black bean chicken noodles
A little spicy. A little salty. Loaded with flavour. If you like Chinese noodles this one is for you!
Ingredients
Velvet the chicken
- 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
- 2 tsp light soy
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 10 oz chicken thighs 3 boneless, skinless and cut into thin slices. About 3/16 of an inch if you can pull it off.
"The sauce"
- 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
- 1 tbsp dark soy
- 1 tbsp light soy
- 2 tsp chili garlic sauce - I don't like to do product endorsements but I use Huy Fong chili garlic sauce (the green lid).
The noodles
- 1 lb fresh chow mein noodles cooked just under the directions on the package. Mine take one minute to slightly toothy.
- 3 tbsp fermented black beans - available at Chinese/Asian markets
- 1 cup napa cabbage - thinly sliced and fairly tightly packed
- 4 green onions aka scallions
- 2 tsp minced garlic - see note
- 1 tsp minced ginger - see note
- 3 tbsp neutral oil - divided (2 tbsp and then 1 additional tbsp)
Instructions
Do your prep
- Velvet the chicken. Slice the chicken as close to 3/16 inch as you can get it. Put it into a bowl big enough to comfortably mix (restaurant tongs are perfect for this) and add the shaoxing and light soy. Sprinkle a half tablespoon of cornstarch overtop and mix. Now sprinkle the remaining half tablespoon and stir again. Set aside for 30 minutes.
- Soak your fermented black beans in cool water for at about five minutes. Rinse and smush with the flat side of a spoon. You want the black beans crushed but not obliterated. Little chunks is fine.
- Combine the dark soy, light soy, shaoxing wine and chili garlic paste. This is "the sauce".
- Chop the scallion whites into a small dice. Chop the green into one inch pieces.
- Slice the cabbage thinly.
- Mince the garlic and ginger. Or pull out your jar of homemade garlic ginger paste.
- Be ready. This goes really, really fast.
Get your noodles ready
- Put a pot of water on to boil.
- When you are ready to start making dinner boil your noodles following the instructions specific to the noodles you have but remember to cut back the cooking time 20-25 percent. Mine (thin) take one minute to get to an ever so slightly toothy texture that will wind up perfect in the final dish. I can't tell you exactly how long. I'm not there in the kitchen with you. I don't know what noodles you are using. Sorry.
- I have a pasta pot so I can pull the noodles out of the hot water. This works great because I can leave the hot noodle water (noodle water is like pasta water except it's more exotic. No not really) in the pot and just sit the noodles in the strainer. When I'm about to add the noodles I just dunk them in the hot water to loosen them up.
Make the black bean chicken chow main
- Heat your wok over medium high heat until it just starts to smoke. I'm assuming you have a wok and you oiled it before you put it away here. Heat it until it's hot but not crazy, melting hot is really what I'm suggesting here.
- Add two tablespoons of oil. Splash it around the sides of the wok and then add the chicken. Spread it around so it's not all piled up and wait. Yes. Wait. The antithesis of stir frying.
- After about 45 seconds to a minute start to stir fry. The chicken should be nicely browned on one side. Assuming you pulled off the 3/16th recommendation the chicken will be done as soon as you can't see anything obviously underdone.
- Turn the heat down to low. Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken and set aside.
- Turn the heat back up to medium high and add the third tablespoon of oil.
- Add the scallion whites, cabbage, garlic and ginger (or garlic ginger paste) and stir fry for about 30 seconds then add the crushed fermented black beans. Stir fry for another 30 seconds.
- Dunk the noodles into the reserved hot water if that's how you set things up, drain (shake and drain again) and add them to the wok.
- Toss the noodles to get them coated with the oil and grab up the black bean garlic.
- Add the green onion pieces and reserved chicken. Give everything a lively stir to combine.
- Add "the sauce" you prepared above and stir to combine.
Notes
If you follow glebekitchen and cook the Indian recipes you've probably come across garlic ginger paste. If you make it yourself (not the stuff in jars at the grocer) then you can substitute a tablespoon of garlic ginger paste for the minced garlic and ginger. It works and cuts down on prep for this recipe.