Chicken Chow Mein

[membrane]

I'm looking for a good chicken chow mein receipe since I cannot find a restaurant in my area (Las Vegas) that serves it the way I'm grow to like it. I'm originally from Minneapolis, and there is a place called "Jin's Chow Mein" that serves the best chicken chow mein I have ever had. It consisted of white rice, celery sauce (this is the best way I can describe it-it's a real thick sauce with mostly celery) and crunchy noodles with little strips of chicken breast.

If anyone has a receipe for this, or can recommend a restaurant in the Las Vegas area that serves this, please reply.

Thanks in advance!

 

[jkath]

Have you seen this thread yet, membrane?

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f21/need-authentic-chicken-chow-mein-recipe-5532.html?highlight=chicken+chow+mein

ps - welcome to discusscooking! We hope you stay around!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

This recipe is an exerpt from my cookbook "You Can Be A Great Cook With Poulty". Please honor the copyright.

Chicken Chow Mein/Chop Suey
The only difference between Chicken Chow Mein and Chop Suey is the addition of chow mein noodles. If you have them, the dish is chicken Chow mein. If not, it's Chop Suey. Either way, it was created in the United States, not China.
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
2 lbs. cut up frying chicken
1/4 cup diced onion
2 stalks celery, bias sliced (slice at an angle toward the ends from the
back of the arch to the ends)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups fresh bean sprouts.
2 tbs. Peanut oil
1 tsp. Accent flavoring (optional)

Skin and bone the chicken. Place the skin and bones in two cups of boiling water and cover. Turn heat down to simmer. Cut the chicken meat into 1/2" thick strips. Heat 2 tbs. of the peanut oil in a steel wok, or large heavy skillet (I prefer seasoned cast iron if I'm not using my wok). Add the chicken and half of the salt. Cover with a lid and cook for about seven minutes, stirring frequently. Remove the cooked chicken to a large bowl (very large) and pour any juices from the pan into the boiling chicken stock.
Return the wok to the stove and reheat. Add the onion, garlic, and celery and 2 tbs. of water. Cover and cook until the celery is tender-crisp. Remove and add to the chicken. Place 1 cup of the chicken stalk into the pan and add the bean sprouts. Cook on high for five minutes. Add the remaining ingredients to the bean sprouts and mix. Turn heat to simmer and cover the pan or wok. Stir 3 tsp. Corn starch into 4 tbs. water. Stir until lump free. Add the corn starch to the simmering pan and stir until a light gravy is formed. Mix the chicken and veggies together. Serve with rice and chow mein noodles.


Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[BigDog]

. . Minneapolis . . . there is a place called "Jin's Chow Mein" that serves the best chicken chow mein I have ever had.

Donde esta? I'll have to go check it out. I'll see if they have anything with a recipe for you too if I go!

 

[Robo410]

Jin' sin Minneapolis is famous at least to those who grew up there. I know of a lady who carts the dish back to Calif. each year for a dinner party of transplants! really.

A good Cantonese/ Chinese-American restaurant will still serve it right. It is a classic...Chinese method, American ingredients dish. using celery for chinese cabbage or boc choy which was not available then (later 1800s)

It is difficult to get the Chinese taste at home without the intense heat of the real wok, and gas wok ring. But one can get pretty close.

 

[membrane]

We've tried quite a few of the Chinese restaurants since we have moved to Vegas, and none of them came close to Jin's chicken chow mein. In fact, they were totally different dishes! It's been really surprising to me that the chow mein dishes in Vegas are so much different than that in Minneapolis.

The only thing I need the recipe for is the celery "sauce" (I'm sure I can figure out how to steam the rice ).

 

[membrane]

Does anyone know how to make the celery "sauce" for chow mein?

 

[membrane]

Does anyone know how to make the celery "sauce" for chow mein?

I'm still looking for the right "celery sauce" for chow mein. It looks like a big pile of brownish-green goop with celery (nothing else really in it).

 

[Chopstix]

I don't have a recipe but this is what I would do given your description of the dish, except that I didn't add rice here -- I've never encountered rice mixed in chowmein (which literall means stir-fried noodles in Chinese):

1. Saute some crushed garlic and onions.
2. Add chicken strips, soy sauce, oyster sauce, good chicken stock, then sliced carrots and chopped celery stems/leaves. (Add shrimps, pork strips and sliced chinese sausages for better taste. You can also add lots of chives.) Simmer until cooked and adjust seasonings to taste.
3. Ladle out all solids and enough liquid for topping noodles later. (You must have enough remaining stock simmering in your wok to be absorbed by the noodles.)
4. Add noodles until cooked. Place noodles in serving platter.
5. Return reserved toppings into wok and bring to a boil.
6. Add slurry of cornstarch while stirring. When cornstarch all cooked and combined and you get the right consistency of the topping liquid, pour everything over the noodles. Serve while hot.

Note: Use the best quality chowmein noodles you can find. It's flavor and texture adds greatly to the overall taste of the dish.

Good luck....

 

[cipher]

there is a place called "Jin's Chow Mein" that serves the best chicken chow mein I have ever had. It consisted of white rice, celery sauce (this is the best way I can describe it-it's a real thick sauce with mostly celery) and crunchy noodles with little strips of chicken breast.

Rice in chow mein?

 

[Andy M.]

Here's the basic recipe. You can add some chicken, pork or beef, etc. and customize the dish to your liking.


