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Home Noodles

Lo Mein Noodles

By:Nagi
Published:11 Nov '19Updated:16 Sep '23
246 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

Slippery Lo Mein Noodles tossed in a Lo Mein Sauce with tons of veggies and protein of your choice. This takeout mainstay comes down to the right sauce and the right noodles – then you’re just 6 minutes away from noodle heaven!

Close up of Lo Mein in a wok, ready to be served

Lo Mein Noodles

The actual noodles pictured above were my dinner last night, albeit I was a little heavy handed with a big dollop of chilli sauce that had me gasping and sweating (and swearing) through every bite.

Don’t fear, it was self inflicted torture. Those red strips you see are capsicum / bell peppers, not chilli. There is no sign of chilli in this recipe – Lo Mein is not spicy!!!!

Tossing Lo Mein noodles in a wok

What goes in Lo Mein Noodles

Here’s what goes into the noodles (see below for sauce):

What goes in Chicken Lo Mein

• Lo Mein noodles – for takeout style, use fresh yellow noodles (usually labelled “egg noodles”) that are about 3mm / 1/8″ thick. By “fresh”, I mean the ones you get in the fridge section of grocery stores (Aussies – Coles, Woolies etc, find it in the pasta section of fridge). These noodles have the chewy, slippery texture you love about take out.

Next best is dried egg noodles, or vac packed “fresh” egg noodles.

But really, you can also totally make Lo Mein with any noodles – thick, thin, fresh, dried, egg or rice – or ramen noodles, or even spaghetti or other long pasta. Lo Mein doesn’t judge! This is going to be delish with ANY type of noodles (or pasta – trust me, no one will know!).

• Protein – use either chicken, pork, beef, turkey, prawns/shrimp or tofu. Directions on how to cut and cook with each of these included in the recipe (PS hard tofu is so delish in this!)

• Vegetables – I used capsicum/bell peppers, carrot and green onion. Use 5 cups in total (packed) of whatever vegetables you want. Plus 1/2 an onion and garlic – these are part of the flavour base!


Lo Mein Sauce

A gold standard Lo Mein calls for a great Sauce – and here’s what you need for truly takeout grade Lo Mein! You see these ingredients in virtually every one of my stir fries and noodles – they’re the holy grail of Chinese cooking!

What goes in Lo Mein Sauce

  • Dark soy sauce is labelled as such on the bottle, and sold at most large grocery stores nowadays. It adds colour and flavour to the dish – notice how my noodles are nicely bronzed? Thank you Mr Dark Soy!

  • Soy Sauce – the other one can be any generic soy sauce or light soy sauce (bottle will be labelled as such). This soy sauce adds salt and some flavour to the dish, but it doesn’t stain the noodles like dark soy.

  • Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine) is an essential ingredient for making truly “restaurant standard” Asian noodles. Substitute with Mirin, cooking sake or dry sherry. Non alcoholic substitute – sub both the cooking wine AND water with low sodium chicken broth/stock, reduce light soy sauce to 1.5 tbsp.


Lo Mein making TIPS!

The making part is a breeze – and moves super fast, so make sure you have all the ingredients ready to toss into the wok!

How to make Lo Mein

Here are some tips to make your Lo Mein cooking life a breeze, even if you’re a first timer:

  • Be prepared! As with all stir fries and noodles, have everything chopped and ready to toss straight in because once you start cooking, it moves FAST! You’ll be done 5 – 6 minutes.

  • Double duty sauce – whatever protein you use, season it with some of the Sauce before cooking. Makes it extra tasty!

  • TWO wooden spoons will make your tossing life a whole lot easier

  • Wok or skillet – you don’t have to cook stir fries in a wok, but it does make it easier to toss enthusiastically, as is called for with stir fries. If you don’t have a wok, just use a very large skillet, preferably one heavy based that holds heat well.

  • Keep things MOVING! Once you start cooking, keep stirring for the whole time otherwise things will start stewing i.e. leeching liquid. This will make your vegetables soggy and your noodles watery.

  • CRISP tender vegetables – all stir fries and noodles are supposed to have “crisp tender” vegetables, meaning the vegetables are just cooked but are still a tiny bit raw inside. This not only retains their flavour, colour and nutrients better, but also is integral to the dish because overcooked vegetables leech water which waters down the flavour of the sauce.

