Chicken Chow Mien & Chop Suey

Craving Chinese food has led me to come up with this healthful alternative to take-out chow mien. This recipe takes a bit of time—probably 45 minutes—but it makes LOTS, great reheated for lunches....

Hope you try it out for yourself.

Karina's Chicken Chow Mein & Chop Suey ------ makes approx 5 ½ Cups

Ingredients:

255 gr Oriental Egg Noodles (Equivalent to 3 pkgs of Mr. Noodles)

1 Chicken Breast (Optional)

2 Med Carrots

1 Celery Stalk

1 Onion

1 Red Bell Pepper

3 Cups Bean Sprouts (1 small package)

1 small head of Broccoli

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

½ C Water

2 TB Cornstarch

2 TB Soy Sauce

2 TB Fish Sauce or 2 TB Oyster Sauce, or 1 TB of each

1 TB Chicken OXO

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

1. Prepare vegetables (keep each separate from each other); slice carrots and celery into small medallions, fine chop onion, chop bell pepper, and chop broccoli into small pieces. I like to do this earlier in the afternoon and keep the prepared vegetables in the fridge—one less thing to worry about when I'm ready to COOK)
   
2. Heat wok with a bit of oil and place chicken breast in to cook. Once partially cooked, remove chicken and cut up into small pieces and continue cooking until cooked through. Remove chicken pieces from wok. (I use frozen chicken breast, which is why I cook it this way. If you have thawed your chicken breast beforehand, you could cut it up right away and cook it like that.)
   
3. Boil noodles in a pot according to the package directions. Once cooked, drain them off, and blanche them in ice water to completely cool and stop cooking process.
   
4. Add a bit more oil to the hot wok and begin frying cooled egg noodles. Cook them until slightly golden (about 5 minutes). Remove from wok.
   
5. Begin stir frying carrots and celery. Once partially cooked, add onion and bell pepper, and finally broccoli. Stir fry until barely tender—still slightly crunchy.
   
6. MAKE SAUCE:
   

   Combine in a small bowl:
   

   ½ C Water
   

   2 TB Cornstarch
   

   2 TB Soy Sauce
   

   2 TB Fish Sauce or 2 TB Oyster Sauce, or 1 TB of each
   

   1 TB Chicken OXO
   

7. Add bean sprouts to the vegetables in the wok and heat through.
   
8. Make a well in the center of the wok, and pour half of the sauce into the wok, stirring constantly as the sauce will thicken rapidly.
   
9. Remove half of the vegetable stir fry and add the noodles and chicken back into the wok.
   
10. Make another well in the center of the noodles, and pour remaining sauce in, doing the same as before to thicken sauce.
    
11. Return reserved vegetable stir fry into the wok.