Easy King Prawn Chow Mein recipe made with king prawns, egg noodles, loads of vegetables, and quick chow mein sauce. The best homemade prawn noodle stir fry everyone will love! Ready in 20 minutes and incredibly delicious!
When you have very little time to prepare dinner, what do you cook? I love to make quick chicken chow mein, or prawn fried rice. In this post, I'll be sharing our family's all-time favourite recipe.
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What is King Prawn Chow Mein?
Chow Mein is one of the most popular Chinese noodle dishes that everyone loves! Basically, prawn chow mein is a noodle stir fry with colourful crisp vegetables and prawn tossed in delicious stir fried sauce. If you are finding prawn noodle stir fry with simple ingredients and easy cooking steps, this is the right recipe for you! No special ingredients or equipment are needed. All you need is a large wok or frying pan, supermarket ingredients, and cupboard-friendly Oriental sauces.
Why you should try this recipe
- It's tastier, faster and healthier than regular takeaway chow mein.
- Minimum cooking time, 20 minutes!
- Made with supermarket and pantry friendly ingredients!
- Ingredients and sauces can be customized to your preference. This recipe is flexible/adaptable.
- Serve the crowd with minimum budget, plus you get loads of prawns when you make it at home!
Ingredients You Need
Prawns/Shrimp: King prawn is commonly used in seafood chow mein in the UK. Large jumbo king prawns, king prawns, tiger prawns, or even white prawns work well. Prawns should be peeled and deveined.
Can I use cooked prawns? Fresh prawns are the sweetest and taste best, however, if you cannot get fresh prawns, you can use frozen cooked prawns. Defrost the prawns according to the packet instructions and add in the wok after stir-frying the garlic and vegetables.
Other protein choices: You can also add chicken, pork, or any of your favourite protein cut into small pieces. Quorn meat and firm tofu can be added for vegetarians.
Egg Noodles: I used fresh egg noodles in this recipe which is easy to buy in most supermarkets. You also use medium-thick dried egg noodles or feel free to use ramen noodles, yakisoba noodles, any noodle packet left in your pantry.
Stir Fry Sauce: Make a classic chow mein sauce with oyster sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. This is a basic stir fry sauce that you can add to any stir fry dish. We use this sauce mixture in most of our stir fry recipes.
Vegetables: Bean sprouts, onions, carrots, spring onions, cabbage are commonly used vegetables in takeaway style. Swap with your favorite stir fry vegetables and add the hard vegetables first before you add your noodles.
How to make prawn noodle stir fry
Gather all ingredients before you start heating the wok. You can also check out our step-by-step cooking video instructions in the recipe card.
- First, season the prawns with salt, pepper and a splash of Shao Xing wine.
- Mix all the stir fry sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set it aside.
- Heat the large wok/pan into medium-high heat and stir fry the prawns for 2-3 minutes until cooked through.
- Remove the prawns from wok and set it aside.
- In the remaining wok, drizzle more oil and stir fry the garlic for few seconds and follow with the onion, carrot and bell pepper. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Next add the noodles and pour the sauce over the noodles. Cook over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes.
- Place the cooked prawns back in the wok, along with spring onions, chilli slices and bean sprouts.
- Toss well to combine everything and stir fry for another 1-2 minutes. Transfer to serving plate and serve immediatly.
Top tip
- Always rinse the bean spouts with water even the packaging says its washed, for extra safty. If I have time, I remove the bean sprouts tail as I love to have it without tails. But that is quite time consuming and is totally fine to eat with tails.
- Sometimes the supermarket fresh noodles are very oily, you can rinse with hot water, drain the oily water out. Then rise with cold water again to stop the cooking process and prevent the noodles from too soft.
- Do not overcrowd the pan, make sure the pan is hot enough to prevent it from soggy.
- If you are making for crowd, fry with batches if needed.
FAQ
Chinese restaurants and takeaway style are usually made with the same ingredients and sauces that we cook at home. The main difference is the wok they use. Authentic Chinese restaurants and takeaway chow mein are cooked with high heat traditional Chinese wok which creates the unique wok flavour called ' wok hei '.
If you don't have it at home you don't need to! Use any large non-stick wok or pan to give enough space and heat for stir fry ingredients.
It tastes best when freshly cooked. However, you can store it in a fridge in an air-tight container for up to 2 days. Reheat in the microwave or over the stovetop for 1-2 minutes until piping hot just before serving.
