Chili Garlic Noodle Recipe

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This chili garlic noodle combine fragrantly marinated chicken with chewy noodles coated with a delicious chili-based sauce. This is a super flavorful recipe that only takes 20 minutes to put together.

A plate of chili garlic noodles pulled by chopsticks.

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✅ Why This Recipe Works
🍎 Calories and Nutrition – Is It Healthy
📋 Ingredient Notes
📖 Substitutions and Variations
🔪 Step by Step Instructions
💡Expert Tips
💭 Recipe FAQs
🍽 Related Recipes
🍳 Recipe

✅ Why This Recipe Works

Simple to make – No pre-prepping needed. This dish will easily come together in 20 minutes.

Flavorful and well-balanced – By utilizing expert cooking techniques, you can unlock fragrant flavors to create delicious dish.

Low in calories and packed with protein – This recipe was specially developed to be packed with protein and low-calorie, making for a great healthy noodle recipe.

🍎 Calories and Nutrition – Is It Healthy

Chili garlic noodle is typically a very unhealthy recipe due to the heavy usage of chili oil, making the dish highly caloric. Thankfully, with some mindful portioning and ingredient swaps, it's quite easy to make this dish healthier.

This chili garlic noodle recipe has 492 calories with 42 grams of protein, 23 grams of fat, and 44 grams of carbs.

Here’s what I did to make it healthier:

Portioned the noodles – I used exactly 1 serving of noodles at 190 calories.
Opt for a lean meat – While traditionally made with lamb, I opted to use chicken, a great lean protein option
Swapping out oil for cooking spray – This saves about 120 calories from the oil
Portioned the chili crisp – This dish usually is doused with chili oil, but I only used 1 tablespoon to prevent excess calories from fat.

For a detailed breakdown of each ingredient, their portioning, and how they make up the nutrition profile of this chili garlic noodle recipe, you may refer to the table below:

Calorie and macro breakdown of each ingredient of this recipe.

📋 Ingredient Notes

Ingredients for the recipe laid out on the table.

To make the chili garlic noodle, you'll need the following key ingredients:

Chicken thigh – A great lean protein option that pairs well with the dish
Wide Noodles – Typical noodles used in this dish. Egg noodles, rice noodles, or any flour based noodle would work well here.
Cumin seeds, Sichuan peppercorn, Coriander seeds – Key spices needed to give the dish a fragrant flavor.
Shaoxing wine – A traditional Chinese rice wine with a rich, slightly sweet flavor that is used in cooking to enhance the taste of various dishes.
Dark Soy sauce – A thick, dark-colored and intensely flavored condiment used in Chinese cuisine to add a rich, savory, and slightly sweet taste to dishes.
Chinkiang vinegar – A black rice vinegar with a complex, sweet-tart flavor commonly used in Chinese cooking to add acidity and depth of flavor to dishes.
Lao Gan Ma – A popular chili crisp used as the chili base for this recipe. Any brand of chili crisp would work here.

See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.

📖 Substitutions and Variations

Shaoxing Wine – Shaoxing wine can be picked up from your local asian grocery store or ordered online via Amazon. If you'd prefer not to use it, feel free to omit.

Make Spicier – To make spicier, sauté a chopped Thai chili with the aromatics.

Sichuan Peppercorn substitution – There isn't a good substitution for sichuan peppercorn, but feel free to use white pepper for a milder flavor.

Noodle options – If you're not having much luck finding wide noodles, some other options you can use include egg noodles, rice noodles, or any flour-based noodles.

🔪 Step by Step Instructions

Crush the spices – Toast the peppercorns, coriander and cumin. Crush the spices in a mortar and pestle. Alternatively, you can use pre-ground spices, but the flavor won't be quite as fragrant.

Prepare the chicken – Cut chicken into bite size pieces, trimming off the excess fat. Mix with the spice mixture, coating the chicken pieces thoroughly.

Make the stir-fry sauce – In a separate bowl, combine the chili oil, vinegar, and the soy sauces.

Cook the noodles – In a separate pot, prepare the noodles for stir frying according to the package directions.

Cook the chicken – Spray a skillet with cooking spray and add in chicken pieces in a single layer. Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until fully cooked.

Sauté the aromatics – When the chicken is halfway done, toss in the garlic, onions, and ginger and sauté until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.

Mix everything together – Toss in the noodles and stir fry sauce and mix together thoroughly.

Garnish and serve – Garnish with cilantro, serve with additional chili crisp if desired, and enjoy your delicious chili garlic noodle.

💡Expert Tips

Toast the spices – Doing so enhances the flavor of the spices, making the chili garlic noodle much more fragrant. This is a similar technique used to make flavorful chicken pho.

Wide noodles – While any kind of noodle works, wide noodles with ridges are my favorite because they carry the sauce better in its ridges.

💭 Recipe FAQs

Can I make this recipe with other protein?

Yes – traditionally this recipe is made with lamb. I chose to make it with chicken because I wanted to use a lean meat and provide a healthier alternative. You can use lamb, beef, or mushrooms if you'd like a veggie option.

Can I make this in advance?

You can prep this in advance by making the sauce in advance and cooking the chicken in advance. When you're ready to eat, just cook the noodles and mix in the sauce and chicken.

How do I store this recipe?

To store this recipe, put in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.

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