Chicken Lo Mein in a bowl, ready to be eaten

These Lo Mein Noodles have enough vegetables in them to make it a complete meal, but if you’re really busting for some extra greens, you can either cram in another 2 cups or so of vegetables (ideally something like shredded cabbage, spinach or bean sprouts that are “noodle shaped” once cooked so they kind of disappear into the noodles), or add a Side Salad like one of these:

Side salad suggestions

Overhead photo of Asian Side Salad, ready to be served
Asian Side Salad
Close up of Smashed Cucumbers in a rustic bowl, ready to be served
Smashed Cucumber Salad
Asian Slaw in a salad bowl with Asian Dressing, ready to be served
Asian Slaw – healthy, crunchy Asian Cabbage Salad
Asian Sesame Dressing - made with soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar and sugar. Lasts for 3 weeks, an essential pantry standby! recipetineats.com
Asian Sesame Dressing
Pouring lemon dressing over green bean salad
Green Bean Salad
Close up of a refreshing Cucumber Salad with a tasty Herb & Garlic Dressing
Cucumber Salad with Herb Garlic Vinaigrette

And with that, I get to sign off. It’s your turn. Go forth and be a Noodle Master! And remember, toss with abundance! That is the very essence of stir fried noodles. Toss, toss, toss!! – Nagi x


Watch how to make it

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Close up of Lo Mein in a wok, ready to be served

Lo Mein Noodles

Author: Nagi
Prep: 8 minutes mins
Cook: 7 minutes mins
Mains
American Chinese, Asian, Chinese
4.92 from 87 votes
Servings3
Tap or hover to scale
Print
Recipe video above. If you want lip smackingly delicious Lo Mein noodles just like takeout, you just need to get the SAUCE right! The noodle part is easy - you can literally use any noodles, even pasta (yep, seriously). Also, switch out the vegetables with 5 cups (packed) of any chopped vegetables of choice.

Ingredients

  • 1.5 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
  • 2 garlic cloves , finely minced (Note 1)
  • 1/2 onion , finely sliced
  • 300g / 10oz chicken or other protein , sliced 0.5cm / 1/5" thick (Note 2)
  • 2 medium carrots , peeled and cut into 4 x 0.75cm / 1.75 x 1/3" batons
  • 1 large red capsicum / bell pepper , sliced (or 2 small)
  • 6 green onions , cut into 5 cm/2” lengths
  • 500g / 1lb Lo Mein, Hokkien or other medium thickness egg noodles, fresh, , prepared per packet (Note 3 for dried)
  • 1/4 cup (65ml) water

Sauce:

  • 4 tsp cornflour / cornstarch
  • 2 tbsp dark soy sauce (Note 4)
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce or light soy sauce (Note 4)
  • 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or Mirin (Note 5 subs)
  • 1 tsp white sugar (omit if using Mirin)
  • 1/2 tsp sesame oil , toasted, optional (Note 6)
  • 1/4 tsp white pepper (sub black)

Garnish (optional):

  • Green onion , finely sliced

Instructions

  • Sauce: Mix cornflour and dark soy until lump free, then add remaining Sauce ingredients.
  • Season Chicken: Transfer 2 tsp Sauce into bowl with chicken. Toss to coat.
  • Heat oil in a wok or large heavy based skillet over high heat until smoking.
  • Add onion and garlic, stir 30 seconds.
  • Add chicken, stir until white on the outside, still raw inside - 1 minute.
  • Add carrot and capsicum/bell peppers, cook 2 minutes or until chicken is cooked.
  • Add noodles, Sauce and water. Use 2 wooden spoons and toss for 30 seconds.
  • Add green onions, toss for another 1 minute until all the noodles are slick with sauce.
  • Serve immediately, garnished with extra green onions if using.

