Pan-Asian Noodles with Ground Chicken

A mix of globetrotting Asian ingredients creates a delicious, weeknight-simple meal. Recipe below.

PAN-ASIAN IS KIND OF A CATCH-ALL COOKING TERM. Chefs sometimes use it to refer to an intentional mixing of cuisines and cultures to create something new. But many Asian ingredients are in fact pan-Asian, maybe originating in one country, but crossing borders to be used in kitchens throughout Asia. Pan-Asian Noodles with Ground Chicken falls in the latter camp, using ingredients from China, India, East Asia and Southeast Asia to create a dish that is not distinctly any one cuisine, but is distinctly delicious.

Our pantry and fridge are absolutely pan-Asian, but happily, so are most supermarkets. If you have access to Asian markets, you can get a wider choice of ingredients, but many supermarkets offer decent soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce and Asian noodles. And there’s always online shopping.

We used ground chicken for this recipe because we like the lightness of it. But you can use ground turkey, beef, pork or lamb. The recipe also calls for fresh scallions and cilantro. Unfortunately, at the moment both are likely suspects in harboring cyclospora, the dastardly parasite wreaking digestive havoc across the US. If you can find locally grown, you’re good. If not, substitute chives for the scallions and skip the cilantro.

In any case, do cook up a simple, delicious pan of Pan-Asian Noodles with Ground Chicken. We think you’ll like it a lot.

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Pan-Asian Noodles with Ground Chicken

A mix of globetrotting Asian ingredients creates a delicious, weeknight-simple meal.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Pan-Asian

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup soy sauce, divided—we use Kikkoman reduced sodium
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon or more of your favorite hot sauce (optional—see Kitchen Notes)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch, divided
• 6 or 7 ounces soba noodles (see Kitchen Notes for substitutes)
• 1 pound ground chicken (see Kitchen Notes)
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil, divided
• 6 cups sliced and then chopped green cabbage—about 2/3 of a small cabbage
• 1 small white or yellow onion, chopped (about 3/4 cup)

For the garnish

• 1/4 cup scallions or chives, chopped (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1/4 cup or more fresh cilantro, chopped (optional—see Kitchen Notes)

Instructions

• First, make the sauce. Mix 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, the rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, the garlic and the hot sauce, if using, in a small bowl. Add in 2 teaspoons of cornstarch, stir and set aside.
• Next, cook the noodles just to al dente according to package instructions. Drain and rinse them in hot water, and set aside.
• Mix the ground chicken with the remaining soy sauce and cornstarch. Mash it together with your hands until it's uniform. In a big heavy-bottomed skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil over medium heat. Put in the chicken mixture and stir-fry, breaking up the mass into little chunks. Cook until the chicken starts to turn golden and is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a clean bowl and set aside.
• Next, add the last tablespoon of cooking oil, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, the chopped cabbage and the onion to the hot skillet. Stir well to coat everything in oil, then spread it out in the skillet, pressing down a little so it is uniform. Leave it alone over medium heat until it starts to brown on the bottom—about 4 minutes. Once you see it starting to brown, stir-fry it for another couple of minutes until the cabbage becomes tender. It should still be crisp.
• Lower the heat to medium low. Pour in the cooked chicken and stir together, then add the cooked noodles to the skillet. Stir the sauce one more time, then pour it over the noodles. Continue cooking this, stirring everything together so that everything is uniform and the sauce is nicely coating it all. Add in half the scallions (or chives) and give it one more stir. Plate, garnishing generously with the rest of the green onions and the cilantro.

Kitchen Notes

Hot sauce options (or optional). For this recipe, we used our current favorite Mexican hot sauce, El Yucateco XXXtra Hot Sauce, which is fire. But this part is flexible! Try it with Chinese chili paste, sriracha, or good ol' Cholula. If you don’t have a favorite hot sauce because you hate hot sauce, then leave it out.

Soba noodles or… You may use pretty much any pasta for this dish, but it's best with linear noodles, like udon or somēn. Or even go non-Asian with capellini.

Scallions? Cilantro? Now? We know that with cyclospora doing its ugly digestive thing these days, right now many of you are avoiding fresh greens from the grocery store. We were able to use cilantro and chives from our garden. If you don’t have a reliable local source for those things, like a farmer's market, just omit the cilantro for the time being, and substitute chives for scallions.