Dinner: Homemade Chicken Chow Mein!

 

 

For the past few weeks I have dying for some Chicken Chow Mein.  I figured instead of being tempted by all the foods that I used to love at my local Chinese restaurant that I was going to give a try in making my own homemade chicken chow mein for the first time.  Then again since I’ve been getting more and more into cooking, I enjoy trying to make dishes which are “foreign” to me and out of my normal comfort zone.

I was surprised with how simple this really was and how delicious it tuned out.  I actually ended up using rotisserie chicken meat for my chicken because I didn’t want to boil chicken/bake it/ etc.  I looked up how to make chow mein on allrecipes.com and kind of winged my vegetables and the measurements of my liquids.

I put 2 tablespoons of margarine in the bottom of a pan and put in my sliced onions, minced garlic, celery and red peppers.  I seasoned my veggies with black pepper, a dash of sea salt, ground ginger, and garlic powder.  I put them into the pan and let them sweat out, but I didn’t allow them to cook all the way ‘til they were soft.  I then added in my mushrooms and fresh bean sprouts.  I let them cook for a few minutes so the bean sprouts were more pliable.  I then put in some canned drained baby corn, water chestnuts and sliced bamboo shoots.  I then added in 3 ½ cups of fat free low sodium chicken broth and 1/3 cup water.  I mixed to combine, and then added in 1/4c low sodium soy sauce.  When all set I then took my chopped rotisserie chicken and added that in and stirred in.  I let it heat and added in some cornstarch to thicken.  Once everything was nice and hot (my chicken was cold since I cut it up the night before) I served with the hard chow mein noodles on top of the mixture.

I served with plain white rice and since I didn’t feel like making eggrolls, I took out a pack of Lean Cuisine Garlic Chicken Spring Rolls and microwaved them per package instruction and served.

Overall the meal was absolutely delicious!  The chow mein wasn’t as thick as it generally is at restaurants, but I didn’t want to overkill with the cornstarch – but I didn’t mind the consistency, I actually find I enjoy it more.  Better yet, it definitely cured the Chinese food bug.