Takeout-Style Chicken Lo Mein

Chicken lo mein is soft wheat egg noodles tossed in a wok with thin strips of chicken, a pile of vegetables and a glossy soy and oyster sauce. This version is takeout-style at home: onion, red pepper, carrot, cabbage and cremini mushrooms, a sauce you mix in a cup, and a finish that is lightly glazed rather than gluey.

The cooking goes fast once the wok is hot, so the real work is the cutting. Have everything sliced and lined up before you turn on the burner.

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Lo Mein vs Chow Mein

Both use wheat egg noodles. Lo mein noodles are boiled until soft and then tossed with sauce, so they stay tender and saucy. Chow mein noodles are pan-fried until some get crisp. If you want those crisp edges, our chicken chow mein covers that method. For hand-pulled wide noodles, see the biang biang noodles.

Ingredients

Noodles: 12 ounces of fresh lo mein or fresh Chinese egg noodles, medium width. Dried lo mein or egg noodles work too. Spaghetti is a common swap, but it is firmer and lacks the springy egg-noodle texture, so this recipe doesn’t use it.

Chicken: 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced thin across the grain. Partly freezing it for 15 to 20 minutes makes even slicing much easier.

Vegetables: One sliced yellow onion, one red bell pepper in strips, two julienned carrots, two cups of shredded green cabbage, 8 ounces of sliced cremini mushrooms, three garlic cloves, a tablespoon of fresh ginger and four green onions with the whites and greens kept apart.

Sauce: Low-sodium soy sauce, oyster sauce, optional dark soy sauce for color, brown sugar, sesame oil, rice vinegar, chicken broth, cornstarch and black pepper. With low-sodium soy and oyster sauce it seasons the whole batch without extra salt. Dark soy adds deep color and a little more salt; leave it out if you prefer a lighter look.

Making Chicken Lo Mein

Prep everything first

Slice the chicken and all the vegetables, mince the garlic and ginger, and separate the green onion whites from the greens. Whisk the sauce in a cup, cornstarch included. This prep takes about 25 minutes, which is longer than many recipes admit, but once the wok is hot there is no time to cut anything.

Cook the noodles

Cook the noodles in boiling water. Fresh noodles take only 1 to 3 minutes; pull them when they are just tender, because they soften more in the wok. Dried noodles follow the package time minus a minute. Whether to rinse depends on timing:

• If the noodles go into the wok within a couple of minutes, drain them well and don’t rinse.
• If they will sit while you cook the chicken and vegetables, rinse them briefly under cold water and drain well. That stops the cooking and washes off surface starch so they don’t clump.
• Refrigerated precooked lo mein only needs loosening under hot tap water.

Stir-fry the chicken

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a 14-inch wok over high heat until it shimmers. Add half the chicken in a single layer, let it brown for a minute, then stir-fry until cooked through to 165°F, 3 to 4 minutes. Move it to a plate and repeat with the rest. A pound of chicken all at once crowds most home woks, so it steams and turns gray instead of browning.

Stir-fry the vegetables

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Stir-fry the onion, carrots and mushrooms 2 to 3 minutes, then add the bell pepper and cabbage for 1 to 2 minutes more. Stop while the vegetables still have some bite: tender-crisp, not limp. Add the garlic, ginger and green onion whites and stir 30 seconds until fragrant.

Toss with the noodles and sauce

Return the chicken and its juices, add the noodles, then stir the sauce again (the cornstarch settles) and pour it over. Toss with tongs or two spatulas for 1 to 2 minutes, until the sauce is absorbed and the noodles look glossy. One teaspoon of cornstarch gives a light glaze, not a thick gravy. Toss in the green onion greens and serve.

Real Timing

The original recipe listed 15 minutes of prep and 15 of cooking. With all the slicing, batching the chicken and boiling the water, plan on 25 minutes of prep and 20 of cooking, about 45 minutes total. The water can come to a boil while you prep.

Troubleshooting

• Mushy noodles: They were boiled too long. Fresh noodles need only a minute or two, and they cook more in the wok.
• Noodles clumped: They sat unrinsed. Rinse if they will wait, and loosen them with your fingers before they go in.
• Gluey sauce: Too much cornstarch, or the sauce cooked too long. Stick to 1 teaspoon and toss only until glossy.
• Pale, watery chicken: The wok was crowded or not hot enough. Cook in two batches.
• Too salty: Skip the dark soy and use low-sodium soy sauce. A splash of broth during tossing evens it out.
• Doesn’t fit in the wok: With a smaller wok or skillet, toss the noodles and sauce in two batches.

Storage and Reheating

• Refrigerate: Refrigerate within 2 hours in a covered container for 3 to 4 days.
• Reheat: Stir-fry in a hot pan with a tablespoon of water or broth, or microwave covered, until it reaches 165°F.
• Freeze: It freezes up to 2 months, but the vegetables lose their crunch. Thaw in the refrigerator before reheating.

More Noodle Dinners

For a curry-scented rice noodle stir-fry, try our Singapore noodles, or browse the dinner recipes.

Chicken Lo Mein Questions

Can I use spaghetti? It works in a pinch but stays firmer and less springy. Cook it al dente and toss it the same way.

Can I swap the vegetables? Keep the total around 6 cups so the wok isn’t overloaded. Cut everything to a similar size so it cooks evenly.

Is the sesame oil for cooking? No, it goes in the sauce for flavor. Use vegetable oil for the high-heat stir-frying.

Can I make it without a wok? Yes. Use the largest skillet you have, cook the chicken in batches, and toss the noodles in two rounds if needed.

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