Shanghai Stir-Fried Noodles with Chicken

Every year my co-works have a barbecue during the summer.  We start early and continue chatting and eating until dusk. 

Yesterday was the day.  My co-workers come from a few different ethnic backgrounds, so it's fun to taste the diversity of foods.  

Like all good social events, there was way more food than we could possible eat.  I ate so much food I felt physical pain.  

Whenever I eat that much, I promise myself I'll never do it again.  After a couple of months, I forget and do it again.  

A couple of months ago, I bought a jar of hoisin sauce.  I don't know why because it had been sitting unopened in my cupboard since then.

I searched for a recipe that requires hoisin sauce, and found this one for Shanghai stir-fried noodles.  I couldn't find shanghai style noodles so I used thin rice noodles.  Shanghai noodles are thicker.

The ingredients to marinate the chicken are 8 ounces chicken breast, 4 teaspoons soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, pepper and 1 teaspoon cornstarch.  The other ingredients are 8 ounces rice noodles, 4 teaspoons sesame oil, 1 1/2 cup shredded cabbage, 1 minced garlic clove, 2 spring onions, oil for stir-frying, 4 tablespoons hoisin sauce, 1 1/2 tablespoons water, and extra soy sauce and salt for seasoning.

I cut the chicken into 1 inch chunks.  I added the chicken, cornstarch, soy sauce, sesame oil, and salt into a bowl.  The chicken marinated for 20 minutes.

I cooked the rice noodles according to the packaged instructions while the chicken marinated.  My noodles directed me to soak them in hot water for several minutes.  I drained and rinsed the noodles.  I coated them with sesame oil so they didn't stick to each other.

I added 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil to a hot wok.  When the oil was hot, I added garlic.  I stir-fried the garlic for 30 seconds and then added the chicken.

I stir-fried the chicken until it was fully cooked and then removed the chicken from the wok.

I added a little more oil.  Once the oil was hot, I added the shredded cabbage.  I stir-fried the cabbage for 2 minutes.  I added soy sauce while the cabbage was cooking for a bit more flavor.  I removed the cabbage from the wok.

I added 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil to the wok.  I added the noodles once the oil was hot.  I stirred the noodles quickly to coat the noodles in oil.  I added the hoisin sauce and stirred to coat the noodles.  I added soy sauce and salt to taste.  

I added the cabbage and chicken and stir-fried the mixture for a few minutes.

I added the onions and stir-fried the noodles until all the ingredients were hot.

The flavors were delicious, savory, and complex.

The noodles didn't stick together, but the weren't crispy and brown either.  I think my wok was too small for this amount of noodles. The noodles didn't have enough contact with the hot wok to crisp.

 The hoisin sauce and soy sauce were salty, deep, and aromatic.

The chicken was tender and moist.  The cabbage was soft but still had texture.  It was a delicious and desirable dish!