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📖 Recipe
Prawn Chow Mein
Ingredients
- 250 g Prawns King prawns, tiger prawns/shrimp ( peeled and deveined )
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Black pepper
- 1 tsp Shao Xing wine Chinese rice cooking wine ( optional )
- 300 g Egg noodles Fresh/cooked egg noodles
- 1 tbsp Garlic Finely chopped
- ½ Onion Cut thin slices
- 1 Carrot Julienne
- 1 Bell pepper Julienne
- 3 Spring onion Cut 2" pieces
- 120 g Bean sprouts
- 1 Red chilli pepper Optional, Cut thin slices
- 2-3 tbsp Vegetable oil
Chow Mein Sauce
- 2 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 2 tsp Dark soy sauce
- 4 tbsp Oyster sauce
- 1 tsp Sesame oil
- 1 tbsp Sugar
Instructions
- First, season the prawns with salt, black pepper, and Shao Xing wine. Boil the dried noodles by the packet instructions or use fresh egg noodles. Mix all the chow mein sauce in a bowl and set it aside.
- Heat the large wok/pan into a medium-high heat, drizzle a tablespoon of oil. Saute the prawns for 2-3 minutes or until prawns clour changed, then remove from pan and set it aside.
- In the remaining pan, drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of oil, and saute the chopped garlic for few seconds with medium heat. Then follow with the onion slices, carrot, and bell pepper slices. Stir fry for 1 minute.
- Next add the noodles, pour the sauce mixture, toss well and cook for 2-3 minutes over medium-high heat.
- Place the cooked prawns back in the wok, follow with spring onions, bean sprouts, and chilli slices. Toss well until all the ingredients combine evenly and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
- Transfer to serving plate and serve immediately.
Video
Notes
- Prawns/Shrimp - You can use any of your favourite tiger prawns or king prawns, peeled and deveined.
- Cooked prawns - If you used frozen cooked prawns, defrost the prawns by the packet instructions and add the prawns after stir-frying the vegetables and follow with the noodles.
- Noodles - Use fresh egg noodles or dried egg noodles. If you use dried egg noodles, cook the noodles by the packet instructions but make sure not to overcook them and rinse with cold water after boiling.
- Shao Xing wine - is a Chinese cooking rice wine that eliminates the fishy odour of seafood and creates a nice aroma. You can omit it if you wish to make it a non-alcohol or halal version.
- Vegetables - Bean sprouts, carrots, and onions are classic chow mein vegetables. Feel free to customize the vegetables according to your preference.
- Oyster sauce - Oyster sauce add tasty umami flavour to the dish, you can substitute with vegetarian stir fry sauce. ( available in Lee Kum Kee brand )
- Chow mein sauce - is a basic Chinese stir fry sauce that you can also add to other stir fry dishes. You can make extra sauce, store it in an air-tight jar and keep it in the fridge for later use.
Julia says
Delicious recipe. My daughter said she could eat it every day!
S. Fullard says
This recipe was easy to make and tastes absolutely delicious. It is far better than the takeaways version. i will definitely make this regularly and try it with chicken next time.
Alan says
I’m really enjoying cooking your recipes, have not had a failure
Khin says
Glad to hear it, Alan. Thanks for sharing your feedback.
Pat Hogden says
I am so pleased to have found you, I love Chinese food, I am british but living in Australia, I don't like the Chinese food here.
Now I am making my own Chinese at home with a very big THANK YOU to you
I have tried quite a few of the recipes but my fav ones are Chow Mien,king prawn fried rice and prawn spring rolls.
Your the Best .....
Khin says
So happy to hear it, Pat. Thanks for trying out our recipes and sharing your feedback.
Chris says
My first recipe with you, spot on 🙂 will be trying more recipes, thank you for your time in doing this web site.
Khin says
You are welcome, Chris. Thanks for sharing your comment and hope you enjoy our recipes.
Sylwia says
Amazing!
Caroline says
Hi I'm going to have a go at this recipe was wondering the calories quoted of 555 is that per portion or of the whole meal for 3 people
Many thx
Khin says
Hi Caroline, 555 kcal is per one serving, approximately. Hope you enjoy it.
Barbara says
Absolutely delicious, we haven’t had a takeaway of any description for years, so pleased with this recipe, this will become a regular meal in our home.
Khin says
I am so glad that you enjoyed this recipe, Barbara! Thank you so much for taking time and sharing feedback with us.
Darren Fisher says
Another excellent recipe from you. Very tasty and very easy. Keep up the good work, thank you
Khin says
You are most welcome Darren. Thank you so much for your support.
May says
Best recipe!!