Stir Fry Spaghetti – Chinese stir fry noodles recipe

Have you ever tried to stir fry spaghetti in a Chinese chow mein method?

If you can’t find authentic Chinese chow mein noodles (see picture below) at your local grocery store, spaghetti could be used as a perfect substitution to make Chinese style stir fry noodles.

These 30-minute stir fry noodles are so simple, and loaded with all kinds of vegetables in your fridge.

What’s more, you can easily make this recipe vegan by using vegan friendly oyster sauce, or make it gluten free by using gluten free spaghetti and gluten free soy sauce.

Chinese style stir fry spaghetti

Chinese style stir fry noodles should be al dente (instead of soft or soggy), and coated with its classic savory sauce. Spaghettis won’t turn soggy or sticky too easily, and they can hold the sauce on its surface very well. Therefore spaghetti is a perfect substitution of chow mein to make Chinese style stir fry noodles.

How to measure servings of spaghetti?

You can simply measure spaghetti/pasta servings with your hand:

Hold a bunch of spaghetti between your thumb and index finger. With your index tip touching the basal joint of your thumb, you are holding one serving of spaghetti; with your index tip touching the middle joint of your thumb, you are holding two servings of spaghetti; with your index tip touching the tip of your thumb, you are holding three servings of spaghetti.

However, this method could only roughly measure the servings, because different people would of course have different hand sizes. I do have relevantly small hands. If you have large hands, you may want to reduce some amount of spaghetti starting from my measuring method.

Of course, you can also measure the spaghetti with a kitchen scale. When you serve spaghetti as the main course, one serving of dry or uncooked spaghetti should be about 113g, two servings 225g, three servings 338g, four servings 450g.

Sauce for stir fry spaghetti

My stir fry spaghetti sauce is made of very simple and classic chow mein seasonings:

– Sugar: for a subtle sweet taste. Do not skip if you want to create an authentic Chinese stir fry noodle flavor.

– Light soy sauce: for a savory flavor. Light soy sauce is golden brown in color and rich in taste to add flavor during marinating and seasoning stage.

– Dark soy sauce: for a brown and shiny look. Dark soy sauce is used to add deep colors to meat stews and casseroles and often paired with light soy sauce to achieve the perfect taste and color.

– Oyster sauce: for a rich and complex caramelized savory flavor. Oyster sauce is so often used in Chinese stir fry dishes. Vegetarian version of oyster sauce is made from mushrooms. Other than that, it’s hard to find another substitution of oyster sauce. You may try using hoisin sauce instead if you can’t find oyster sauce anywhere.

Check out my homemade oyster sauce recipe.

– Chinkiang vinegar: for boosting the smell of stir fry spaghetti. One tablespoon of vinegar won’t make your noodles taste sour, since most of the vinegar will evaporate during the process of stir frying, at the same time, creating a special wonderful smell in Chinese restaurant. If you can’t find Chinkiang vinegar, you can use other black rice vinegar, or even cooking wine as a substitution. Because the cooking wine will also evaporate and make your stir fry spaghetti smell more like an authentic Chinese dish.

– Sesame oil: for preventing from sticking and the nutty smell. The last thing you want to see when making stir fry noodles is the noodles sticking together. Buy coating the noodles with a layer of sesame oil, you can not only boost the smell of this dish, but also effectively prevent them from sticking together.

The order of adding the seasonings:

Instead of adding the sauce to the frying pan, my trick is mixing it with the spaghetti before stir frying.

In this way, you can have plenty of time to evenly coat the noodles with the sauce, without worrying about burning the vegetables or oil splashing.

The order of adding the seasonings isn’t that important, but I’d suggest you to measure dry seasonings (such as sugar) first, so that you can keep using the same measuring spoon for liquid seasonings. Then measure oil before oyster sauce, so that the oyster sauce won’t stick to your measuring spoon (thanks to the residual oil on the spoon).

Vegetables you can add to your stir fry spaghetti

I like to add a lot of vegetables to my stir fry spaghetti, not only to make this dish healthier for my long-life-husband goal, but also to make my noodle stir fry more colorful and richer in texture.

My rule of rule of thumb is adding vegetables that are safe to eat raw (since we will only stir fry them for a very short time), and don’t contain too much water (since we don’t want our stir fry noodles to be sticky and soggy).

Garlics and green onions are two must haves for this dish. For the rest of the vegetables, I’d just randomly pick whatever I have left in my fridge.

Carrots, cabbages, mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, bean sprouts, snow peas, celeries are all great choices of vegetables for stir fry spaghetti.

Equipment for making stir fry noodles:

• Pot

• Frying pan

• Large bowl

• Measuring spoons

Ingredients you will need:

• 225 g spaghetti (See content above for “how to easily measure the servings of spaghetti“.)
• ½ tbsp salt (For boiling spaghetti)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil (Vegetable oil or olive oil)
• 1 tbsp garlic (Minced)
• 1 green onion (Cut into 2-inch pieces)
• ½ cup carrot (Shredded)
• ½ cup celery (Cut slices diagonally)
• 1 cup cabbage (Cut into strips)

Stir fry spaghetti sauce

• ¾ tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Chinkiang Vinegar  (or other black rice vinegar)

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Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS 

1. Wash and cut all the vegetables listed in the ingredients list.

2. In a large pot, bring 3 liter of water to a boil over medium high heat. Add ½ tbsp of salt to the boiling water.

3. Reduce heat to medium low, add the spaghetti and cook it according to the package directions until al dente (my spaghetti took 10 minutes).

4. Optionally, cool down the spaghetti in iced water for a more al dente texture. Drain off the excess water.

5. Place the drained spaghetti into a large bowl, add all the seasonings listed under “Stir fry spaghetti sauce” over the spaghetti. Stir with a pair of tong until well mixed.

6. In a large frying pan, heat up 2 tbsps of cooking oil over medium high heat for 1 minute. Add in minced garlic, shredded carrot, and green onion pieces to stir fry for about 2 minutes until the carrots turn soft.

7. Add in celeries, cabbages, or any other vegetables of your choice (such as mushrooms, bean sprouts, or snow peas) to stir fry for about 2 minutes until they turn soft.

8. Pour the spaghetti with the sauce into the frying pan. Stir fry over medium high heat for 5 minutes, until all the sauce has been absorbed into the noodles. Tilt the pan to observe, there should be no sauce left on the bottom of the pan.

9. Transfer the stir fry spaghetti to two serving plates. Serve hot.

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