Chicken Chow Mein

I reckon not a day goes by where I don't pick up a recipe book,  watch a cookery programme or browse the web looking for new recipes and food ideas. My blog is not just a collection of my own recipes but recipes that I have found that I've adapted to fit my overall criteria; healthy, low fat but very importantly, tasty & filling. I follow all the celebrity chefs on Twitter and love experimenting with some of their recipes. Whilst I just love cooking new recipes, my problem is that I have to give them a low fat / healthy makeover. 

When it comes to Asian cuisine, my favourite Chef has to be Ching He Haung. She's like a modern day Ken Hom. What I love about her cooking is that it is naturally healthy, utilising the best in Asian ingredients to bring out full on flavour.  Since I've been a Ching fan I now regularly store items such as Sake and Shaohsing wine! 

I made very little change to Ching's original recipe, just reducing the oil to bare minimum and weighing out noodles and chicken to calculate correct ProPoints. The original recipe can be found here.  I've got to say that this chicken chow mein dish could not be any healthier or tastier. I pack it with vegetables and it really is a quick, easy, bloomin tasty mid-week supper.

You'll need for 2:

• 2 x 60g portions of egg noodles
• 2 x 1 tsp groundnut oil or vegetable oil
• 275g chicken breast, cut into pieces
• 1-2 tbsp dark soy
• 1-2 tbsp light soy
• 1 tsp Chinese Five Spice
• 1 tsp chilli sauce
• 1 dsp cornflour
• Stir fry vegetables of your choice. e.g. green beans, mushrooms, sugarsnap peas, pak choi, broccoli carrots, peppers etc.
• A few spring onions, sliced

What to do:

Slice up the chicken and sprinkle with Five Spice and a good dash of dark soy.

Get the noodles on the boil as per packet instructions and get your wok / stir fry pan nice and hot. Add 1 tsp oil to the pan and stir fry the vegetables until cooked but still with a nice crunch. Season with some light soy as you stir fry and add a sprinkling of Five Spice.

Remove from the pan and keep warm. Heat the other tsp of oil. Sprinkle the cornflour over the chicken pieces and place into the hot pan to stir fry. Chinese cooking frequently uses cornflour to thicken sauces. It's a great, low fat technique and I love it's use here in keeping the chicken really nice and moist and this stage shouldn't be omitted!!

Allow the chicken to brown and turn occasionally. Add a couple of dashes of dark soy and once cooked through add the vegetables back into the pan. I prefer to cook the vegetables and chicken separately so as not to overcrowd the wok and to ensure everything stir fries rather than stews together. Also I use ALOT of vegetables so I need the extra room in the wok!! A couple of minutes before the end of cooking, add the spring onions and stir through.

As soon as the noodles are cooked, drain and return to the pan stirring through a dash of light soy sauce until needed.

Finally add the noodles to the wok and toss everything together and serve up. This dish can be prepared in under 15 minutes! I like to get all my ingredients prepped earlier before I get the kids to bed so everything can be literally stir fried in a matter of minutes.

WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 12