Chicken Chow Mein

My daughter told me her favorite meal is now chow mein so I thought I would give the homemade version a try. I looked through my Jamie Oliver Food Revolution cookbook and sure enough he had a healthy version of chow mein. She liked this dish so much that she asked me to make it every night...success! I changed a few things to our liking from the original recipe.

Picture and recipe taken from Jamie's Food Revolution cookbook and website.

  • a thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic
• ½–1 fresh yellow chilli, to your taste
• 1 large skinless chicken breast
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a small bunch of fresh cilantro
• 4 oz chow mein noodles
• peanut oil
• 1 heaped teaspoon cornflour
• 2–3 tablespoons soy sauce

These are the ingredients I left out if you want to add them for more flavor; 2 scallions, 1 baby bok choy, 4 shitake mushrooms, 1 x 8 ox can of water chestnuts, 1 small lime.

To prepare your stir-fry
• Put a large pan of water on to boil
• Peel and finely slice the ginger and garlic
• Finely slice the chili
• Slice the chicken into finger-sized strips and lightly season with salt and pepper
• If using, cut the ends off your onions and finely slice
• Pick the cilantro leaves and put to one side, and finely chop the stalks
• If using, halve the bok choy lengthways
• If using the mushrooms, either tear into pieces or leave whole

To cook your stir-fry
• Preheat a wok or large frying pan on a high heat and once it’s very, very hot add a good lug of peanut oil and swirl it around
• Stir in the chicken strips and cook for a couple of minutes, until the chicken browns slightly
• Add the ginger, garlic, chilli, cilantro stalks, mushrooms (if using) and half the onions
• Stir-fry for 30 seconds, keeping everything moving round the wok quickly
• Add your noodles and bok choy to the boiling water and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, no longer
• Meanwhile, add the cornflour, water chestnuts and their water to the wok and give it another good shake to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom
• Remove from the heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• Halve the lime, squeeze the juice of one half into the pan and mix well
• Drain the noodles and bok choy in a colander over a bowl, reserving a little of the cooking water
• Stir in the noodles and bok choy with a little of the cooking water to loosen if necessary, and mix well
• Have a taste and season with more soy sauce if needed

To serve your stir-fry
• Use tongs to divide everything between two bowls or plates, or to lift on to one large serving platter
• Spoon any juices over the top and sprinkle with the rest of the spring onions and the coriander leaves
• Serve with lime wedges