Fresh egg noodles, crunchy vegetables and succulent chicken cooked in an aromatic and flavoursome sauce. Slow Cooker Chicken Chow Mein is a family friendly and easy to make noodle dish.
Mix all of the spices together to make a spice blend (garlic powder, 5 spice, white pepper, chilli powder).
2½ tsp chinese 5 spice seasoning, 1 tsp garlic powder, ¼ tsp white pepper, ½ tsp mild chilli powder
Slice the onion and mushrooms and add to the slow cooker with the minced garlic and ginger. Place the chicken thighs (see recipe note 1) on top with the stock cube then sprinkle over all of the spice blend before mixing well.
500 g chicken thighs, 1 onion, 150 g mushrooms, 3 garlic cloves, 1 tsp ginger, 1 chicken stock cube
Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, honey and mirin and stir through. Then cook on high for 3 hours. If using diced chicken breasts reduce this time to 2 hours (see recipe note 2).
Add the remaining vegetables (mangetout, carrot ribbons, and beansprouts see recipe note 3) and cover with the cornflour. Mix the cornflour and vegetables into the chicken and sauce.
1 carrot, 150 g beansprouts, 100 g mangetout, 2 tbsp cornflour
Next add the water and nests of dried noodles. Submerge the noodles in the liquid entirely so they cook evenly (see recipe note 4 if using fresh egg noodles). Cook for a further 1 hour on high.
175 ml water, 200 g egg noodles
Once cooked, toss the noodles, chicken and vegetables and break up the thighs into smaller pieces if they have remained intact. Serve immediately.
Notes
Chicken - Don't cut up the chicken thighs before cooking. They can break down during the cooking period and end up more like pulled chicken. The result is better when the chicken is in chunks, the thighs are easy to break into pieces once they are cooked.
Chicken breasts - Due to the lower fat content of chicken breasts compared to thighs, reduce the stated cook time in step 3 to 2 hours instead of 3 hours. This will prevent the chicken from drying out.
Any additional vegetables can also be added at this point. Good choices are pak choi, water chestnuts, thick cut strips of red or green peppers.
Fresh noodles - Fresh noodles will need half the amount of cooking time so add them 30 minutes after the vegetables and then allow to cook for 30 minutes on high. Fresh noodles will also absorb less water than dried so decrease the volume of water added to the sauce by half.
General note: Due to the variances between brands and sizes of slow cookers all cooking times given above are a guide only. Please ensure all meat is cooked thoroughly and food is piping hot throughout before serving.