Name: Stir-Fried Noodles with Chicken and Mushrooms (雞絲炒麵)
Yield: Serves 3–4 as a main dish, 5–8 as part of a multicourse meal.
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or quality, dry sherry; ½ teaspoon sugar; ¾ teaspoon coarse kosher salt; 1 tablespoon egg white; ½ pound 1/16 inch thin Chinese egg noodles, fresh or frozen (for substitutes and for making your own); ½ pound skinned and boned fresh chicken breast, trimmed of all membranes,cartilage, and fat (weight after trimming; equal to about 1 pound with skin and bone in; for easy, 5-minute boning); 4 cups water plus 2 teaspoons corn or peanut oil, for velveting about ½ cup corn or peanut oil, for stir-frying; ¼ pound fresh young snow peas, strings removed, or 1 medium carrot, trimmed and peeled, or 8–10 ounces fresh broccoli stems and flowerets; 2 tablespoons thin (regular) soy sauce; ¼ cup rich, unsalted chicken stock; 1½ teaspoons Chinese or Japanese sesame oil; 2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine or quality, dry sherry; 2 tablespoons tree ears; 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt; 4 large or 8 medium Chinese dried black mushrooms, “flower” variety recommended; 1–1½ teaspoons Chinese chili sauce (optional); 4–6 large cloves garlic, stem ends removed, lightly smashed and peeled; 1½ walnut-size nuggets fresh ginger; 2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold chicken stock; ¼ teaspoon coarse kosher salt; 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Preparation info

Serves
3–4
as a main dish .

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking

By Barbara Tropp

Published 1982

About

When I left for Taiwan, what I knew as chow mein was a concoction of tinned, fried, and vaguely rancid brown noodles, topped with a taste-free chicken and celery sauce and served up proudly in high school and museum cafeterias. What naïveté!

This is real chow mein, literally, “stir-fried noodles”: thin egg noodles that are first boiled to cook them, then stir-fried to give them a special gloss and texture, and finally tumbled in a light sauce with a stir