Stir-fried noodles are critical to the part of the adventure of being in our relationship. No better way to spend Valentine’s Day than to tend to this lovely type of food. Both enjoying it out and recreating it at home made this day so special.
On Valentine’s Day, we headed to the Ravenswood neighborhood to try out the Filipino/Cuban restaurant called Bayan Ko. While our first encounter with this noodle dish was at Isla Pilipina in the same neighborhood, it was on this trip to Bayan Ko that we felt devoted enough to it to try recreating it at home.
Pancit noodles are similar to Chow Mein in Chinese cooking and Yakisoba in Japanese cooking. These two dishes were our earliest encounter with this type of stir fried noodle dish. Two other regional varieties that we became more familiar with since becoming acclimated to the Chicago food scene was the Malaysian dish called Mie Goreng. This dish is served at Serai, which is an excellent Malaysian/Indonesian restaurant in the Logan Square area. Our next entry will be about this stir fry and what makes it distinct compared to the Pancit noodles in Filipino cuisine.
Almost all ingredients can be found at your local grocery store, with the exception of dark soy sauce. We picked up the Pearl River Bridge Dark Soy Sauce at H-Mart on W Jackson Blvd, otherwise you can find it on Amazon here. Any dark soy sauce brand from your local Asian grocery store will work for the recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1¼ lb chicken breast, cubed
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 6 oz rice noodles
- 1½ cup frozen veggies (stir fry mix with broccoli, mushroom, carrots)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- White pepper to taste
Sauce Ingredients
- 2 cups low sodium chicken stock
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp brown sugar
Instructions
- In a large pan over medium heat, add oil. Once the oil is heated, add chicken and cook until internal temperature reaches 160F (about 7 minutes). Meanwhile, mix sauce ingredients in a bowl. Transfer chicken to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.
- Add garlic, onion, frozen veggies to pan and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cooked chicken and season with salt and black pepper.
- Add the sauce and bring to a boil. Add in rice noodles and stir until the noodles are coated with sauce and are cooked through (3-4 minutes).
- Add more stock (or water) if the dish is dry or noodles are not cooked through.
- Season with additional black and white pepper.
Recipe is based off of PickledPlum.com
