Slippery Lo Mein Noodles tossed in a Lo Mein Sauce with tons of veggies and protein of your choice. Takeout gold standard comes down to the right sauce and the right noodles – then you’re just 6 minutes away from noodle heaven!
Lo Mein Noodles
The actual noodles pictured above were my dinner last night, albeit I was a little heavy handed with a big dollop of chilli sauce that had me gasping and sweating (and swearing) through every bite.
Don’t fear, it was self inflicted torture. Those red strips you see are capsicum / bell peppers, not chilli. There is no sign of chilli in this recipe – Lo Mein is not spicy!!!!
What goes in Lo Mein Noodles
Here’s what goes into the noodles (see below for sauce):
• Lo Mein noodles – for takeout style, use fresh yellow noodles (usually labelled “egg noodles”) that are about 3mm / 1/8″ thick. By “fresh”, I mean the ones you get in the fridge section of grocery stores (Aussies – Coles, Woolies etc, find it in the pasta section of fridge). These noodles have the chewy, slippery texture you love about take out.
Next best is dried egg noodles, or vac packed “fresh” egg noodles.
But really, you can also totally make Lo Mein with any noodles – thick, thin, fresh, dried, egg or rice – or ramen noodles, or even spaghetti or other long pasta. Lo Mein doesn’t judge! This is going to be delish with ANY type of noodles (or pasta – trust me, no one will know!).
• Protein – use either chicken, pork, beef, turkey, prawns/shrimp or tofu. Directions on how to cut and cook with each of these included in the recipe (PS hard tofu is so delish in this!)
• Vegetables – I used capsicum/bell peppers, carrot and green onion. Use 5 cups in total (packed) of whatever vegetables you want. Plus 1/2 an onion and garlic – these are part of the flavour base!
Lo Mein Sauce
A gold standard Lo Mein calls for a great Sauce – and here’s what you need for truly takeout grade Lo Mein! You see these ingredients in virtually every one of my stir fries and noodles – they’re the holy grail of Chinese cooking!
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Dark soy sauce is labelled as such on the bottle, and sold at most large grocery stores nowadays. It adds colour and flavour to the dish – notice how my noodles are nicely bronzed? Thank you Mr Dark Soy!
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Soy Sauce – the other one can be any generic soy sauce or light soy sauce (bottle will be labelled as such). This soy sauce adds salt and some flavour to the dish, but it doesn’t stain the noodles like dark soy.
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Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine) is an essential ingredient for making truly “restaurant standard” Asian noodles. Substitute with Mirin, cooking sake or dry sherry. Non alcoholic substitute – sub both the cooking wine AND water with low sodium chicken broth/stock, reduce light soy sauce to 1.5 tbsp.
Lo Mein making TIPS!
The making part is a breeze – and moves super fast, so make sure you have all the ingredients ready to toss into the wok!
Here are some tips to make your Lo Mein cooking life a breeze, even if you’re a first timer:
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Be prepared! As with all stir fries and noodles, have everything chopped and ready to toss straight in because once you start cooking, it moves FAST! You’ll be done 5 – 6 minutes.
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Double duty sauce – whatever protein you use, season it with some of the Sauce before cooking. Makes it extra tasty!
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TWO wooden spoons will make your tossing life a whole lot easier
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Wok or skillet – you don’t have to cook stir fries in a wok, but it does make it easier to toss enthusiastically, as is called for with stir fries. If you don’t have a wok, just use a very large skillet, preferably one heavy based that holds heat well.
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Keep things MOVING! Once you start cooking, keep stirring for the whole time otherwise things will start stewing i.e. leeching liquid. This will make your vegetables soggy and your noodles watery.
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CRISP tender vegetables – all stir fries and noodles are supposed to have “crisp tender” vegetables, meaning the vegetables are just cooked but are still a tiny bit raw inside. This not only retains their flavour, colour and nutrients better, but also is integral to the dish because overcooked vegetables leech water which waters down the flavour of the sauce.
