Chicken chow mein is probably already one of your favorite Chinese takeout dishes. This one-pan dinner is so satisfying with chicken, vegetables, classic chow mein noodles, and the best homemade chow mein sauce. Also, it’s way healthier than ordering takeout.
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I can’t wait to share this recipe for chicken chow mein with you because it hits all the marks!
Chicken Chow Mein
Chow mein is a traditional Chinese dish made with egg noodles and stir-fried veggies. We love adding a protein and our favorite is chicken, but you can try different meat or tofu. This dish is pan-fried so the noodles get a nice crisp to them and then tossed in a yummy sauce. Chow mein is perfect for those nights when you don’t want to dirty too many pans or make a big mess of the kitchen.
Chow mein gets its signature flavor from the thick, dark homemade sauce the noodles are tossed with. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and salty and makes putting down your chopsticks absolutely impossible.
Ingredients for Chow Mein:
- Chow Mein Noodles: Chow mein noodles are made with wheat and egg. They are very similar to Italian pasta noodles and have a wonderful bite to them. Most grocery stores carry dry chow mein noodles in the Asian aisle. But, if you are lucky, you will find pre-cooked chow mein noodles in the refrigerated section that can be thrown straight into your pan.
- Vegetables: Carrots, cabbage, green onions, and bean sprouts are the perfect combination of veggies to use for chow mein. However, they can easily be replaced with other veggies like bok choy, celery, broccoli, spinach, kale or baby corn. Feel free to get creative and use what you like or whatever you have hanging around in your fridge!
- Meats: Great quality chicken breasts are your best bet for slicing into chow mein-ready strips. If you like, feel free to swap chicken out for beef, shrimp or pork.
- Hot tip: Hosting vegetarians also? Use vegetable broth and set some of your noodles aside to toss them with cubes of baked tofu.
The BEST Chow Mein Sauce:
The homemade chow mein sauce is amazing in this recipe! Combine soy sauce, light sesame oil, oyster sauce, granulated sugar, cornstarch, and chicken broth to make the signature sweet and savory sauce that makes chow mein taste authentic.
How to Make Chow Mein:
- In a small mixing bowl, combine ingredients for chow mein sauce: oyster sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, chicken broth, and cornstarch. Set aside.
- Cook noodles according to package instructions, set aside.
- Heat a large wok or pan. Add a bit of oil to the pan and cook chicken until it’s golden brown. Remove chicken and set aside.
- Add carrots, cabbage and pressed garlic and saute for a few minutes until veggies are slightly softened.
- Add chicken back to the pan, followed by cooked noodles and pour the sauce right on top. Cook for about 2 minutes, distributing all that saucy goodness around evenly.
- Add chopped green onions and remove from the heat. Serve hot!
We love recreating popular takeout recipes. Noodles are king in Chinese cooking! This Homemade Chow Mein Recipe is simple to make and oh-so-satisfying, these stir-fried noodles are sure to become a part of your weeknight dinner rotation.
More Quick Asian Recipes
- Chicken Stir Fry with Rice Noodles – Make this amazing dinner in just 30 minutes!
- Chicken Stir Fry– so much better than takeout.
- Beef Stir Fry Recipe with 3 Ingredient Sauce– So Easy- perfect weeknight dinner.
- Korean Stir-Fried Glass Noodles a.k.a Japchae– You will be going for seconds!
- Yakisoba Noodles Recipe– A Classic Yakisoba, made in one pan
Chicken Chow Mein with the Best Chow Mein Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast, boneless, skinless
- 3 Tbsp oil
- 12 oz chow mein noodles, (uncooked noodles)
- 2 cups cabbage
- 1 large carrot, julienned
- 1/2 batch green onions
- 2 garlic cloves
Chow Mein Sauce
- 4 Tbsp oyster sauce, or added to taste*
- 3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp light sesame oil, (not toasted)
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, use a whisk to combine oyster sauce, granulated sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, chicken broth and cornstarch. Set aside.
- Cook your noodles according to package instructions then drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.
- Heat a large wok or pan with olive oil over medium-heat. Cut your chicken breasts into bite-sized strips and cook them in the oil until golden brown. Remove strips and set aside.
- Add carrots, cabbage and pressed garlic and saute for a few minutes until veggies are slightly softened and the cabbage is a bit translucent.
- Add chicken and noodles back into the pan. Pour sauce over the top and continue cooking all the ingredients together for another 2 minutes.
- Garnish your chow mein with chopped green onions and serve the noodles straight from the pan and piping hot!
Notes
*Oyster sauce can vary in salt content and if you use regular soy sauce rather than reduced, you will want to adjust the oyster sauce to taste.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
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Hi! I’m Natasha Kravchuk, a New York Times bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, food photographer, and writer. Here you’ll find delicious, reliable recipes made with simple ingredients, plus easy step-by-step photos and videos to help you cook confidently at home. 
Just made this dish for dinner tonight turned out awesome. Will definitely be making it again, so good. Thank you for sharing 😊
You’re welcome, Izzy! I’m glad you love this recipe. 🙂
WOW! So good, even my husband, who can be picky, ate 3 helpings. I used shrimp and left over bbq’d chicken. I used a half bag of coleslaw mix, taking most of the red cabbage out and it was so simple to make. I will definitely be making this again. Thank you so much for sharing it!!
Very nice! Thanks for sharing and I hope your family will love all the recipes that you will try for them.
I loved it! I used bean sprouts in place of cabbage and my sesame seed oil was toasted which I think added even more delightful taste. Will do it again for sure.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Patsy!
