Supreme Soy Sauce Pan-Fried Noodles 豉油皇炒麵
By Michael · from our van kitchen
Rina had been asking me to make supreme soy sauce pan-fried noodles for a while. There’s no meat in it, just egg noodles, bean sprouts, chives and the sauce. So I planned it for our first night camping in the Great Smoky Mountains, on the wok with the high-pressure propane burner.
I’ve made it twice on camera, and neither time went quite the way I planned. This recipe follows the first one, at the Smoky Mountains: watch me make it.
The night the propane ran out
I had everything cut and the water heating up when the propane ran out. It was already past 7, the campground store was probably closed, and I didn’t want to drive an hour to swap a tank. So I finished it on our little butane stove, the one we used in our old van forever.
It worked, but it was slow. It was cool outside, and the heat only really reached the bottom of the wok. The sides weren’t hot at all. Pan-frying the noodles took about 10 minutes per batch, and by the time I finished my own half, the family was already eating. I wouldn’t recommend cooking this outside on a regular burner like ours. Inside, with no wind, it would probably be a lot faster.
The flavour was right, though. I like how it came out, and Rina liked it too. What I’d change is the proportions. A full pound of noodles is way too much. It needed more chives and more bean sprouts. Next time I’d cook a little less in one go and make something else on the side. Rina wanted more chives and bean sprouts in the leftovers too, so I cut some up and mixed them in for her lunch the next day.
The beef version
A few days later at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky I tried again, this time with the high-pressure burner going. I didn’t have bean sprouts, so I made it a beef pan-fried noodle instead, with leftover chives and carrots.
For the beef, I sliced about three quarters of a pound to a pound of flank steak and marinated it with a tablespoon and a half each of light and dark soy sauce, half a tablespoon of Shaoxing wine, half a teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of cornstarch and a pinch of white pepper. The beef soaks up all the liquid, and that’s what makes it really tender. I seared it for about 30 seconds on each side and set it aside before the noodles.
The sauce was the same base: 2 tablespoons each of light and dark soy, 2 teaspoons of sugar, a tablespoon of sesame oil, half a tablespoon of Shaoxing wine, white pepper and about a tablespoon of Maggi, plus a bit of chicken stock and 2 tablespoons of water. I fried minced garlic for 10 to 15 seconds before the onion this time. If the noodles look too dry while they’re pan-frying, add a little water at the side of the wok.
The wok hei on the beef was so good. My one mistake: I added too much Maggi at the end. Taste before you add more.
Ingredients
Noodles and vegetables
- 1 lb egg noodles (I'd cook less next time)
- Bean sprouts, washed
- A nice handful of chives, green tops only, cut about 1 to 2 inches long
- Carrots, sliced into long, thin pieces
- About half an onion
- 3 eggs
- Cooking oil
Sauce
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- About 1/2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- A pinch of white pepper
- About 1 tbsp Maggi seasoning, plus a little more at the end
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- Sesame oil
Steps
- Prep everything inside first: wash the bean sprouts, cut the green tops of the chives about an inch or two long, slice the carrots into long thin pieces, cut about half an onion, and crack the eggs into a bowl.
- Pre-cook the noodles. Bring a pot of water to a boil, then turn the heat off so the water isn't too hot. Add the noodles and let them soften for about a minute, then drain them and leave them to sit. Too hot or too long and they get soggy and starchy.
- Mix the sauce: light soy, dark soy, sugar, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, white pepper, Maggi, fish sauce and sesame oil. If you're cooking a full pound of noodles in two batches, make extra sauce.
- Heat the wok until it starts to smoke, coat it with oil, then pour out the extra. This helps keep it nonstick.
- Stir-fry the carrots, bean sprouts and chives first to get the moisture out, so the noodles stay dry later. Set them aside.
- Heat the wok back up with a little more oil and cook the eggs. Put them in a bowl.
- Add a little more oil, cook the onions, then add the noodles. Turn it down to about medium and keep tossing and spreading them out with chopsticks. You want them crispy and dry on the outside, soft on the inside. This took me about 10 minutes.
- Put the vegetables back in, mix, and pour in the sauce. Keep tossing until the noodles are nice and dry again.
- Toss the eggs back in, taste, and add a little more Maggi on the side of the wok for an extra kick. Mix it in and serve right away.
Amounts are what I said in the video. Where I didn't measure, it says "to taste". Cook it your way.