Recipe Notes:

1. Garlic - don't use jar paste or a garlic press, makes garlic watery = spits & burns when it hits the oil. Finely chop it - even sliced is enough.
2. Proteins - how to cook & cut:
  • Beef, pork, turkey - slice and cook per recipe
  • Ground / mince meat - cook garlic and onion per recipe, then cook ground / mince. Once cooked, add 1 tbsp sauce, stir, then proceed with next steps in recipe.
  • Hard tofu - cut into 1 x 4cm / 1/3 x 1.5" batons, cook per recipe.
  • Prawns/shrimp - use small peeled, cook per recipe.
  • More veggies - use another 2 1/2 cups chopped veggies.
3. Lo Mein noodles are fresh yellow noodles (usually labelled "egg noodles") that are about 3mm / 1/8" thick, sold in the fridge section of grocery stores. 
Dried noodles - use 200g/8oz uncooked ramen noodles or other dried noodles. They will increase in volume and weight once cooked per packet.
Note - Lo Mein is still delicious made with ANY type of noodles - thick, thin, fresh, dried, egg or rice - or ramen noodles, or even spaghetti or other long pasta (trust me, no one will know!).
4. Soy Sauces:
  • Dark soy sauce is labelled as such, provides colour and gives more flavour to the sauce than other soy sauces. Sold at Aussie grocery stores nowadays. Fallback: sub with more ordinary or light soy (below)
  • Soy Sauce - ordinary all purpose soy sauce, they just say "soy sauce" on the label (eg. Kikkoman). Can also use Light soy sauce - bottle is labelled as such. 
5. Chinese cooking wine ("Shaoxing wine") is an essential ingredient for making truly "restaurant standard" Asian noodles. Substitute with Mirin, cooking sake or dry sherry. Non alcoholic sub - sub both the cooking wine AND water with low sodium chicken broth/stock + reduce light soy sauce to 1.5 tbsp.
6. Sesame oil - toasted sesame oil is brown and has more flavour than untoasted (which is yellow). Default sesame oil sold in Australia is toasted, untoasted is harder to find.
7. Servings - makes 3 servings.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 461.22cal (23%)Carbohydrates: 63.78g (21%)Protein: 30.85g (62%)Fat: 8.1g (12%)Saturated Fat: 2.67g (17%)Cholesterol: 95mg (32%)Sodium: 1720.76mg (75%)Potassium: 602.72mg (17%)Fiber: 6.1g (25%)Sugar: 8.23g (9%)Vitamin A: 8299.02IU (166%)Vitamin C: 59.55mg (72%)Calcium: 47.54mg (5%)Iron: 5.02mg (28%)
Keywords: chicken lo mein, lo mein, Lo mein noodles
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

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246 Comments

  1. Jess says

    December 9, 2023 at 10:46 pm

    5 stars
    A favourite in my house, always goes down well regardless of what ever veggies I have in the fridge that I throw in – the sauce is that good

    Reply
  2. Zoe says

    November 29, 2023 at 6:10 pm

    5 stars
    Delicious! My 6 year old said it was his favourite dinner ever, can’t get much higher praise than that.

    Reply
  3. Savannah says

    November 20, 2023 at 10:56 am

    5 stars
    I didn’t realize I had run out of dark soy so I substituted teriyaki, and it turned out delicious. I used mushroom in place of my protein, and thin spaghetti for the noodles (I obviously didn’t want to go to the store). This is the best lo mein recipe I’ve tried and I’ve tried several.

    Reply
  4. Scott says

    November 2, 2023 at 3:08 am

    A little too much soy sauce, next time I will use half. Other than that it’s great

    Reply
  5. Lisanne Go says

    October 30, 2023 at 5:49 pm

    5 stars
    Hey Nagi 🙂
    I think I have officially lost count of how many times we have made this recipe! Every time it’s a 10/10. It’s our go to on a Friday night when we don’t want to order takeout!

    Reply
  6. Andrew says

    October 23, 2023 at 8:07 pm

    5 stars
    Great. Added fresh chilli. Perfect. Thanks

    Reply
  7. Sarah Jarrell says

    October 20, 2023 at 3:08 am

    5 stars
    Thanks for this! I had a bunch of leftover spaghetti noodles (not in the tomato sauce obviously) and random veggies in the fridge and wanted something tasty to do with them. This was perfect. When I tried this recipe I didn’t have any meat so just threw in a big handful of nuts, which worked out fine. My husband (who tends to be a bit picky and squeamish) scarfed it down gratefully 🙂

    Reply
  8. Sue Heddle says

    October 18, 2023 at 9:09 am

    Just made this for a second time and as good as the first. Great portable food for shiftworking partners….