So tasty, we both loved it, will be a staple in our house from now on! ❤️ Thanks
I’m happy you found a favorite! Thank you for sharing, Helen. 🙂
This was my foray into Chinese cooking and I’ve made it twice now – first time exactly as your recipe and then today I add fresh bean sprouts and ‘velveted’ the chicken which was something I’d just heard about (not sure it made much difference though!). Either way, best Chow Mein I’ve ever had! So simple and incredibly delicious, it’s inspiring me to seek out other Asian recipes to try. Thank you so much for sharing.
You’re very welcome, Caroline! So glad you enjoyed this recipe.
Ridiculously good my only change was to include fresh bean sprouts. Hands down the best Chow Mein I’ve ever had in a restaurant or at home. The house still smells heavenly.
Aww, thank you for the wonderful feedback, Sonia! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe.
I picked this recipe because unlike other chow mein recipes, the sauce didn’t require mirin or any other ingredient that I’d have to make a trip to the store to get. Very simple ingredients, easy recipe, and boy was this a huge hit with my family! Now in our rotation. Delicious sauce makes all the difference!
Yay, lovely feedback! Thanks a lot for sharing that with us.
I love it, it is one of the best foods i ever tasted. Keep up your good work. Bye
Thank you, Vlad! 🙂
This is Chicken Lol Mein. Chicken Chow Mein does not have noodles.
It actually does. The difference between the 2 is the noodles. One uses thin the other uses thicker, fatter noodles.
If you are not Asian you wouldn’t know. Chow Mein always have noodles!
Nice ripe but it tastes even better if you add half a teaspon of MSG.
not bad, actually. One thing left out is how to cook the beef and chicken like they do in Chinese restaurants. I steamed my meat, then let it sit in warm water with the veggies for an hour. Softer meat, but still didnt have the right taste or texture (tho closer than just frying it) – so what’s the secret? 🙂
Try coating in cornstarch. Softens up the meat. Try this, works very well….https://www.bonappetit.com/story/velveting-meat
Best Chow Mein I have made and I’ve tried several other recipes. It was a big hit with the whole family!. This will be my new go-to Chow Mein Recipe. I followed it exactly and added baby corn.Very Authentic tasting and to me tastes better than the take out version. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Wonderful Christina! I’m so glad you like it. I hope you find many more recipes to enjoy on my blog! 🙂
How come I can’t ever find “Chow Mein” noodles in the stores? Only “Ramen” noodles 🤔 I wonder if it would taste different with chow mein noodles than it does with Ramen noodles.
We prefer it with chow mein. I recommend asking the store if they have it in stock in a special section; you can order some online or go to your local Asian market.
I can’t find them either but Ive used the crispy noodles (from a can) and they worked well for me. I actually love the crispy noodles
Look in the refrigerated dept for the fresh chow mein noodles. They’re great. You just rinse them with warm water and drain well. I recommend frying the noodles in a separate pan to get crispy and adding them last with bean sprouts.
The sauce is PERFECT!!
Did you try looking in the international isle? I believe that is whereI I found mine.
I buy on Amazon they come bulk in a box, very good and cost effective, boil for 3 minutes.
I made this yesterday and it was good. And my family liked it. It was easy to put together.
That is the best when the family loves what we moms make. That’s so great!
What else could you use besides oyster sauce or any fish sauce? Have a severe fish allergy but this looks amazing!
The oyster sauce will give you the most authentic flavor but most people would substitute oyster sauce with soy sauce, so I would suggest adding soy sauce to the taste. It will taste better if you mix equal parts of soy sauce and hoisin sauce to get that sweet and salty flavor you are looking for here.
How much is a batch of green onions in cup measurements and also 1 carrot in cup measurements since I always buy carrots already cut up.
Hi Gloria, I do not have this exact measurement but a quick google search suggested that 1 cup of chopped green onions is about 9 and 1 cup chopped carrots is about 2 medium carrots. I hope that helps.
This was delicious! I used corn oil instead of sesame(can’t stand it) purple cabbage, carrots and asparagus(cut small) and it was all SOOOO good! My husband likes spice and I forgot to add chili flakes so he ate it with Sriracha and loved it!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Kelly! Thank you for the review.
I did this with chicken and now going to do it with beef,can I substitute beef broth in place of the chicken broth?
Hi Sherry, yes that will work!
no sesame oil in chow mein is like no paprika in Hungarian goulash – corn oil ain’t gonna cut it, generally, but yeah, if you dont like the taste, no point 🙂 but I would not recommend using corn oil to others …
Can you please email me the chow me in recipe. I don’t have a printer.
Thanks
Hi Chris, you may go directly to the recipe it’s just the same as emailing you the link.
We LOVED it! Only gave it a 4 as we went to an Asian market and told us to use LoMein noodles. Not good! They were frozen, thick and doughy. Will try finding the noodles.
You took a star off your rating because you made it with the wrong ingredients? Alright.
Great recipe! I didn’t change a thing and my family loved it.
Can you substitute spaghetti noodles for the chow main noodles in a pinch?
Hi Jessica, I prefer the chow mein noodles, but thin spaghetti noodles will work great too! Here’s what one of our readers wrote: “We have tried this recipe with spaghetti noodles and don’t notice a difference from chow mein noodles! It’s great either way!” I hope this helps!
Great recipe. Whole family loves it (including our fussy kids). Thank you.
Happy to hear that, Marc!
My husband loved this! First time making it and I will make it again. Next time, to our liking, I will add more cabbage, carrots and chicken to make it a little more hardy! Thanks for a very good and healthy recipe!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Elaine!