Classic Lo Mein Recipe

Hello friends! It’s another three-digit scorcher today. You all know how much I dislike the intense heat! Any temperature over 80°F keeps me indoors, with the AC set to a comfortable 71 degrees. We feel incredibly fortunate to have a home with air conditioning. When the heat gets to this level, the absolute last thing I want to do is spend hours in the kitchen cooking.

Lucky for me, my husband is currently on “practice retirement”! He started using his remaining PTO (paid time off) at the end of May, though he officially remains an employee until August 6th. He has been with his employer (a large airplane company) for over 38 years. Side Note: his first eight years were actually with a different company that was later acquired by his current employer. Unfortunately, his pension doesn’t quite match his decades of hard work; when the company was purchased, they didn’t transfer any of the employees’ previous retirement credits. But we’re still GTG ( good to go) smile.

One of the things my hubby is excited to do with his free time is…. cook! He was browsing YouTube recipe videos when he came across Food Network star Jet Tila’s channel, and he has been hooked ever since. He likes just about everything Jet cooks.

For his first meal, he tackled Classic Lo Mein. If you aren’t familiar, lo mein, it is a popular Chinese dish made with soft egg noodles tossed in a savory sauce with crisp vegetables and proteins like chicken or beef.
To make sure he did it right, we took a fun trip to the local Asian market to gather all of the authentic ingredients!

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. soy sauce (hubby used low sodium)
1/4 Cup chicken stock
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
3 Tbsps. Cooking oil- canola or peanut oil (hubby used canola)
2 tsps. minced garlic
1 1/2 Tbsps. thinly sliced ginger
1/2 Lbs. boneless, skinless (chicken breast ) thinly sliced
3 Cups fresh lo mein noodles (*see Cook’s Note)
1/4-Lb baby bok choy, bottoms removed
3 scallions, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

*Cook’s Note

There really isn’t such a thing as a “lo mein” noodle, so don’t try to find it on the shelf. You want to buy an egg noodle or pasta that’s relatively thin and has some tooth. Some common names will be lo mein, chow mein, egg noodles or pancit noodles. Most markets have Japanese yaki soba noodles in the cold case, and those would work perfectly. Spaghetti or fettuccini cooked al dente and rinsed in cold water and drained in a colander will also make a great lo mein.

Directions:

To make the sauce, stir together the oyster sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, chicken stock and cornstarch in a small bowl and reserve.

Heat a wok or large, heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat and add the cooking oil. Once you see wisps of white smoke, add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, until light brown and fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add the chicken and cook, stirring, until medium, about 1 minute.

Stir in the noodles and bok choy and cook, stirring and tossing, until the bok choy starts to soften and turn bright green, about 1 minute.

Stir in the sauce; allow the sauce to coat all the ingredients and start to simmer, about 1 more minute.

Cook, stirring and tossing, until the chicken is cooked through, about 1 more minute, when the sauce starts to bubble into a glaze. Top with the scallions and serve hot.

If you are a long-time subscriber, you know I couldn’t eat this. But it sure looked and smelled delicious. Hubby loved it and said who knew I would love bok choy so much.

I’m sorry I didn’t get a photo of it plated, hubby isn’t used to the process……(LOL)

I’ll share future recipes with you as he makes them. (smile)

Recipe courtesy of Jet Tila Watch the video HERE!

For a copy of his cookbook please click HERE

Have a great day everyone. I hope you’ll enjoy making this recipe as much as my hubby did. xox