These Lo Mein Noodles have enough vegetables in them to make it a complete meal, but if you’re really busting for some extra greens, you can either cram in another 2 cups or so of vegetables (ideally something like shredded cabbage, spinach or bean sprouts that are “noodle shaped” once cooked so they kind of disappear into the noodles), or add a Side Salad like one of these:
Side salad suggestions
And with that, I get to sign off. It’s your turn. Go forth and be a Noodle Master! And remember, toss with abundance! That is the very essence of stir fried noodles. Toss, toss, toss!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Lo Mein Noodles
Ingredients
- 1.5 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
- 2 garlic cloves , finely minced (Note 1)
- 1/2 onion , finely sliced
- 300g / 10oz chicken or other protein , sliced 0.5cm / 1/5" thick (Note 2)
- 2 medium carrots , peeled and cut into 4 x 0.75cm / 1.75 x 1/3" batons
- 1 large red capsicum / bell pepper , sliced (or 2 small)
- 6 green onions , cut into 5 cm/2” lengths
- 500g / 1lb Lo Mein, Hokkien or other medium thickness egg noodles, fresh, , prepared per packet (Note 3 for dried)
- 1/4 cup (65ml) water
Sauce:
- 4 tsp cornflour / cornstarch
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce (Note 4)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce or light soy sauce (Note 4)
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or Mirin (Note 5 subs)
- 1 tsp white sugar (omit if using Mirin)
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil , toasted, optional (Note 6)
- 1/4 tsp white pepper (sub black)
Garnish (optional):
- Green onion , finely sliced
Instructions
- Sauce: Mix cornflour and dark soy until lump free, then add remaining Sauce ingredients.
- Season Chicken: Transfer 2 tsp Sauce into bowl with chicken. Toss to coat.
- Heat oil in a wok or large heavy based skillet over high heat until smoking.
- Add onion and garlic, stir 30 seconds.
- Add chicken, stir until white on the outside, still raw inside - 1 minute.
- Add carrot and capsicum/bell peppers, cook 2 minutes or until chicken is cooked.
- Add noodles, Sauce and water. Use 2 wooden spoons and toss for 30 seconds.
- Add green onions, toss for another 1 minute until all the noodles are slick with sauce.
- Serve immediately, garnished with extra green onions if using.
Recipe Notes:
- Beef, pork, turkey - slice and cook per recipe
- Ground / mince meat - cook garlic and onion per recipe, then cook ground / mince. Once cooked, add 1 tbsp sauce, stir, then proceed with next steps in recipe.
- Hard tofu - cut into 1 x 4cm / 1/3 x 1.5" batons, cook per recipe.
- Prawns/shrimp - use small peeled, cook per recipe.
- More veggies - use another 2 1/2 cups chopped veggies.
- Dark soy sauce is labelled as such, provides colour and gives more flavour to the sauce than other soy sauces. Sold at Aussie grocery stores nowadays. Fallback: sub with more ordinary or light soy (below)
- Soy Sauce - ordinary all purpose soy sauce, they just say "soy sauce" on the label (eg. Kikkoman). Can also use Light soy sauce - bottle is labelled as such.
Nutrition Information:
Noodle Lovers – wait!
Your life will not be complete without these noodles too!
Life of Dozer
You wouldn’t believe how often people ask me if I crimp his ears…. NO I DO NOT!!! 😂
(Though I cannot blame anyone for asking, being the crazy Dog Lady that I am)
This is very good recipe…easy to make… Trust the electrician guy who loves to occasionally cook…I think I am gonna get lucky tonite…lol… Good stuff…
Ba ha ha ha!!! What can I say to that!!! Good stuff indeed!! N x
I have made this twice now with chicken and it makes a really easy tasty dinner I add chilli to ours
Thank you Nagi
I went to make your new supreme soy noodles, planning to add chicken and veg, but I saw your note saying to make this recipe instead if you wanted to add extras. It was amazing! Another winner. And now I still need to make the supreme soy noodles too!
just a quick question, do you use american tablespoons or australian tablespoons?
