Chinese Takeout Chow Mein Secrets Revealed

today I'll show you how to make a proper takeout style Chow we'll review the exact ingredients and techniques takeaway restaurants use to make this classic noodle dish and I'll show you a cool kitchen hack to get that elusive Smoky walk flavor at home the first thing we'll need to address is the noodles the terms low man and Chow are sometimes used interchangeably in western style takeout noodle dishes the main difference is that low man tends to be Saucier and is made with thicker noodles and Chow man is at least the version we're making today is

typically a drier dish with a thinner noodle so what kind of noodles are we looking for let's break down all the most common ones you'll see in the grocery store your standard takeout style chalain uses a version of an Asian egg noodle it's a thin round yellow noodle with a thickness somewhere between spaghetti and angel hair pasta in its dried form which you'll find on the dry goods aisle look for the names Chow noodles Chow stir frry noodles Canton noodles Canton egg noodles Canton style egg noodles egg noodles Hong Kong egg flavor noodles or just

thin yellow dried noodles and you'll often see a chicken with eggs on the label to let you know that these are egg noodles in its fresh form which you'll find in the refrigerated section look for the names Chow pan fried noodles thin egg noodles thin won noodles steam egg noodles thin egg noodles egg noodles fresh Chinese noodles egg won noodles thin won noodle or Hong Kong style won thin noodle you'll also sometimes see these thicker Factory recall impostor Chow noodles but these are really more appropriate for low man so always look for the thinner style

egg noodles now the preparation of the noodles is the most important aspect of making this dish properly if you overcook the noodles it can make them mushy and cause them to stick to your pan and if you try to cook the noodles when they're too wet the liquid will pull at the bottom of your walk which will steam the noodles which also tends to overcook them so let's break down how to prepare both dry and fresh noodles for chow M we'll start by bringing a large pot of water up to a boil for fresh noodles

drop 8 ounces into the water and loosen them up like this now you never want to boil fresh noodles for longer than about 15 to 20 seconds or just until the bundles have unraveled completely then you'll strain the noodles in a colander and immediately rinse them off with coal C water this will not only stop the cooking process but it will also help remove some of the surface starch on the noodles that will make them Clump together when they're reheated for dried noodles it's the same process with a couple of key differences the first thing

is you only want to start with about half the amount of fresh noodles because they're rehydrating the dried noodles tend to double in weight after boiling so bring a large pot of water up to a boil and drop in 4 oz of the dried noodles then start loosening up the bundles like this the main thing with the dried variety is they take about 2 to 3 minutes to cook instead of just a few seconds but you want to cook them for about 1 minute less than the package instructions because we'll be stir frying the noodles

later and cooking them for a second time you want them very slightly undercooked when they're done strain the noodles in a colander and rinse them off with cold water to stop them from overcooking and remove the excess starch from their surface the second step with either kind of noodles is to dry them off as well as you can what I like to do is lay out a towel and blot them like this you don't have to be perfect with it but this step does improve the final texture of the dish and when they're dry put

the cooked noodles in a bowl and toss them with a bit of oil this will help the noodles stay separate which will make it easier to get that slightly crispy texture while preventing the noodles from sticking to the pan and clumping together when we're stir frying them and you can prepare the noodles up to several hours before the final cooking now for the proteins I'm going to show you several different techniques to get that super tender texture they have at takeout restaurants but before we get to that I need to show you how to slice

it correctly for Chow in this dish it's common for all the proteins and the vegetables to be cut into thin strips like this to mimic the shape of the noodles so here I've got a single chicken breast if you look closely you'll see little grains running across the meat to the best of your ability cut perpendicular to these grains to make about 1/4 in slices what this does is shorten the fibers in the meat which will make it much more tender when we stir fry it then take each of these slices and cut them into

about 1/4 in strips and if you've done it correctly they should look something like this another thing a lot of takeout restaurants do is wash their proteins under cold running water this process supposedly loosens the fibers even more and allows the marinade to penetrate deeper into the meat all you'll do is take your chicken slices and run them under cold water for about a minute massaging them the entire time then squeeze out the water either with your hands or by pressing against a colander the final step in achieving in super tender proteins is baking soda

if you've ever wondered why your meat at home is never as tender as your local takeout restaurant the answer is baking soda it essentially alkalizes the surface of the meat which increases the Browning via the myard reaction and makes it harder for protein bands to tighten when exposed to the high heat of walk cooking and I know some people are highly sensitive to the taste of baking soda so I'll show you two different ways to achieve the same result for the first method here I've got our slic and washed chicken breast and to that I'll

