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 was fantastic and easy to put together on a week night. Approved by 10 year old and husband. If you can find the fresh noodles, it’s totally worth it. I made it with pork and added mushrooms to the veggies. For those folks who struggled with the sauce – 2 notes from my experience 1. I misread the recipe initially thinking it was 4 T – had to start over with 4 tsp. 2. I used extra veggies and had about a lb of pork (instead of 10 oz the recipe called for) so I did double the sauce recipe to accommodate the extra additions and it worked well.
Just made this recipe with a batch of fresh egg noddles from Borgatti’s (NYC noodle shop) and I’m in heaven! Can’t wait until the teens get home from school as I’m sure this is the best ever after school snack!
Hi Nagi
I made this last night, it was gorgeous, but we thought it would be better with a bit more sauce.
Will keep with, it’s quick easy and very tasty.
Definitely keeping this for a quick mid week meal.
I made the sauce and my sauce looked like brown gravy. Any reason why it would look like that? Came out really great though! Maybe I packed the cornstarch? Or used too much? I followed the instructions! Please help!
Hi Nagi, love your recipes – they’ve reinvigorated my love of cooking because you make it so easy!
One question: I assume the calories you put are per serve but I just wanted to double check?
Great recipe. I made it with chicken and it was wonderful. I did double the sauce. I also think next time I’ll cut the corn starch in half as it was a bit heavy for my taste. I also didn’t have dark soy so I doubled the regular soy and subbed the white sugar for brown sugar and doubled it since brown has the molasses that dark soy has. I will def be making again! Thank you!
Another favourite for our family! I doubled the recipe and it was amazing. Better then the takeout we got last week.. (and cheaper!) Thank you Nagi!
Wahoo, that’s awesome Charmaine!! N x
Hi Nagi!
Thank you so much for your delicious recipes! My grandson found this lo-mein recipe and asked if I would make it for him! I found all that I needed at my local Asian mkt.!!! It was delicious!! He made me swear to NEVER lose this recipe, so I can make it again when he comes to visit!!!
Thanks again…..
Deb 🙂
Very well described, simple and delicious! I have not found fresh pasta and therefore made it myself. As additional vegetables I took blanched green beans and broccoli. I will make this again.
Sooooo good, my husband loved it, said just like getting take-out!
Should I boil the noodles first according to package instructions? I made this recipe and boiled the noodles first. The sauce was not enough, even though I only used 454 grams fresh steamed thick chow mein noodles. I would have to make the sauce again and add to it.
Made this for dinner tonight, absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Made this a few times now with different veggies. Always a hit and even warms up great for leftovers (I learned to double the recipe after the first batch was gone in a flash). Highly recommend!!
LOVED IT! For me, everything is about the sauce. I’m a sauce guy and this recipe surpasses any other Asian recipe I’ve tried.
My husband loved this but I did find that my sauce sort of congealed when I added it to the pan. Do you think I had my heat too high? The end result was very thick and sticky, rather than slippery. I want to try again and see if I can make it more wet like your video. I killed the heat and added some boiling water to help loosen it up and that helped some.
Tried it, loved it … as we do all your recipes! You are a treasure trove, keep us your marvellous work and THANK YOU !
First recipe on your site I’ve tried 😋 My family really loved this, can’t wait to make many of your other creations!
Yes this is the second time I have made it I change it up a little bit every time. I had a little Housin sauce and pickled red peppers and whatever veggies I have on hand. Also a tbl of Siracha. Plus I used firm tofu for the protein. It taste delicious
Made this for dinner tonight. I used tofu puffs as my partner is vegetarian. Turned out Amazing! Even our fussy Little Miss smashed an entire bowl Thankyou sooo much for the recipe 😊🥢🍜
My girlfriend kicked me out of the house after trying this. The texture was thick and slimy!!! The dogs wouldn’t even eat it.
Thank you for all your wonderful recipes. I’ve made quite a few of your recipes and my family just loves them.!!!