Celebrate Chinese New Year with Chicken Lo Mein & Shrimp Egg Rolls

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This year Chinese New Year started on February 19th and the celebration lasts for fifteen days, ending on March 5th.

Back in Connecticut my son went to a multicultural school. We lived a few blocks from Yale University so he went to school with the children of the students and employees of Yale, many of whom were Chinese. Because of this they celebrated Chinese New Year at his school and they got to learn all about this fun holiday. 

Some fun ways to celebrate the new year Chinese style is to cook a Chinese meal, which I am going to share with you two of our favorite recipes. The two dishes that I am going to share with you symbolize gold and prosperity (fried foods) and long life (noodles).

First we’re going to make a chicken lo mein for long life. Feel free to use pork, shrimp, or beef instead. See the recipe at the bottom of this post.

Lo mein ingredients:

• 1-1½ lbs boneless chicken breast
• soy sauce
• corn starch
• sugar
• white wine
• sliced vegetables – I used snow peas, zucchini, orange bell pepper, carrot, bok choy, and scallions (green onions)
• oyster sauce
• chicken or vegetable broth
• sesame oil
• ground ginger
• Chinese Five Spice
• Chinese egg noodles (the ones I used are actually Vietnamese egg noodles from an Asian market)

The first thing you’re going to do is marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes. You can do this before you start chopping your vegetables and getting your other ingredients ready to make the lo mein sauce. 

Once your chicken is marinated cook it in a wok until the outside is no longer pink. By this point, you should have your lo mein sauce made and your veggies chopped. 

Toss your vegetables in the wok with the chicken and cook, until they start to brighten, become soft (but not too soft because we don’t want to eat mushy vegetables, ) and become fragrant. Once this happens, add your lo mein sauce to the wok and stir until well combined. 

Get your water boiling for the noodles. The noodles that I used only took two minutes to cook so you don’t want to start them too early. 

While the vegetables are doing beautiful things in the wok and your noodles are cooked, remove them from the water and add them to a large mixing bowl and add soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and sesame oil. Incorporate it well so your noodles don’t stick together. 

Add your veggies to the noodles, combine well and there you have it! Delicious lo mein. Serve with a side of egg rolls. {keep reading for the recipe}

Now to make the egg rolls for prosperity. We have made this recipe several times and we’re finally getting it down. My husband helps me with these acting as my fry cook because he’s much better with the fryer than I am. We use this fryer, but you could use a pot of hot oil if you don’t have one. 

Egg roll ingredients:

• 1 bag of cole slaw mix
• 3-4 scallions (green onions)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 (14oz) bag of cooked salad shrimp
• sugar
• soy sauce
• sesame oil
• Chinese Five Spice
• kosher salt
• fresh ginger
• 1 egg
• 1 package of egg roll wrappers (you will have leftovers)

Heat up the sesame oil, garlic, and ginger in a pan then toss in the shrimp. Once tossed together add your soy sauce, sugar, Five Spice, and salt to make a sauce. 

Pour the shrimp with sauce over the cole slaw mix and combine thoroughly. There will be some sauce at the bottom of the bowl so you may want to drain it out or use a slotted spoon. If your mixture is too wet then your egg roll wrappers will rip and that would be no bueno. 

Roll your eggs rolls like this:

Roll your egg rolls in a little flour then put them on a sheet pan covered in wax paper. DO NOT stack them. I made that mistake once and it was ugly!

Fry your egg rolls in the fryer or pot of hot oil until golden brown, turn them, fry them until the other side is also golden brown. Don’t crowd your fryer. We fry about five egg rolls at a time then put them on a pan and keep them in the oven on warm until the whole batch is done. 

Pretty delicious looking, no?

Serve with your lo mein along with a side of the dipping sauce of your choice. We like duck (plum) sauce but you would use soy sauce, mustard, Sriracha, whatever you like. 

Now you’re ready to celebrate Chinese New Year, or a random Tuesday night in style!

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Chicken Lo Mein

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Ingredients

• Meat & Marinade
• 1 - 1½ lbs boneless chicken breast, sliced thin
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon Kikkoman soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon white wine
• Vegetables
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
• 1 cup snow peas
• 1 cup bok choy, stems and leafy tops, sliced
• 1 orange, or red, yellow bell pepper, sliced
• 2 carrots, cut into 1-2 inch strips
• 3 scallions, green onions, sliced
• 1 medium zucchini, cut into 1-2 inch strips
• Sauce
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 cup vegetable or chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 ⁄4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 4 tablespoons sesame oil
• Noodle seasoning
• 1 lb Chinese egg noodles
• 1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1 ⁄2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1 ⁄2 teaspoons rice vinegar

Instructions

1. Put the cut chicken in a plastic bag, mix together the marinade and pour over the chicken. Marinate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Slice your vegetables and put them in a bowl.
3. Stir fry the chicken until no longer pink.
4. Put on a pot of water to boil. Add vegetables to the wok and cook until bright, fragrant, and softened (not mushy, leave a but of crunch).
5. Add the lo mein sauce mixture and combine thoroughly.
6. Cook your noodles per the package directions, drain.
7. Put noodles in a large mixing bowl and thoroughly toss with the noodle sauce.
8. Add the chicken and vegetables, combine and serve.

Notes

Adapted from food.com