Spicy Chicken Chilli Garlic Noodles

These delicious spicy Chilli Garlic noodles only use 3 core ingredients : Peppers, Garlic and noodles, and most importantly, needs 10 mins to cook!
Everything else is only to create balance and give your noodles that slippery slick noodle heavenesss (if thats even a word?)

Chicken Chili Garlic Noodles

One of our favorite stir fry noodle recipes this year has been this! I always end up making chili garlic noodles when all I have are some chicken and bellpeppers in the fridge. Another version of this recipe uses chili oil and garlic. This version comes under the broad banner of “Indo Chinese” which is fusion style Chinese food originating from Chinese immigrants in South Asia. Indo-Chinese food is comparitively spicier and uses some combination of Indian and Chinese spices and cooking techniques.

The core flavor for Chili Garlic Noodles is just chili and Garlic. Simple right? and who has ever gone wrong with these two! Since it’s supposedly just chili and garlic, the veggie used is also JUST bellpeppers because they are technically a chili. You can ofcourse break the rules and add whatever vegetables you like. Noodles don’t judge. But I always end up making saucy one pot noodles when I have a ton of veggies to use up.

Ingredients and Substitutes

What noodles to use?

All stir fry noodle recipes, like Chow mein, require some rigorous wok-tossing action. So its best to use noodles that are thick and long so that they can withstand the pan-action. I personally end up using any spaghetti or standard Chinese noodle pack lying around in the house. This is a non-judgement recipe really, noodlewise. Here are a couple of options that you can use for this recipe.

1. Lo-mein Noodles – These are the yellow noodles usually labelled as Egg noodles on packets.
2. Italian noodles – All spaghetti or Linguinis are welcome! They work perfectly for all stir fries.
3. Udon Noodles – These Japanese noodles are thick and have a neutral taste.
4. Soba noodles – They are made with buckwheat flavor, so they do have a mild earthy flavor to them, but overall they hold well in stir fry recipes.

What Chillies To use?

Chilies are one of the core 3 ingredients in this gorgeous stir fry. I’ve used a combination of chilies for this recipe.

• Serrrano green chilies – These are small but super hot! Remove seeds if you can’t handle heat.
• Fresno red chilies – These are like Jalapenos but Red. So they have heat but less than their small thai red chili counterparts. You can use regular jalapenos if you can’t find Fresnos.
• Red, green, yellow bellpeppers – They serve as the “vegetable” for the stir fry.

You can easily skip any of these if you don’t have them at hand. If you want to try this recipe without turning it too spicy, remove the seeds from the serrano and Fresno red chilies before slicing them.

Chilli Garlic Noodle Sauce

The magic of these Noodles happens with the Chilli and Garlic. The sauce here provides balance and some slippery slick texture to the stirfry.

• Honey – You can also use brown sugar if you want.
• Ketchup – You can use tomato paste also.
• Dark Soy Sauce – Dark Soy sauce adds so much umami flavor in the noodles in just a small quantity. I’d highly recommend getting the dark kind, even if you opt for the Low-Sodium variety.
• Red Vinegar – Use regular vinegar if you don’t have red one at hand
• Hoisin Sauce – IF this is something you don’t have lying in your pantry, you can use barbecue sauce and hot sauce as a subsitute. Healthline has some amazing alternatives to Hoisin, click here to read about it.
• Noodle Water – Save some of the water when you boil your noodles. This adds to the nice slippery texture that makes the noodles irresistible!

Other Ingredients

• Garlic – Ofcourse the other star of the dish is garlic, and lots of it! Finely chopped garlic add the perfect acidity and flavor to the noodles. I would not recommend using paste or powder for this recipe
• Spring onion – I’ve used the white part of the spring onion aka scallions. But you can use any onions you have at hand
• Oil – Sesame oil brings out the perfect Indo-Chinese flavor in these noodles.
• Mushrooms – I’ve used Shitake Mushrooms. You can use any that you like or skip it altogether if you aren’t a fan
• Chicken – Regular boneless chicken would do, both thigh and breast pieces work just fine.

Do I need a WOK to make these?

No way! I’m still look for a decent wok! And till I find one, a large skillet works perfectly for all stir fry recipes for me. Just make sure you skillet is broad and allow enough room for you to toss your noodles effortlessly. You don’t want to crowd the noodles.

How to make Chili Garlic Noodles

This recipe literally comes together in 10 mins tops! Make sure you have everything ready before you heat up that Wok/Skillet!

Here’s a simple step by step pictorial to show you how easy it is to put this recipe together.

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Some notes to make the perfect Chili Garlic noodles

A couple of things to note when stirfrying the recipe

• Keep everything ready before you begin cooking. Everything happens fast with a stir fry and you’d be running to stir and look for ingredients if you don’t have them by your side before you begin.
  
• Par-boil your noodles according to the instructions on your packet. If you are in doubt, its better to underboil, than overboil. You can always add more water while stir frying if you think you want to but there is no going back for overcooked noodles.
  
• Make sure you allow your garlic and chili to turn slightly golden before you add chicken. Uncooked chilies will be that much hotter and your oil won’t absorb enough garlic and chili flavor to transfer to the chicken and noodles.
  
• Always cook at high heat! The beauty of every good stir fry is that they are cooked at high and made very quick! So once you get started, make sure you are cooking at high heat, we don’t want soggy vegetables or overcooked noodles.
  
• Removes seeds from the chilies if you’d like to enjoy the chili flavor without too much heat.
  
• I didn’t use any toppings for the noodles, but you can garnish with sesame seeds.
  
• If you are feeling adventurous, go ahead and make this recipe using Chili oil rather than sesame oil to add another layer of heat.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make it vegetarian?

Absolutely! Go ahead and swap the chicken for more mushrooms or maybe Tofu if you like or skip it altogether.

Can I make this recipe Low-carb?

If you have gone through my recipes, you know I’m not a big fan of low Carb. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do right? To make this recipe low carb, swap the noodles for zoodles or zuchini noodles using a spiralizer. And make the recipe as it is.

How to make these noodles guilt-free and more nutritious?

• Add low sodium soy sauce.
• Use whole wheat or durum wheat noodles
• Use organic chicken
• Add more vegetables

Craving more Chinese? Here are some other recipes on the blog

Crispy Beijing Beef
Dynamite Prawns
Saucy Schezuan Chicken
Other Chinese and Indo-Chinese recipes