to lunch for work!

    Reply ↓
  19. Emily @amummytoo

    This looks delish. I would use Quorn pieces I think, then we could all eat it 🙂 Thanks for joining in with #recipeoftheweek. I’ve Pinned and Tweeted this post and there’s a fresh linky live now. You might have already popped over but if not, please do!

    Reply ↓
  20. Madeleine Morrow

    I could not survive a week without a stirfry and brilliant way – as you say – to pump up the veg quotient for the week. I try to use the low salt kikoman too or even tamari which I have been told in lower in salt.

    Reply ↓

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