To make this 5-ingredient lo mein recipe, you’ll need lo mein noodles, oyster sauce, soy sauce, scallions, and oil. That’s all.
Chances are, you only have to buy the noodles and you’ve got everything else. It’s silly how easy it is, and it’s so good! It kind of tastes like a pure version of the simple and tasty side-dish lo mein you might get at your favorite Chinese buffet, takeout joint, or…dare I say—your local mall food court.
The bottom line: this lo mein has that nostalgic taste with minimal ingredients and time. Serve it as a basic side dish or customize it as you like!
A Lo Mein Ready in 10 Minutes, with 5 Ingredients
We’ve been doing this long enough to know that there are a lot of jaded feelings over promises of 15-minute or 20-minute recipes, but this one really is that fast. It’s basically just the time it takes to boil water, cook your noodles for 1 minute, and toss them in the sauce!
Let’s say you need a starch to round out a meal—this lo mein is faster than even the speediest of rice cookers! And the steps are so easy that the time investment does not fluctuate depending on your knife skills or kitchen experience—a very important addendum to make based on what I hear from friends.
This recipe was inspired by Souped Up Recipes’ Hong Kong Oyster Sauce Lo Mein. She fries the soy sauce in oil to create a caramelized complex flavor, and it works magic. We eliminated the dark soy sauce to make the dish even more accessible and easier to make on a whim—and added a little bit of green from the scallions!
When I told Sarah about this dish, she was skeptical. (“That’s all you’re going to put in it?”) I tested it in my apartment and brought it out to headquarters the next day. Sarah tried it (cold, out of a plastic quart container no less), and right then and there, she was a believer. It shouldn’t be this good, but it is!
Our Easiest Lo Mein Recipe
We have quite a few lo mein recipes on The Woks of Life—beef, chicken, shrimp, pork, vegetable, you name it. There’s even a combination “happy family” lo mein in our cookbook!
We also recently did a post and video on the finer points of cooking lo mein. It’s a blueprint you can use to craft the custom lo mein of your dreams.
But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sometimes daunted with the prospect of chopping a bunch of vegetables and pre-searing proteins, though. This food blogger’s guilty secret is I almost never make lo mein at home (unless my dad makes it for me) instead saving it for my favorite Chinese restaurants.
With this recipe, though, I no longer feel even a little bit hesitant at the prospect of cooking up some lo mein.
(Fun fact: I once had a craving for lo mein at one of our go-to Sichuan restaurants—China Chalet in Florham Park, NJ. My mom pointed at me accusingly, and told the waiter in Chinese, “SHE wants vegetable lo mein!” not wanting to be associated with my plebeian choices.)
On to the recipe!
5-Ingredient Lo Mein Recipe Instructions
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. It doesn’t have to be a huge pot, because the noodles cook for so little time.
Prepare the scallions and measure out your sauces in separate bowls while that’s happening. Take the noodles out of the package and loosen them up. Sometimes there can be areas where the noodles clump together. Gently pry them apart with your fingers.
When the water is boiling, submerge the noodles in the water and stir with chopsticks to keep them separated. After 45-60 seconds, drain into a colander and shake off the excess water. Set aside. You can oil the noodles if you need to buy yourself some time, but it’s not necessary if you’re going right to the next step.
Heat a wok over medium high heat until it’s just smoking. Add the oil, and spread it around the wok.
Add your scallion, and give it a few tosses with your wok spatula.
You just want them to get a head start on wilting down. Push them to the side of the wok, increase the heat to high, and add the soy sauce to the oil. It should bubble up a little and sizzle, caramelizing and creating a deliciously complex flavor. Add the oyster sauce, and let both fry for 20 seconds or so in the oil.
Add the noodles, and use your chopsticks to toss them and distribute the sauce. It’s a little easier to do this with chopsticks than with the wok spatula, but you can use either.
Plate and serve! See how easy that was?
This lo mein was gobbled up by all—and importantly, by my lil nephew! That kid loves noodles.
5-Ingredient Lo Mein
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh uncooked lo mein noodles
- 3 scallions (halved lengthwise and cut into 2-inch/5cm lengths)
- 3 tablespoons neutral oil
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
Instructions
- Bring a medium pot of water to a boil for the noodles. Prepare the scallions and measure out your sauces in separate bowls while that’s happening.
- Take the noodles out of the package and loosen them up. Drop them into the boiling water, and cook for 45-60 seconds. Drain and set aside.
- Heat a wok over medium-high heat until it’s just smoking. Spread the oil around the wok. Add your scallion, and give it a few tosses. Push them to the side of the wok, increase the heat to high, and add the soy sauce to the oil. It should sizzle and start caramelizing. Add the oyster sauce, and let both sauces fry for 20 seconds or so. Add the noodles, and toss them to distribute the sauce. Serve!
nutrition facts
FaQs
The answer of course is yes! And the beauty of this recipe is it may help you feel more comfortable experimenting in the kitchen. But be warned, it won’t taste quite the same. The flavor isn’t *quite* as concentrated and yummy when you add vegetables even if you add additional salt, because the vegetables soak up the oil instead of the noodles.
If you still want to do it, season the vegetables with salt. I tried adding some thinly sliced napa cabbage, but fast cooking vegetables like napa cabbage, snow peas, julienned carrots, and bean sprouts are good candidates and should be first to go into the wok along with the scallions, followed by sauces, then noodles. You can add 2-4 cups of vegetables, without over filling your wok.
If you want to add meat, you can use any of our velveting guides to pre-sear 12 ounces of raw meat and toss it in with the noodles. See here for chicken, beef, pork, and shrimp. You can also use 6-8 ounces of any cooked protein you may have hiding in your refrigerator.
Lately, we’ve found that we don’t enjoy the pre-cooked, spongier lo mein noodles you can get at the store. For what sounds like a little bit of convenience (pre-cooked noodles), you actually get a lot of inconvenience. Try breaking up that thick chunk of cooked noodle. Sometimes, it just ends up shredded into a bunch of small pieces in the wok!
It’s why we call for fresh, uncooked lo mein noodles in this recipe. They’re so fast to prepare. All you have to do is cook them in boiling water for 40-60 seconds, and they go straight into the wok a minute later!
We kicked up such a fuss over dark soy sauce in our lo mein video. Why isn’t it here? Truth is, it’s not strictly necessary in this basic recipe. You need so little that we figured it would be more trouble than it’s worth, especially if you’d like to avoid buying an extra ingredient (though a bottle of dark soy sauce is a great investment).
If you would like to add some in, all you need is a ¼ teaspoon. That’s it! A lot of recipes out there use a TON of dark soy sauce, which sort of misses the point of its role in a dish like this.
While we’re on the topic, if you’re offended by the lack of sesame oil, add ½ teaspoon or to taste. But we don’t think it needs it. 5 ingredients, folks! That was the brief!
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