Sichuan Cold Noodles with Shredded Chicken

Originally a street food, these authentic Chongqing noodles make a great snack, side dish, or main, especially during summer.

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Servings: 4

Calories: 612kcal

Equipment

Mixer
Pasta roller

Ingredients

Alkaline noodles (you can also buy noodles -- they'll work fine)

200 g bread flour
100 g water
2 g salt
1 g soda ash ((bake baking soda at 400° F for 30 minutes))
4 tbsp cooking oil (to coat cooked noodles)

Accessorizing ingredients

300 g chicken thigh (boneless, skinless)
½ in ginger (sliced)
½ tsp sichuan peppercorn
100 g bean sprouts
1 handful cilantro (roughly chopped)
2 medium scallions (diced)
2 tbsp roasted peanuts

Noodle sauce

3 cloves garlic (minced)
¾ tsp chili oil (adjust to taste -- ¾ tsp will be mildly spicy on the scale of authentic Chinese street food)
1¼ tsp salt
1¼ tsp chicken bouillon powder
4 tbsp white sugar
2½ tbsp Chinese black vinegar
1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorn oil (can substitute ¾ tsp ground sichuan peppercorn and ½ tbsp canola oil )
¾ tbsp sesame oil
¾ tbsp light soy sauce
¾ tbsp rapeseed oil (can substitute canola oil )

Instructions

Make the noodles (unless purchasing them)

Mix the bread flour, salt, and soda ash
Add water and mix until it forms a lumpy dough
Rest the dough for 5 minutes
Knead until (mostly) smooth -- don't overwork the dough
Separate the dough into 2 equal parts;
Use your pasta roller's standard process to roll and cut the noodles into dough (roll it at the roller's widest setting, letter fold the dough, and repeat until smooth; gradually reduce the width and keep rolling in stages until thin, then cut) -- this can be done by hand as well
If you are not cooking the noodles immediately, dust them in flour and cover with a damp towel

Prepare the noodles

If you purchased noodles, follow the instructions on the package to cook the noodles; cook them a little under, then follow the oiling and cooling step below
Boil water; keeping the heat high, add the noodles
Gently stir the noodles until foam rises
Reduce heat to medium and cook for another 30 seconds (they will still be a little short of standard al dente for pasta)
Roughly drain the noodles and move them to a bowl
Coat with oil and use chopsticks to toss and separate the noodles until coated in oil and cooled to room temperature (traditionally, you can use a fan to cool them faster)

Prepare the chicken and sauce

Boil the chicken with the ginger and sichuan peppercorns, removing any foam that rises, until you can easily pierce the chicken with a chopstick
While the chicken cooks, combined the ingredients for the sauce
Remove the chicken and rinse it in cold water
While the chicken cools, boil the bean sprout in the same pot for 1 minute, then drain and cool them (cook them in a noodle strainer to do this easily)
Dry the chicken and shred it into strips

Assemble the dish

Pile the bean sprouts in the center of a large rimmed dish or bowl
Add the shredded chicken on top of the sprouts
Divide the noodles into 4-6 portions; use chopticks or a fork to twist each portion into a rounded bundle and place them around the edges of the dish
Add, in order, the peanuts, noodle sauce (stir it first), scallion, and cilantro on top of the chicken
Impress your friends and your taste buds!

Product recommendations

Recommendations and sources for less common ingredients and tools can be found among my Product Recommendations

Nutrition information (per serving)*

*Please note: nutrition information is my best approximation based on the ingredients I used when creating the recipe; it is intended to be informational only