I always look forward to our Mike vs Jeff Challenge series because it allows me to be more creative than the typical dishes that I make. I still drool over my Tropical Oreo Chicken Katsu Sliders with Spicy Kiwi Slaw recipe that we did for our first challenge. It’s so yummy. This time, our challenge is Instant Noodles upgraded so I’m making Instant Chow Mein. With just a little bit of extra work, we can take a 3-minute I-am-a-poor-college-kid-that-only-knows-how-to-boil-water into a 10 minute wow-you-made-this-from-instant-noodles transformation. Yeah, probably can’t tell from the pictures it’s actually instant noodles. And it was delicious. I really wish I actually had thought about this when I was in college, man, that would have made my meals more complete than just noodles. And the best part of this is that I added a lot of vegetables to this recipe but it’s sliced thinly like the noodles so you can’t really tell that you are eating way MORE vegetables than carbs.This recipe is also the first time we are transforming our format so that we provide more information in our recipe box below to really guide you step by step but still present the recipe in a concise manner with pictures. Hope you like this new format. Feel free to comment below and let us know what you think.

Ok, back to the noodles. Besides using instant noodles, I also took into consideration some conveniences of semi-processed food so to make your meal quick and easy. If you are making Chinese style chow mein, you can use beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, or any other protein. For Japanese yakisoba (焼きそば), the most popular is protein is pork belly. Just because Trader Joe’s sells a 12 oz pre-cooked pork belly that is lightly salted and just because I love pork belly, I’m doing a Instant Chow Mein (Chinese style) but with a Japanese yakisoba twist. Traditionally, yakisoba usually has yakisoba sauce which is based on Worcestershire sauce. I personally prefer a more simple, shio yakisoba. I guess all that doesn’t really matter because it really depend on what flavors of instant noodles you buy. Obviously since we are not eating this in a cup or a bowl, save your money and just buy the packs without the bowls. One thing I have noticed is that when you add the flavor pack into your stir-fry noodles, the result is completely different than just throwing this into a pot of boiling water. It’s cool to experiment. Maybe try two different types of noodles at the same time! That’s for another Mike vs Jeff Challenge.So the thing with any kind of recipe, you should always adjust the ingredients to your own liking. If you don’t like onions, don’t add them. If you have extra zucchini left in the fridge, shred them and throw it into this dish. If you have nothing except for noodles, well, it’s still delicious stir-fried than be put into water.

Ingredients

• 2 packs instant noodles
• 12 oz pork belly*
• 4 cups cabbage
• ½ cup carrot
• 1 cup onion
• ½ cup reconstituted shiitake mushroom**
• ½ cup green onion

* I used Trader Joe’s pre-cooked pork belly for convenience – you can use any kind of protein you like, even cubes of tofu.

** I bought dried and pre-sliced mushrooms from my local Costco – super simple to use because it reconstitutes a lot faster than whole mushrooms. Please note that reconstituted shiitake mushrooms gives a deeper and richer flavor than fresh shiitake mushrooms. Ironically, before I found these mushrooms from Costco, I used to buy fresh shiitake and then dry them myself instead of using them fresh.

Instant Chow Mein

 

Author:

Mike Hsu

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Chinese

Serves: 2 servings

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Print

 

It’s easy to upgrade your instant noodles into the popular Chow Mein. Only takes 10 minutes to make your stir-fry noodles or yakisoba using instant ramen.

Ingredients

• 2 packs instant noodles
• 12 oz Trader Joe's pre-cooked pork belly
• 4 cups cabbage
• ½ cup carrot
• 1 cup onion
• ½ cup reconstituted shiitake mushroom
• ½ cup green onion

Instructions

1. Thinly slice about 8 oz of pork belly and cut the remaining 4 oz into chunks
2. Slice cabbage thinly so it’s noodle-like
3. Julienne carrots, onions, green onions
4. Reconstitute mushrooms in warm water
5. Boil pot of water, put instant noodle to cook (but reserve the flavor packs for later)
6. After noodles soften but not yet fully cooked, remove and drain - this is how we can keep the noodles “al dente”
7. Pan fry pork belly slices and set aside as a topping for later
8. Use the oil extracted from pork belly, add onions and cook until aromatic
9. Toss in remaining pork belly chunks, carrots, mushrooms, and cabbage (reserve green onions until last)
10. Stir fry for 3 - 5 minutes until vegetables start to soften, covering if needed
11. Mix in noodles, add flavor pack and green onions
12. Toss until everything is well mixed
13. Serves two people - don’t forget to top your noodles with the pork belly slices

3.5.3208