Easy Chicken Lo Mein is a quick and simple dinner of strips of chicken breast and noodles that come together in a delicious savory sauce.
It’s a flavorful and filling Chinese-American style chicken dinner that’s 100% pork-free, dairy-free, and made without oyster sauce.
It’s budget friendly and you can make it at home in less time than it normally takes to get your takeout delivery!
And you can even add your own stir-fry vegetables!
Also, since this recipe is not made with the typical shellfish-based ingredients and pork of the classic dish, this recipe is kosher!
Chinese food is terrific!
And you can have this quick and easy homemade, flavorful version ready in less time than it normally takes to have it delivered to your door! And you save on tips!
And, if you keep kosher and eat Chinese out, you know how much money you can save by not eating at an expensive kosher Chinese restaurant!
Plus you can use up veggies in your fridge (even those that are starting to wilt) and add your own stir-fry!
Also, chicken has health benefits!
A little about Chinese-American Food
Chinese-American cuisine is a style of Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. These dishes significantly differ from traditional Chinese dishes because Chinese-American dishes were adapted to suit American tastes.
Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in large numbers in the mid-19th century in order to escape the economic difficulties in China, hoping to find work during the California Gold Rush and on the Central Pacific Railroad.
They mostly settled together in ghettos, individually known as Chinatown, and—since there were laws preventing them from owning their own land—they opened their own businesses, such as laundry services and restaurants.
Initially, the family-owned businesses catered to miners and railroad workers, and restaurants were set up in places where Chinese food was unknown. Food was based on the requests of the customers, and recipes were created to suit American tastes using whatever ingredients were available.
One major difference between traditional Chinese cuisine and Chinese-American cuisine is in the use of vegetables. Chinese-American recipes will use raw or uncooked ingredients and those not native to China. Traditional Chinese cuisine, on the other hand, rarely contains raw or uncooked ingredients and often uses Asian leaf vegetables.
While the new dishes were not traditional Chinese, these restaurants were responsible for the development of the ever-popular Chinese-American cuisine.
The little history of kosher Chinese-American Food
It is well known that Jews (especially those with ties to New York) love Chinese food. You can find at least one and, more often than not, several kosher Chinese restaurants in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods.
Jews as a group were probably first introduced to Chinese food in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where immigrants of various cultures settled in their own neighborhoods in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
By the early 1900s, approximately one million Jews from Eastern Europe and half a million Italians from Southern Italy shared the Lower East Side of Manhattan with only approximately 7,000 Cantonese Chinese, most of whom had moved from California.
Due to anti-Chinese laws and acts, which prevented them from competing with whites, many Chinese opened restaurants.
The majority of Jewish immigrants at that time were observant in their religion and ate only kosher food when they arrived in New York. But, over time, many assimilated, and their children, who were less interested in keeping “the old ways” and more interested in other cultural experiences, even more so.
Some continued keeping kosher at home while allowing themselves to stray while out and many of these would frequent the Chinese restaurants on Sundays.
But what about Jews who did keep kosher? It took decades, but finally one Jewish, kosher deli owner—Sol Bernstein who owned Schmulka Bernstein’s, a deli he named after his father—found a solution.
Sol used Cantonese Chinese recipes and substituted kosher veal, beef, and chicken livers for the pork in the recipes and became the first person to create and sell kosher Chinese food. Since it was sold from a deli, it’s also sometimes called deli-Chinese.
Sol continued to sell deli while he incorporated Chinese foods into the menu and did very well. He changed the name to Bernstein’s on Essex to make the establishment sound more high-class, but everyone still called it Schmulka Bernstein’s.
The restaurant continued to prosper until he died in 1992, when it was sold.
Later, a similar deli opened in Brooklyn on Coney Avenue called Essex on Coney. From experience, I can tell you that the food was terrific.
Unfortunately, it closed as well.
While there are non-kosher Chinese-American restaurants and takeout places all over, kosher Chinese is is harder to find, especially if you don’t live in a Jewish area, and are mostly fairly expensive.
So making the food at home is a terrific alternative.
Try these!
- Kosher Beef and Broccoli
- Kosher Chicken and Broccoli
- Kosher Mongolian Chicken
- Kosher Mongolian Beef
- Kosher Corned Beef & Cabbage Egg Rolls
- Kosher Beef Lo Mein
- Kosher Pepper Steak
- Kosher General Tso’s Chicken
- Kosher Chicken Fried Rice
- Vegetarian Fried Rice
- Kosher Chicken Chow Mein
- Kosher Beef Chow Mein
- Egg Drop Soup
Easy Kosher Chicken Lo Mein (No Oyster Sauce)
Easy and delicious homemade Chinese-American chicken and noodle dish made without pork, dairy, or oyster sauce. And it's kosher!
Ingredients
- 12 ounces lo mein noodles or spaghetti
- 1 - 1 1/2 pounds kosher chicken breast sliced into thin strips
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup water*
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 teaspoons chicken or beef bullion powder*
- 2 tablespoons sesame or vegetable oil
- bean sprouts (optional)
Instructions
- Cook lo mein or spaghetti according to instructions on package and rinse well to remove starches.
- In a pan (large enough to hold all of the noodles) on medium heat, mix water, bullion powder, 1/2 cup soy sauce, and brown sugar.
- Add chicken strips and mix occasionally until strips are cooked through.
- Add in noodles and bean sprouts if desired and mix well.
- Cook on medium heat until the noodles have had a chance to absorb mixture (approximately 10 minutes).
- Add oil and mix well.
Notes
* or 1/2 cup beef bullion instead of water and powder FOR THIS DISH TO BE KOSHER, ALL OF THE INGREDIENTS MUST BE KOSHER.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 274Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 2085mgCarbohydrates: 26gFiber: 1gSugar: 9gProtein: 17g