Chicken Chow Mein

Ingredients

• 300 g medium egg noodles
• 400 g chicken breast, sliced thin
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 200 g beansprouts
• 200 g cabbage, finely shredded
• 6 spring onions, cut into lengths
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 20 g ginger, matchsticked
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Undercook the noodles

   Boil the noodles a minute short of the packet time, rinse under cold water and toss with a little oil. They get a second cooking in the wok, and fully cooked noodles turn to paste.

2. Velvet the chicken

   Toss the sliced chicken with the cornflour and a splash of the soy. The starch coating holds moisture in through the high heat.

3. Sear the chicken

   Get the wok as hot as it goes, add the oil, and spread the chicken out. Leave it undisturbed for a minute to colour before tossing.

   3 min

4. Aromatics and cabbage

   Add the garlic, ginger and cabbage and stir-fry hard for a minute — the cabbage should still have bite.

   2 min

5. Noodles and sauce

   Add the noodles, then the sauces poured around the hot edge of the wok rather than into the middle, and finally the beansprouts and spring onions. Toss for a minute and serve; beansprouts go limp within seconds, so they are always last.

   2 min