How To Cook Tasty, Spicy Chicken La Mian in 15 minutes

Lunar New Year to Malaysians mean one thing: we’ll be eating KFC for one week because our regular haunts will be closed 😅

This dish is inspired by the red packets of blessings (mon-nay 💵) the elder ones give to the younger generation and just the spirit of prosperity this season.

Recipe serves 2-4 people (2 if this is the main meal, 4 if you intend to cook extra side dishes)

Ingredients:

200gm chicken breast meat (sliced thinly and marinated in 1tsp fish sauce, 2 pinches of salt, a pinch of turmeric, 1/2 tsp paprika, a pinch of white pepper)

Coat in corn starch and pan fry, then keep aside

1 cinnamon stick

5 cardamom pods

1 star anise

4 shallots, sliced

2/3 cup of dried shrimps, pounded 20 dried chillies (soaked for 15 mins) 2 tbsp chilli flakes 2/3 cup of coriander leaves, chopped finely

4 pcs of ready made dried la mian (approx 160gm)

2 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

Steps:

Heat 1/5 cup of oil (yes it is a lot of oil but it is necessary to create the fragrant dried chilli paste) in pan. Then add cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and star anise to flavour the oil for 1 min
Add dried shrimp into the oil, when it turns golden brown, add shallots
When the shallots brown, add dried chilli and chilli flakes. Keep tossing it and now add sugar half a teaspoon at a time. Adjust it with salt too and taste the balance. Now add coriander and continue to cook for another 3-5 mins
While this is cooking, you can also prepare the la mian on the side. When you blanch it, make sure that the noodles are 80% done because it will continue to cook through after removing them from the boiling water
Now add the la mian into the main wok with the dried chilli paste. After 3 mins the noodles should be ready, take a strand to try first
Once ready, top and toss with the fried sliced chicken