A bed of crispy noodles, stir-fried vegetables, shrimp, and chicken are the main ingredients in this Chinese dish, which is also flavored with a thick gravy-like sauce. Crispy pan-fried noodles have always been one of my favorite dishes. To my delight, after introducing Mr. K introduced it a few years ago, and it quickly became one of his favorites. I had never considered trying it at home, but after seeing a step-by-step tutorial on Serious Eats, I decided to give it a shot. This dish will be successful if two things happen. The noodles must first be made crispy, which can be accomplished by frying them in a pan. No deep frying needed! The second key is the sauce. The vegetables are flavored by the thick, gravy-like sauce, which also coats the thin noodles. You want it to be thick, but not so thick that it becomes clumpy. I was pretty pleased with how this came out. The flavors were quite spot-on, but I need to work on the presentation of the noodles.
Watch how to make it
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The most important part – crunch retention!!
With this recipe, the sauce is meant to be plentiful so that it soaks into the noodles and softens them so they can be picked up with chopsticks like regular noodles.
But it’s crucial to keep some crunch, so I like to place the saucy topping in the center of the crunchy noodle cake, keeping the edges crunchy.
The only warning I have about these Crispy Noodles is that eating them will result in some mess. Those annoying crunchy noodle bits protrude everywhere.
As a result, when you try to shovel the noodles into your mouth, some of the crunchy pieces will inevitably stick out and miss your mouth, leaving sauce all over your face.
That’s just a small portion of the enjoyment of eating this!
What type of noodles to use
I use Hong Kong pan fry noodles, which are fresh, thin noodles that are partially cooked and ready to use for pan frying without the need to boil them first. It’s the best type of noodles for this dish to create heavenly crispy noodles. You can find them in the refrigerated section of your Asian market or even on Amazon, although they’re very expensive if you buy them online.
However, you can adapt this recipe for beef pan fried noodles to use other varieties of thin noodles. Although I’ve provided notes below on straightforward substitutions you might already have in your kitchen, if you can find the Hong Kong pan fry noodles, I highly recommend you do.
FAQ
How do you eat fried crispy noodles?
- They can be served over American Chicken Chow Mein or Chicken Chop Suey if you want to go all out retro.
- They can even be used in the salads with Asian influences that I mentioned.
- Egg wonton skins or egg roll skins can be used in place of noodles if necessary.
- And here are the fried wonton skins:
What are fried noodles used for?
Use them as a crunchy garnish on soups like manchow, hot and sour, or even wonton soup, or blend them into a lunchtime salad of crunchy Chinese chicken. Alternately, prepare your favorite Chinese dish using these as the foundation rather than regular noodles.
How do you pan fry noodles without sticking them?
How to Make Sure your Pan-Fried Noodles Aren’t Sticky? Pat the noodles as dry as you can from water to prevent them from sticking together. Then, before you pan-fry them, lightly toss them in sesame oil.
What’s the difference between lo mein and pan-fried noodles?
Then there’s the difference in cooking method. Maggie advised, “You can pan fry chow mein noodles with a little more oil so they get crispy.” The noodles are fried, often with the veggies and meat. She continued, “With lo mein, you just toss the noodles with sauce and the ingredients.
