Slippery Lo Mein Noodles tossed in a Lo Mein Sauce with tons of veggies and protein of your choice. This takeout mainstay 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)
A favourite in my house, always goes down well regardless of what ever veggies I have in the fridge that I throw in – the sauce is that good
Delicious! My 6 year old said it was his favourite dinner ever, can’t get much higher praise than that.
I didn’t realize I had run out of dark soy so I substituted teriyaki, and it turned out delicious. I used mushroom in place of my protein, and thin spaghetti for the noodles (I obviously didn’t want to go to the store). This is the best lo mein recipe I’ve tried and I’ve tried several.
A little too much soy sauce, next time I will use half. Other than that it’s great
Hey Nagi 🙂
I think I have officially lost count of how many times we have made this recipe! Every time it’s a 10/10. It’s our go to on a Friday night when we don’t want to order takeout!
Great. Added fresh chilli. Perfect. Thanks
Thanks for this! I had a bunch of leftover spaghetti noodles (not in the tomato sauce obviously) and random veggies in the fridge and wanted something tasty to do with them. This was perfect. When I tried this recipe I didn’t have any meat so just threw in a big handful of nuts, which worked out fine. My husband (who tends to be a bit picky and squeamish) scarfed it down gratefully 🙂
Just made this for a second time and as good as the first. Great portable food for shiftworking partners….
I increased the serving amount to 5 and followed the recipe. But it turned out too sticky. The whole noodle got stuck together 😭 I couldn’t eat …
Made the veg lo mein and even though very tasty , the egg noodles absorbed all the sauce and left them quite dry. What did I do wrong?
Really lovely noodles – nice flavour although I added a bit more chilli to accommodate personal taste. I sometimes adapt for vegetarian menu but not sure this would work at its best with tofu or just veg. Great with chicken and prawns though as we had it because the quick cooking time retains both flavour and moisture. Chef minge looks real juicy too – I’d love to watch hubby eat that!
It was really good!! My family and I enjoyed it very much. I added unsalted peanuts and sugar snap peas. Had to add more water and sauce though.
Have your “bible” but these are super, hubby reckons the best yet.
Made the lo mein tonight. Fantastic. I also have Dinner, and have been working my way through it; all with great results!
agi & Dozer – LOVE your site and cookbook! My husband Jeff and I feel like you are part of our family! I have many dietary restrictions and they have changed over the years (and change how I can cook). I only used to use coconut aminos but I was ok after I added in some Bragg liquid aminos (soy based) and some legumes (YAY!). I have tamari in stock as well. We went to Asian supermarket yesterday – it was an adventure ;-0! I bought a variety of noodles that I can eat (It’s been a decade since I had noodles!) I bought Japchae (I’m going to make that) and use rice sticks in your Lo Mein recipe; also bought Longkou pea noodles, high grade Shaoxing, Lee Kum Kee brand Gluten free soy sauce and Vegan oyster flavored sauce. Nothing there said Dark Soy that was gluten free. Could you tell me if any of the sauce ingredients I have would stain like dark soy and/or what combo and amounts to use in your Lo Mein? I so appreciate being able to travel the world with the food I make that I can tailor to my health needs! (still can’t eat nightshades, wheat (gluten), or dairy) Asian was the last to tackle because of prevalence of wheat, corn, MSG, sugar, potato in many sauces. My husband and I love reading your travel stories and sharing your life and Dozer with us! I’m also going to try the tenderizing of sirloin tip steak when I make Japchae. Thanks so much for all you do!!!! (I realized I posted this on tenderizing, so re-posted it here)
Hi Nagi, just want to say love all your recipes. Your are my go site for excellent recipes and guidelines….Hey Dozer the sweetest lab ever!
Perfect first time. I made it with frozen prawns and it was delicious.
Hello,
Well I have purchased everything that is needed for the Lo Mein recipe.
I am single, elderly (although I don’t it), so I make a lot of something then freeze portions.
Do I automatically double everything on the recipe (or x3 or x4)?
If anyone can let me know, that would be great.
Greetings from Canada
Linda
So yummy! And fast!!! 🔥
When you can make a recipe that is spot on to takeout if not better, you are winning. This was delicious and I will definitely make this my go to. I didn’t have any shaoxing wine, but used a little cooking sherry and it still came out great, thanks for sharing!
Just wonderful flavors for a couple where one enjoys spice and one does not! It worked for both of us and had leftovers for my lunch!