Chicken Chow Mein

It’s hard to pick out one single memory related with chow mein. I ate chow mein almost every other day simply because I loved it. Although I loved the street style chow mein...I loved even more the simple chow mein my mother used to make with just salt and pepper. She was actually forced to learn the perfect stir fried noodles because I and my sister took a huge interest in this particular food during our school days. But she was insanely against our wish to eat street food frequently and so our addiction to chow mein simply invited a rebellion in our home.

We demanded chow mein in our Sunday breakfasts, lunch box and some times in the evenings as well. Luchi and potato curry just became passé for us. Finally she gave in but decided to make them at home. Some of her first chow mein encounters were soggy – tasteless lumps of vegetables and noodles. But she was a quick learner and she perfected that recipe. Even now when I go home ma makes chow mein for our breakfast. Sometimes she throws some julienned potatoes with the noodles...and that amalgamation of Chinese and Bengali taste is so unique that you have to try that to know the feeling. But today it’s time for chicken chow mein. It’s so simple and so delicious that just a smoking hot wok is the main requirement of this recipe.

Chicken Chow Mein

Serves 4

Ingredients:

250gm of egg noodles

1 medium onion – thinly sliced

½ of green capsicum – thinly sliced

½ of red capsicum – thinly sliced

1 small carrot – julienned

A few sweet corns

Some coriander leaves

2 sticks of spring onion – finely chopped

2 chicken breasts

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tsp honey

1 tbsp corn flower

1 tsp oyster sauce

2 tsp green chilli sauce

½ tsp sesame oil

Salt & pepper

4 garlic cloves – paste

1 inch ginger – paste

2 tbsp oil

Method:

Cut the chicken breasts into thin slices.

Marinate those chicken strips with 1 tsp dark soy sauce, honey, corn flower, salt & pepper. Leave them to marinade for 15 minutes.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and let it become smoking hot.

Add half of the ginger – garlic paste to it and fry it for some seconds.

Add the marinated chicken strips and fry them for about 3-4 minutes or high flame until they are cooked. You can dash a little water and cover the wok so that chicken can cook in its vapour.

Take the cooked chicken strips out of the wok and keep aside.

Clean the wok and heat the remaining 1 tbsp oil until smoking hot.

Add the ginger – garlic paste and fry for about some seconds.

Add the julienned carrots, sweet corns, red and green capsicums and sliced onions.

Stir and cook until they become a little cooked. They veggies should retain their colour and crunch.

Add the cooked and fried chicken strips and the cooked egg noodles.

Pour the remaining 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, green chilli sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper.

Stir to mix and cook on high flame for about a minute or two or until the noodles are a little fried and perfectly mixed with the veggies, chicken and sauces.

Stir in the chopped spring onions.

Switch off the flame.

Garnish with some coriander leaves and serve immediately.