Chow Mein/Chop Suey



For the Sauce:
2 Tb Oyster Sauce
1 Tb Soy Sauce
1/2Tb Dry Sherry
1/2 tsp Sugar
2 tsp Cornstarch
1/4 C Chicken or Vegetable Stock

For the Dish:
1/4 C Peanut Oil, divided
2 cl Garlic
1 Ea Onion, chopped
1 Ea Green Bell Pepper, chopped
8 Oz Mushrooms, sliced
5 Oz Water Chestnuts, canned
2 Oz Snow Pea Pods
1 Ea Carrot, sliced
7 Oz Broccoli Florets
4 Oz Bean Sprouts

Combine the sauce ingredients and set aside.


Stir-fry the vegetables (except for the sprouts) in small batches. If you do one type of vegetable at a time, they will be more evenly cooked than if you stir fry batches of mixed vegetables.


When all the vegetables are stir fried, add them all back into the wok and make a well in the bottom of the wok.


Add the sauce and stir over high heat until it boils.


Add the sprouts, toss and serve.

 

[Constance]

I don't like the crunchy chow mein noodles, so I use Ramen noodles instead. I don't really care if it's authentic or not.

 

[Luv4Prada]

any one know why lo mein is called chow mein in the west coast?

 

[Andy M.]

Here on the East Coast, lo mein and chow mein are two completely different dishes.

Lo mein is a soft wheat noodle dish with added meats and veggies. The main ingredient is the noodle. Lo mein translates to tossed noodles.

Chow mein is a veggie and meat dish with a sauce, served over deepfried crispy noodles. Chow mein translates to fried noodles.

 

[membrane]

Rice in chow mein?

Yes. The celery sauce is served on top of a bed of white rice, then topped with crispy noodles.

 

[Pom-mom]

Jin's Chow Mein

If anyone is interested,
I found the recipe in a old chinese cook book. 1952
I lived in Minneapolis and often ate chow mein from Jin's.

4 Tablespoons cooking oil or chicken fat (pork sausage)
3 teaspoons of salt
1\4 teaspoon of pepper
2 cups sliced chinese cabbage or boya cabbage
3 cups cut celery
2 cups of canned bean sprouts
2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups of stock
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 1\2 tablespoons of corn starch
1\4 cup of cold water
2 cups sliced cooked chicken
1 8 ounce bag of noodles
2 hardboiled eggs.

Heat oil salt and pepper in a deep hot skillet, add all the vegetables, the bean sprouts last. Sprinkle sugar over them. Stir. Add the stock and mix well. Cover the pan. Cook till boiling point, then turn mixture over. Cover and let cook till boiling about 10 minutes in all. Stir and add Soy sauce mixed with corn starch and water; stir slowly while the mixture thickens.

Place noodles on a plate cover with chow mein and top with sliced chicken and hardboiled eggs. White rice is used as a side dish.

Makes 4 servings..

I think Jin's makes this recipe the day before they serve it, my leftovers tasted more like Jins then right after I cooked it.
Next time I make this I am going to leave it overnight in the fridge and then serve it up... Jin also uses pork sausage as a filler, so next time I am using the pork sausage instead of cooking oil to cook my veggies..

Enjoy all you lovers of Jins Chow Mein!!
Tampa Florida Pom-mom

 

[suziquzie]

Hey looks good, now I dont have to go to Minneapolis!

 

[auntdot]

We sometimes collect old menus, sometimes means if we are in the mood.

And have a number of Chinese menus from the 20's and 30's that were basically chow mein and chop suey places.

When I was a kid that was what Chinese restaurants had to offer.

Then, when I got older, I used to walk across the Brookly Bridge every day for dinner in Chinatown. I learned what real Chinese cooking was. Helped the Chinese with their lessons and got the real McCoy. The Chinese are a great people. And it was not chow mein. In fact could order from the Chinese written menus. Gosh was that food good.

But who cares? People like what they like. When I was a kid all that was available was Chung King chow mein in a can. And that was OK because I liked the celery flavor and the bean sprouts. And it was thickened I would suppose with corn starch.

So Andy's recipe sounds good, it has the oyster sauce and the corn starch and all kind of good stuff, but it needs the celery flavor.

Look, I know the Chung King stuff was awful but sometimes you need a bit of your dhildhood. And nothing brings it back more than the food.

And if it tastes good to you it is good grub, and don't let anyone tell you anything different.

And if they go on, sic Auntdot on them. Good food is what you like and want it to be.

Am in a feisty mood, God bless.

Andy, your recipe sounds great, but am in the mood for lousy old chow mein on a bed of rice.

Sometimes you just have to remember. And am in the mood for that.

Again God bless and take care.

 

[Pom-mom]

Jin's Chow mein

Hi Everyone,

You can also use Napa cabbage in the place of chinese cabbage..

I have been living in Tampa Florida for 7 years , and I had been craving this chow mein for awhile. I searched the web (thats how I found this site) for this recipe for years. no luck! Finally my husband brought home this old chines cookbook he found, and low and behold here is the recipe I had been searching for.

This is "The Secret" at work, if you want something bad enough, it eventually shows up on your doorstep. Now if only I could win the lottery.

Smile..
Pom-mom

 

[BreezyCooking]

Actually, "Napa" cabbage & "Chinese" cabbage are one & the same thing.