chicken on crispy noodles

The irrepressible Ken Hom popped up on Saturday Kitchen this week to show off a dish for Chinese New Year. He made a platter of crispy noodles topped with velveteen chicken in a savoury sauce. Three of us saw it being made and we immediately decided that it was what we were having for Sunday lunch.

My only change was to add some red pepper; it seemed odd that it would be lacking a vegetable element (ignoring the spring onions). With that, it was a very satisfying dinner and went down extremely well. Beautifully soft chicken, fresh fruity peppers, a tangy and glutinous coating sauce, but the real revelation were the crispy noodles. After a quick parboiling I laid them flat in the frying pan and allowed them to crisp. A risky toss later and the other side was also browned. This gave a delicious contrast of crispy and chewy, and hoovered up the sauce perfectly.

The only slight downer was Ken served his perfect circle of noodles on one platter, allowing people to share. That wasn’t going to work for me so I had to carve them up in a hacking fashion! Tasted just as good though.

Gung hee fatt choi!

Chicken on crispy noodles:

300g chicken breast diced very small

1 egg white

2 teaspoons cornflour

Pinch of salt

½ teaspoon white pepper

1 red pepper, diced

4 egg noodle nests

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1½ tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

300ml chicken stock

1 tablespoon cornflour, mixed with 1½ tablespoon water

Spring onions, chopped

Mix the egg white, cornflour, salt and pepper and toss in the chicken breast, coating thoroughly.

Boil the noodles briefly, drain and add to a hot pan spreading them out evenly. After 5 minutes a crust should have formed; turn the noodles over.

While the noodles cook, mix the stock, vinegar, and oyster sauce together.

After another 5 minutes put the noodles on kitchen paper to drain off the excess oil.

Over a high heat in a little oil fry the chicken and peppers, stirring quickly, until the chicken is white on all sides. Remove from the pan and leave to one side.

Add the wet ingredients and bubble for a minute, add the cornflour and allow to thicken. Put the chicken and peppers back in the pan with the spring onion and stir fry to allow the sauce to coat the meat and veg. After a minute or two turn out on to the noodles and serve.

The original recipe can be seen here.