鸡肉米粉 (Chicken Rice Noodles)

This was posted on Woks of Life as "Chicken Mei Fun", so I'm kind of guessing at the Hanzi. I think that's probably what it'd be called in Chinese, but I can't swear to it. As far as I can tell "mei fun" is an alternate spelling/pronunciation of "mǐfěn", which is the Pinyin for 米粉 (as far as I know). 米粉 is "rice noodles" (or possibly sometimes "rice flour") and I've seen recipes for other dishes such as "Singapore Mei Fun" and "Chow Mei Fun" that use the same two characters, so I think I've probably got that right. From there I just prefixed 鸡肉 (chicken) to turn it into (I hope) "chicken mei fun". I just wanted to be very clear that I am guessing at the name here and there's a very real possibility that I got it wrong. So, you know, don't go asking for this at a restaurant or something!

I appreciate how quickly this dish comes together. As with many wok-cooked recipes, it's very important to get all your mise en place done first. But there's not too much to do for this one. Quickly prepapre a few rice noodles, a very quick chicken marinade, and chop a few veggies. Nothing major. And once you've got all that done, it only takes about 5 minutes to go from "the wok has finished warming up" to "dinner is served"!

I bumped the veggies up quite a bit when making this, but I think it could've easily tolerated even more. I think I'd also be tempted to do something a little different with the green onions next time. I found the bottoms weren't as cooked as I'd prefer, so I think next time I'd keep the tops in big 5cm pieces, but chop the bottoms smaller and add them earlier so they can soften up a little more. Other than that, it was great! Very fun and tasty recipe!

Hanzi/汉字: 鸡肉米粉
Pinyin/拼音: jīròu mǐfěn
English/英文: chicken rice noodles

鸡肉米粉

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

Chicken

• 200g skinless boneless chicken¹, sliced
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1/2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 2 tsp. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)
• 1/4 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. five-spice powder
• 1 tsp. vegetable oil²

Noodles

• 200g rice vermicelli
• 1 tsp. oil³
• 1/2 tsp. dark soy sauce

Stir-Fry

• 2 slices ginger, julienned
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small onion (~70-80g), quartered and thinly sliced
• 3 green onions, whites and greens separated, whites chopped and greens cut into 4-5cm pieces
• 1 carrot (~100g), julienned
• 250g cabbage, shredded
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 3 Tbsp. peanut or other high smoke point oil

Directions

Chicken

1. Combine the sliced chicken with the cornstarch, water, oyster sauce, wine, pepper, five-spice powder, and oil (or Laoganma/老干妈) and set aside for at least 20 minutes.

Noodles

1. Cook the noodles according to package directions (or your preferred method). I like to pour boiling water over them and let them sit in the hot water for 1-2 mintues before draining.
2. Drian the noodles and toss with the oil and soy sauce. Set aside.

Stir-Fry

1. Prep your ginger and garlic and set it aside. (In the same bowl is fine.)
2. Prep the onion and set it aside.
3. Prep the green onions, keeping the whites and greens separate.
4. Prep the carrot and cabbage and set it aside. (Carrot and cabbage can share a bowl too.)
5. Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, and pepper and set it aside.
6. Heat the wok over high heat until smoking. (Be sure to turn on your kitchen fan if you have one!)
7. Drizzle oil into the wok and swirl to coat.
8. Add the chicken, ginger, and garlic, and cook for 1-2 minutes.
9. Add the onion and cook for another minute or so.
10. Add the white parts of the green onions and cook for another 10-20 seconds.
11. Add the carrot and cabbage and cook for 1 more minute.
12. Add the soy sauce mixture and toss the veggies to coat them in the mixture.
13. Add green parts of the green onions and the noodles and continue cooking and mixing until heated through and well-combined.
14. Remove from heat and serve.

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Variations

Vegetarian Version

Ingredients

Chicken

• 200g extra-firm tofu or 五香豆腐干 (five-spice dry tofu), sliced
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1/2 Tbsp. vegetarian oyster sauce
• 2 tsp. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)
• 1/4 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. five-spice powder
• 1 tsp. vegetable oil²

Noodles

• 200g rice vermicelli
• 1 tsp. oil³
• 1/2 tsp. dark soy sauce

Stir-Fry

• 2 slices ginger, julienned
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small onion (~70-80g), quartered and thinly sliced
• 3 green onions, whites and greens separated, whites chopped and greens cut into 4-5cm pieces
• 1 carrot (~100g), julienned
• 250g cabbage, shredded
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 3 Tbsp. peanut or other high smoke point oil

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¹ The original recipe suggests chicken breast for this. I used two thighs and that seemed to work very well too. I think pork, shiitake mushrooms, or tofu would also be good. I think 五香豆腐干 (five-spice dry tofu) would work particularly well. ^Back
2 I'd be tempted to swap out the oil for 老干妈 (Laoganma) next time. It's still got a lot of oil in it, but the salt and chilies would give the chicken a bit more kick. ^Back
3 The original recipe suggests a neutral oil here, but I opted to swap it out for sesame oil. (Yes, you get to add sesame oil later in the recipe toward the end up cooking, but I really like sesame oil, okay?) ^Back