    Reply
  9. Masumi says

    September 18, 2023 at 5:44 pm

    I increased the serving amount to 5 and followed the recipe. But it turned out too sticky. The whole noodle got stuck together 😭 I couldn’t eat …

    Reply
  10. Kris Viles says

    September 13, 2023 at 4:01 am

    Made the veg lo mein and even though very tasty , the egg noodles absorbed all the sauce and left them quite dry. What did I do wrong?

    Reply
  11. Sarah Jones says

    September 12, 2023 at 8:54 am

    Really lovely noodles – nice flavour although I added a bit more chilli to accommodate personal taste. I sometimes adapt for vegetarian menu but not sure this would work at its best with tofu or just veg. Great with chicken and prawns though as we had it because the quick cooking time retains both flavour and moisture. Chef minge looks real juicy too – I’d love to watch hubby eat that!

    Reply
  12. Stephanie says

    September 12, 2023 at 12:48 am

    4 stars
    It was really good!! My family and I enjoyed it very much. I added unsalted peanuts and sugar snap peas. Had to add more water and sauce though.

    Reply
  13. Karen Taylor says

    September 10, 2023 at 4:28 am

    Have your “bible” but these are super, hubby reckons the best yet.

    Reply
  14. Dot Middlemass says

    September 1, 2023 at 12:18 pm

    5 stars
    Made the lo mein tonight. Fantastic. I also have Dinner, and have been working my way through it; all with great results!

    Reply
  15. Mindy Bence says

    August 30, 2023 at 2:47 am

    agi & Dozer – LOVE your site and cookbook! My husband Jeff and I feel like you are part of our family! I have many dietary restrictions and they have changed over the years (and change how I can cook). I only used to use coconut aminos but I was ok after I added in some Bragg liquid aminos (soy based) and some legumes (YAY!). I have tamari in stock as well. We went to Asian supermarket yesterday – it was an adventure ;-0! I bought a variety of noodles that I can eat (It’s been a decade since I had noodles!) I bought Japchae (I’m going to make that) and use rice sticks in your Lo Mein recipe; also bought Longkou pea noodles, high grade Shaoxing, Lee Kum Kee brand Gluten free soy sauce and Vegan oyster flavored sauce. Nothing there said Dark Soy that was gluten free. Could you tell me if any of the sauce ingredients I have would stain like dark soy and/or what combo and amounts to use in your Lo Mein? I so appreciate being able to travel the world with the food I make that I can tailor to my health needs! (still can’t eat nightshades, wheat (gluten), or dairy) Asian was the last to tackle because of prevalence of wheat, corn, MSG, sugar, potato in many sauces. My husband and I love reading your travel stories and sharing your life and Dozer with us! I’m also going to try the tenderizing of sirloin tip steak when I make Japchae. Thanks so much for all you do!!!! (I realized I posted this on tenderizing, so re-posted it here)

    Reply
  16. Kim says

    August 9, 2023 at 8:43 am

    Hi Nagi, just want to say love all your recipes. Your are my go site for excellent recipes and guidelines….Hey Dozer the sweetest lab ever!

    Reply
  17. Jane Reilly says

    August 4, 2023 at 9:52 pm

    Perfect first time. I made it with frozen prawns and it was delicious.

    Reply
  18. Linda says

    July 5, 2023 at 9:19 am

    Hello,

    Well I have purchased everything that is needed for the Lo Mein recipe.

    I am single, elderly (although I don’t it), so I make a lot of something then freeze portions.

    Do I automatically double everything on the recipe (or x3 or x4)?

    If anyone can let me know, that would be great.

    Greetings from Canada
    Linda

    Reply
  19. Connie says

    June 15, 2023 at 5:14 am

    5 stars
    So yummy! And fast!!! 🔥

    Reply
    • Wholesome Goodness says

      July 4, 2023 at 4:32 am

      5 stars
      When you can make a recipe that is spot on to takeout if not better, you are winning. This was delicious and I will definitely make this my go to. I didn’t have any shaoxing wine, but used a little cooking sherry and it still came out great, thanks for sharing!

      Reply
  20. Ted E Datz says

    June 14, 2023 at 8:38 am

    5 stars
    Just wonderful flavors for a couple where one enjoys spice and one does not! It worked for both of us and had leftovers for my lunch!

    Reply
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I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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