yakisoba

This was such a great recipe. We all loved it. It had a sweet taste and kick to it, since I add hotsauce to alot of things I make. Anyways, a lot of my friends ask me how I have time to cook when I have 2 small kids to take care of. Well, my answer to that is that I do the prep work ahead of time (usually when Charlie is napping) and then at 5pm when its time to get dinner on, if Carl is home, he takes the kids outside and if Im with the kids alone, I get them set up watching some tv show. Then I can just throw it together and cook it. When I was throwing this dish together at dinnertime, I was wondering why I dont make more stir frys. They are so quick and easy! Especially if you have all the veggies cut up and ready to go ahead of time and the sauce made. I got this recipe from a blog that I recently started reading called Blazing Hot WokI followed it almost exactly, except I used broccoli instead of mustard greens. Also, I didnt have any fresh ginger on hand, so I used 1/2 tsp ground ginger powder. This was good. Easy, quick and delicious!

Yakisoba Stir-fry with Chicken and Broccoli

• 3 tbs hoisin sauce
• 2 tbs black soy sauce (regular soy sauce is fine too)
• 1 tbs Chinese chili bean paste (or chili garlic sauce will do fine)
• ½ tbs brown sugar
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 1 tbs minced garlic
• 1 tbs minced or grated ginger (I used 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
  
• 1 bunch broccoli
• 1 ½ to 2 chicken breast, sliced for stir-fry ( I used 1 lb chicken breast cutlets)
  
• 2 bunches green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
• 1 (32 0z) package of yakisoba noodles

Start by separating the noodles. They come compressed together and it can be hard to separate them when they are cold. You could dunk them into boiling water for about 10 or 20 seconds, but that’s too much work for me. I’m also afraid they will get too soft and become soggy when I stir-fry them. What I normally end up doing is putting them into my stockpot and filling that with lukewarm water and carefully trying to separate the noodles with my hands. Every strand doesn’t have to be separated, but they should be loose. Drain them and keep them in a colander until ready to use. They come lightly coated with oil so they shouldn’t clump together and stick.

Make the sauce mix by combining the hoisin, soy sauce, chili bean paste, brown sugar and sesame oil. Mix well to dissolve the sugar and set aside until it’s needed.

Heat a wok over high heat. When it’s very, very hot add a splash of oil (about 2 tbs). Add the garlic and ginger and fry for about 10 seconds. Add the chicken and then the broccoli. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes, until the chicken is almost done. Add the drained noodles and stir-fry until everything is well mixed, about 1 minute. Add the sauce mix and continue to stir-fry until the noodles are coated with the sauce, about a minute or two more. Turn off the heat and throw in the green onions. Toss a couple more times and you’re done! Serve immediately. Even though this is well seasoned, I always serve noodles with fish sauce, lime wedges and sambal oelek on the side just in case anyone wants to a little extra seasoning.