Chicken Chow Mein

I'm not fully sure why but lately I've had a big hankering for chicken chow main. Definitely not something I get cravings for usually but for some reason it's been on my list of things we need to make. 

It's funny thinking about food and the memories it conjures for you. My dad loved to go out to dinner. And I remember growing up most Fridays after he got home from work we'd go out for dinner. And one out of every 4 times on Friday it seemed like we went out to Chinese food. Always the same place. Often my younger sister would fall asleep in the car on the way to dinner because we lived in what seemed like in the middle of no-where and the Chinese restaurant, Forbidden City , was in downtown Puyallup. We pretty much always ordered the same thing, a family style meal with sweet &  sour pork, almond chicken and chicken chow mein along with a few other dishes. 

And really Chicken chow mein wasn't my favorite of the dishes we'd get but sometimes I guess it just sounds good. We don't often eat Chinese food like I used to have growing up. We tend more to either have Thai or Vietnamese when we go out or order in.

New wok before seasoning

I searched around for a few versions of chow mein that I could I could make until I settled on this one. I also decided it was time for a new wok to make this dish. 

Old 15+ year old wok

The one we've had for over 15 years seems in due of a replacement. 

I started by prepping the veggies and mixing the sauce ingredients before cooking the strips of chicken breast.

Next I added the veggies and sauce to the wok.

And then the noodles and the chicken again. Actually so simple to pull off.

It was good, good stuff. Although I felt so stuffed after eating it will likely be a long, long time before we have it again especially since it's far from Paleo with the noodles.

We served it with a 2011 Semillon from one of my favorite wineries in Walla Walla; L'Ecole.

Which paired beautifully with it's fruity and light flavor.

It's funny as much as we cook I'm always surprised how many things are still new to us to cook when we find them, like this dish. 

RECIPE:

Chicken Chow Mein ( Adapted from Food & Wine)

1.  5 tablespoons vegetable oil
2. 1 pound fresh plain chicken sausages, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (We used chicken breast)
3. 4 garlic cloves, minced
4. 2 tablespoons minced ginger
5. 4 ounces snow peas, cut in half
6. 2 fresh, hot long red chiles, seeded and thinly sliced
7. 1/3 cup fresh orange juice (We used Pineapple juice because that's all we had for juice.)
8. 1/2 pound fresh or dried Chinese egg noodles, cooked (we used fresh)
9. 1 cup chicken stock mixed with 3 tablespoons of hoisin sauce and 2 teaspoons of cornstarch (we used Oyster sauce instead of hoisin sauce)
10. Salt
11. 1/2 cup slivered basil leaves

1. In a wok, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the chicken sausage and stir-fry over high heat, breaking it up, until just cooked through, 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
2. Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok. Add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry over moderately high heat until golden, 1 1/2 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the snow peas and chiles for 1 minute. Add the orange juice and stir over moderately high heat for 30 seconds. Add the sausage, noodles and stock mixture, season with salt and stir-fry until the sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the basil and serve.