add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and mix it into the meat and really go deep tissue xatu massage on it you want to treat it like it owes you money this will relax the fibers in the protein even further and ensure we have the most tender stir fry meat possible after the baking soda treatment we'll next add 1/4 teaspoon of corn starch 1/4 teaspoon of sugar a pinch of salt 1/4 teaspoon of light soy sauce half a teaspoon of shaing wine and half a a teaspoon of neutral oil then mix the marinade into the chicken

well and refrigerate it for at least 15 minutes or up to overnight now if you're sensitive to the taste of baking soda but still want to achieve the same result what you'll do is mix in half a teaspoon of baking soda with 1 cup of water and pour the alkaline water over the washed chicken slices this dilutes the taste of the baking soda but still allows us to get its tenderizing and Browning effects and refrigerate the chicken for at least 2 hours or up to overnight then you'll drain the chicken slices wash them off again

squeeze all of the water out and proceed with the marinade ingredients as outlined previously for the vegetables in takeout style Chow man they're traditionally cut into thin strips like this to mimic the noodles so with the onion what you want to do is identify the grain that runs along it and make your Cuts with the grain so you get slices that look like this these will hold up much better in a stir fry than if we had cut Against the Grain for the Cabbage you'll just peel off a few leaves from the head stack them

onto one another and make slices about a/4 of an inch wide and if you've done it correctly they should look like this with the carrot you'll peel it and cut it into roughly 2in pieces then make a slice down one side of each piece so they can have a flat surface to sit on while you're cutting next make about 1/8 in slices into sheets like this then stack each of these on top of one another and make about 1/8 in Cuts so they turn into little strips like this conversely most grocery stores do sell sell

match stick carrots that are already prepared and this is what I use most often for the green onions remove the roots cut them into about 2 in pieces and keep the whites separated from the greens because we'll be adding them at different stages during the cooking process then cut the whites in half lengthwise into strips that look like this and a quick note on the bean sprouts because I get a lot of questions about this at most Asian grocery stores you'll see two different kinds soybean sprouts and mung bean sprouts in takeout dishes Almost 100%

of the time they're using mung bean sprouts so that's what you want to grab now the final thing we'll need to address is the sauce one of the main differences between western style takeout Chow man and similar dishes like low man other than the noodle size is that Chow tends to be a bit drier and not as Saucy ideally we want the sauce to coat the noodles without excess liquid pooling at the bottom so let me give you a quick rundown of the ingredients we'll need for the sauce take out style CH m sauce typically

uses two types of soy sauce light soy sauce and dark soy sauce and this causes a lot of confusion for people new to making Chinese cuisine light soy sauce doesn't mean low sodium light soy sauce is the Chinese version of standard soy sauce you'll often find it labeled as just soy sauce or premium soy sauce the light variety is used to add salinity and savoriness to dishes without adding much color dark soy sauce as its name implies is much darker and thicker than its light cousin and is typically used to add color and richness to

dishes its flavor is less salty but slightly Sweeter Than Light soy sauce for oyster sauce I always recommend leum Keys premium oyster sauce because it's the best I've tried but if you have a shellfish allergy you should be able to find vegetarian oyster sauces made from mushrooms at most Asian grocery stores the next ingredient is Shing wine this is a rice wine that is frequently used in Chinese cooking its taste is difficult to describe it's sort of mildly acidic and faintly taste of caramel it's a great way to add another dimension of flavor to a

dish if you're unable to locate shaing wine you can use a dry sherry instead or if you can't use alcohol in your cooking replace this with chicken broth with a splash of rice vinegar another ingredient that is often overlooked is sugar and I know a lot of people scoff at adding sugar to a Savory dish but it's often used in takeout Cuisine not so much for sweetness but to balance out all the salty elements like soy sauce and oyster sauce and the final ingredient we'll need is MSG if you've ever wondered why your homemade dishes

don't taste as good as your favorite takeout restaurant it's probably because you're skipping MSG I know this is a controversial ingredient but the science over the last century is pretty clear it's completely safe and it really does add that certain little something you just can't put your finger on in Asian grocery stores you'll find it under the brand named Ai No Moto and in Western grocery stores you'll find it on the spice aisle under under the name accent now to make the sauce let's start with 2 tpoon of sugar 1/4 taspo of MSG half a