You can use either as I test for both in all my recipes! N x
Another great recipe!! My husband who isn’t a big fan of noodles absolutely loved it! Thank you Nagi!!
I make this all the time using different proteins, and whatever veges are in season, always a great family hit. Thanks yet again Nagi. Love your recipes 😍 always my go to.
I really really wanted to like this, and maybe it was user error, but it was slimy and almost gelatinous to a point. I’m sure it has something to do with the noodles and the cornstarch mixing. I just couldn’t eat it. Ordering pizza
I’m sorry Alexa! Did you cook the noodles as per the packet directions before mixing them in? N x
Alexa, I had this problem once when I used what were branded as dry lo mein noodles, and turned out to be hideous. I’ve used a different sort every other time (Wel-Pac) and they’ve worked splendidly. (At the time, I hadn’t found a place where I could get fresh ones, and though I have now I’m just used to working with these.)
We had some turkey mince so used that as the protein, turn out amazing! Definitely going to make this again 😀
We followed the recipe exactly, and it turned out great!!! Will definitely do again. Thank you so much for posting.
We had some turkey mince so used that as the protein, turn out amazing! Definitely going to make this again 😀
Perfect. Will definitely make again.
very very good ty
Absolutely Delicious Nagi 😍 Thank you 😊
It turned out really well! Thanks for this great and easy recipe! It was soo delicious!
It’s very easy to prepare. Tkx for the receipt. Super delicious.
Turned out great! Added some more vegetables! Every single recipe from you has been a success in my house! Thank you!
Another KILLER recipe Nagi!! My son was raving about it from the first mouthful to the last! Thanks for your never-fail recipes – there’s never been one that I wasn’t pleased with. YOU are amazing 🙂
Confused on the amount of oil. ..15 TBSP? Then in the “Notes” it says to reduce the Soy to 15 TBSP if substituting. Maybe im misinterpreting something.
Hi Amy – the recipe and notes say 1.5 Tbsp, not 15!! That is 1 and 1/2! N x
great recipe (and I added chili oil!)! found when I was searching for a lo mein with fresh noods. gonna make it for the second time now. thanks for posting it!
This was awful. First it doesn’t mention to use COOKED noodles. Second, 4 TBSP of cornstarch turned the final product into a gel coating the noodles. No corn starch or water needed and use cooked noodles, they won’t soften straight from the package like this says.
TSP* corn starch. I did not accidentally use 4TBSP of cornstarch. It still came out pretty bad. No substitutions used other than Snow peas for carrots which shouldn’t have impacted the outcome.
Paul, if you read the recipe again, under ingredients for noodles it will suggest what to do depending on type of noodles. Mine were dried, brought to boil for a few minutes, dumped in a colander and rinsed with cold water. This was within maybe 5 minutes of adding to rest of ingredients. The instructions say what to do if you use dried or soft. I added Asian meatballs I made yesterday and it was perfect.
I am a single and I just try to judge the amount of veg and noodles so I won’t have it for weeks. I could have used less dark soy in the sauce tho. I added broccoli, snow peas, carrot, celery, cabbage, onion. It may make a difference that I am very familiar with Asian cooking so I can judge my ingredients pretty well.
its common sense you gotta use cooked noodles
4 tsps of cornstarch? Sorry, but that was a disaster waiting to happen. Awful. Should have listened to my intuition. Tip: drop the cornstarch and water.
Well Jerry, the sauce has the cornstarch included. When you remove 2 tsp to mix with the protein, the remaining sauce with the added 1/4 cup of water was pretty ideal for my recipe. It doesn’t create a sauce per se but a complete coating of the ingredients. But I never measure my noodles, mine may have been less.