Noodles with chicken

How to make chicken and vegetable noodles.  I recently met Valentin, a person curious about many subjects, including gastronomy.

Throughout the conversation, he told me that he prepared a simple and exquisite recipe for chicken noodles , assuring me that his Japanese friend Nobu’s recipe was the best he had ever tried.

The main requirement for a good noodle dish is based on five basic pillars of Asian cuisine. The freshness of vegetables and chicken, the pleasure that comes with doing it. The time to cook something special, the technique with which we are going to cut the ingredients that will guarantee a unique dish. And let’s not forget, perhaps the most important, the decoration. It is the pleasure of seeing it before eating it, which is the culmination of all of the above to achieve a happy ending.

I challenged Valentin to give me his recipe so that we could all try it, and it didn’t take him a week to email it to me. You know that I love any recipe with chicken , it is one of my favorite ingredients, so I knew I was going to like it yes or yes.

The dish has its history, says Valentin:

“ When I was studying in San Francisco I was lucky enough to share a student flat with my Japanese friend Nobu and with Filipino David, two lovers like me from the kitchen. I taught them how to cook everything Spanish, including the Spanish Omelette, and me their Asian cuisine. We were known on campus for the succulent dinners that we organized almost weekly, in which there were queues to try a Spanish rice or some mussels in red Martini, or the delicious noodles that Nobu made, among many other recipes. I learned a lot about Asian cuisine, (I had never seen a wok before and I found it fascinating) and I ended up making many typical Japanese and Filipino dishes, but with my Mediterranean touch (with the exception of olive oil, which despite being fantastic I do not pairs with Asian because it has a more acidic flavor than the vegetable). ”

I leave you with this exotic dish that you can tune with shrimp, beef, etc, not only with chicken, and that I have already followed to the letter. This recipe will bring you one of the most famous dishes of Japanese cuisine.

Preparation of the noodles with chicken and vegetables

1. We cut all the vegetables into very thin strips and also the chicken, ensuring that the cut size of all the vegetables and the fillet are homogeneous.
2. We put a wok or perfectly a large non-stick frying pan over high heat.
3. We add all the sunflower oil and when it starts to smoke we put all the vegetables except the bean sprouts. Stirring constantly until lightly browned. Being so thin, it only takes a minute and a half for them to be “al dente”.
4. We put the bean sprouts in the same pan. We will always do it all followed on the same hot pan. We also add a splash of soy sauce to them.
5. Mix well, bringing all the flavors together, the sauce will start to evaporate.
6. In less than twenty-five seconds or when they go from white to transparent, we remove them along with the rest of the vegetables. We reserve in a container and cover.
7. Later we fry the chicken strips in the same wok, and reserve with the vegetables. We cover.
8. Add the eggs, stir them until they are the texture of the French omelette, well curd and chopped. We reserve together with all the vegetables and cover.

Stir-frying noodles and final presentation

1. Finally on the same pan or wok, pour the glass of hot water. As soon as it starts to boil, we put the block of dry noodles in the middle of it.
2. In a minute and a half we proceed to turn the noodles so that they cook on the other side. And in turn we open them carefully as if they were a book so that both faces are made.
3. With a stick fork to avoid damaging the pan, we are stirring the noodles. We separate them until they are loose. And before they run out of water we pour the preparation of the noodles that comes in the envelope and stir.
4. It gives the whole dish the dressing and the point of salt, but watch out for those who bring a spicy preparation. I personally do not like this dish, it kills many flavors, I do not use that extra envelope.
5. To finish, we combine the noodles with the rest of the ingredients. We remove everything well.
6. We serve directly, accompanying the plate with a good glass of white wine.

I encourage you to try doing it at home. We will gradually enter the world of Asian cuisine without trauma. You can see all the step-by-step photos of this classic chicken and vegetable noodle recipe  in this album.

Tips on Yakisoba noodles

• The best ones to prepare this recipe are yakisoba. Not all noodles are the same, Valentin tells us that he has tested practically all of them.
• These types of noodles are very nutritious. The noodles have high quality proteins, very rich in vitamin B and minerals such as iron and calcium. And although they are a fast food dish, they are also healthy.
• They are a daily plate when you do not have time, in 15 minutes you have them ready, and for special occasions when you have to stop a little in the preparation.
• At New Years Eve, in Japan, they prepare the “ Toshikoshi Soba ” or “ Noodles from the passage of the year “. They receive this name for the elongated shape of the noodles that for them represent longevity and lasting happiness.
• The Kasisoba noodles with Chinese style are called Chukasoba in Japanese .
• These noodles were called soba because they were made with buckwheat flour, although this is no longer the case today, but they are made with wheat flour, water and an alkaline agent called kansui .
• This agent allows the noodles to acquire the necessary and distinctive elasticity of this type of noodles.
• The kansui is obtained naturally but has been replaced by potassium carbonate or synthesized sodium carbonate. This makes the noodles look curly and stretchy.