teaspoon of table salt and 1 pinch of white pepper next to the dry ingredients let's add 1 tbsp of chicken broth 1 tbsp of shaing rice wine 1 tbsp of light soy sauce and 2 tpoon of dark soy sauce give it a whisk until all the dry ingredients are completely dissolved into the liquid liquid then add 1 and 1/2 tbsp of oyster sauce and half a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil whisk it one more time until everything is incorporated and this is a classic takeout style chalain sauce before we cook the noodles it's very important

to have everything ready to go because this is a stir fry dish it comes together in a matter of minutes so it's not really possible to prep as you're cooking we'll go over all the ingredients as we're making the dish but it's essential to have everything prepared beforehand so to get started let's heat our walk over medium high heat until you see very light wisps of smoke then add about a tablespoon of neutral oil and swirl it around until it's lightly shimmering toss in 4 oz of the prepared protein push it down so it's in

one layer and let it cook until it's got some color on the first side continue cooking until the chicken is completely done and then transfer it to a bowl now return your walk to medium high heat add about a tablespoon of neutral oil swirl it around until the walk is coated and toss in 1/4 cup of sliced onion 1/4 cup of scallion whites half a cup of sliced cabbage and 1/4 cup of Julianne carrots continue cooking the vegetables for about a minute or so what we're looking for here is crisp tender vegetables we want to

just barely cook the rawness out of them and for the vegetables to retain some crunch in the final dish when they're done set the vegetables aside in the same Bowl as the chicken and I know a lot of people will wonder why you can't just cook everything at the same time in my experience when you're working with the industrial strength flamethrowers they use at takeout restaurants this is fine but our burners at home aren't that powerful and when you overfill your walk it tends to drop the Heat and everything just ends up releasing a lot

of liquid and boiling so you get much better results cooking in small batches so you can ensure every ingredient is cooked to Perfection for the final step let's return our walk to medium high heat and toss in another tablespoon of neutral oil swirl it around until the walk is cooked and then toss in 2 TP of minced garlic and 2 TP of minced ginger cook the aromatics very briefly for about 10 to 15 seconds just to let them flavor the oil a bit and then add 8 oz of the prepared noodles quickly toss the noodles

with the ginger and garlic making sure not to leave them at the bottom because they can burn very quickly what this step does is perfume the noodles with the flavor of ginger and garlic and I know it seems like we're using a lot of oil in this dish but the amount of oil used in takeout Cuisine would make a Saudi Orco executive blush so it's better to just embrace it then continue cooking the noodles for a couple of minutes until you start to notice some slightly charred bits on them you don't want to burn the

noodles and you may have to regulate your heat a bit while cooking them if it's going too fast but adding a bit of char to the noodles adds extra flavor and some textural variety to the dish when you're happy with your noodles push them to one side to make a space at the bottom then pour your sauce into the walk and not directly onto the noodles this slightly caramelizes the sauce increasing the depth of Flavor now toss the noodles with the sauce until they are evenly colored and I generally lower the heat after this step

because the sauce can burn quickly then add the chicken and the vegetables to the noodles and toss them together until they're mixed in well finally add half a cup of bean sprouts and 1/4 cup of scallion greens mix them into the dish until they're both evenly distributed and turn off the heat adding the bean sprouts and the scallions right at the end will give the final dish a bit of fresh earthy crunchiness and this is a classic takeout style Chow now very quickly before our taste test I want to show you a cool kitchen trick

if you want to achieve that Smoky walk hay flavor at home I learned about this technique from kji Lopez's book The Walk which I highly recommend it's the single best resource that will improve your W cooking I'll include a link in the video description so Kenji discovered that the Char grilled Smoky W flavor comes from the oil combusting when it touches the flame that curls over the lip of the walk with those super powerful burners they they use in professional kitchens and this isn't possible at home because our Flames don't reach that high but one

way to mimic this effect is to use a beain torch on the ingredients what you'll do is just lay out the noodles after they've been boiled and tossed in oil and hit them with the flame until you notice little blackened bits all over them and for the vegetables after you've cooked them in the walk do the same thing lay them out on a baking sheet and hit them with the flame until you notice little blackened spots all over them I can personally attest that this technique really does add that Smoky W flavor that's borderline impossible

to get at home all right back to the taste test I know this isn't traditional Chow but this version is still a foundational dish of western style takeout Cuisine and it's worth learning how to make properly because it's incredibly delicious and if you'd like to learn how to make classic takeout style low man be sure to check out this video thanks for watching see you Chow Maniacs next time