Part 2: Dan Dan Noodles – The Meat Mixture
Toast the ground pork in a wok with a teaspoon of oil over medium heat.
Add the five spice powder, dark soy sauce, shaoxing wine, and sweet bean sauce. Cook until all the liquid is evaporated. Set aside. Sauté the pickled vegetables, or sui mi ya ci, in the wok with the remaining two teaspoons of oil over medium heat for a few minutes. Set aside.
Part 1: Dan Dan Noodles – The Chili Oil
Oil, star anise, cinnamon stick, and Sichuan peppercorns should all be added to a small pot. Gradually raise the temperature to 325 degrees Fahrenheit over medium-low heat, then turn off the heat. After 6-7 minutes, use a slotted spoon to remove the peppercorns, cinnamon stick, and star anise.
Crushed red pepper flakes should be added and steeped in the heated oil. It should start smelling fragrant, almost like popcorn. Allow the oil to cool. Although this yields more chili oil than you’ll use, you’ll be happy to have it on hand for other recipes. Store in a glass jar and keep refrigerated.
Advice: Since the crushed red pepper flakes are fairly hot, if you prefer a tastier chili oil, purchase whole dried red chilies from any Asian market, remove the seeds, and then pulse them in a food processor to make the flakes. If you would like to make more chili oil to have on hand, you can also see Kaitlin’s post on how to do so!
Ingredients for Dan Dan Noodles
It’s really simple to make these tasty noodles at home—you probably already have most of these ingredients!
- Pork: 1/2 pound of ground pork; if you’re not able to eat pork, you can use 80/20 ground beef or dark meat ground turkey or chicken instead. One tablespoon of shaoxing wine (found at my neighborhood Asian grocery, 99 Ranch) is a staple in my suggested Chinese pantry; it’s used for cooking in China. Cooking sherry would be the closest alternative if you could not locate shaoxing wine. If alcohol is off limits, I’d suggest using a small amount of chicken stock instead. The good news is that you can live without it because this is used sparingly. You will still love the finished product because the flavors in this dish are so fantastic! 2 tablespoons light soy sauce, which is sometimes referred to as “all-purpose” soy sauce. Half a tablespoon of dark soy sauce: Compared to regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce is thicker, darker, sweeter, and contains more sodium. You can substitute oyster sauce for dark soy sauce if you don’t have any on hand. Half a teaspoon white pepper: If you cook a lot of Asian food at home, you should definitely stock up on some white pepper for your pantry. It’s a common spice in Chinese cuisine. Compared to black pepper, it tastes more earthy and spicy. If you don’t have it, you can use black pepper in its place. 1/2 tsp kosher salt1/2 tsp five spice powder.
- 1/4 cup chili oil – I like to use my homemade Sichuan chili oil; when people ask me what my favorite chili oil is, I always say mine! It’s very easy to make at home, so I highly recommend it! For those who are worried about the level of spice, if you can’t eat spicy food, I would still include the chili oil but cut the amount in half. If you would rather use store-bought, that is also totally OK! The Dan Dan Noodles gain a great deal of depth and flavor from the aromatic chili oil, especially mine. I would NOT skip it entirely.
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- Two tablespoons of sesame paste are used to make Dan Dan noodles, but you can also use tahini or natural peanut butter (which has no added sugar). When adding sesame paste to your sauce for the first time, you’ll notice that it has separated (much like almond butter). Give it a good stir to combine the paste and oil.
- Two tablespoons of ground Szechuan peppercorns, which I prefer to crush by hand in a mortar and pestle
- 1/2 tsp five spice powder
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp optional MSG: As you are well aware, I enjoy using MSG sparingly to enhance flavor. This is always optional.
- 4 cloves garlic chopped
- One pound of noodles, either fresh or dried will do; I’ve included a picture of the exact noodles I use below.
- 1/4 cup of noodle water can be used more or less to help loosen your sauce as needed.
- scallions chopped – this is an optional garnish
- crushed peanuts – this is an optional garnish
