Chinese Crispy Noodles are irresistible. They always disappear in the blink of an eye! Indeed, many readers have asked us to detail how to make them.
They’re basically deep-fried egg noodles (or fried wonton wrappers or egg roll wrappers). Golden brown and crunchy, they’re often served in little wooden bowls as a restaurant appetizer with duck sauce and Chinese hot mustard on the side. You may also find them in a little wax paper bag with your local Chinese takeout order.
Frying fresh at home will yield especially delicious crispy noodles. In this post, we’ll show you how—with either egg noodles, wonton wrappers, or egg roll skins.
An Appetizer of Days Past
In the restaurants I worked in, the Chinese crispy noodles were freshly fried every few days. We served them as a free appetizer and with soups, as well as chow mein and chop suey dishes.
Fewer restaurants these days offer these freshly deep fried noodles, and they are quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Over the years, I’ve learned from friends living in other parts of the country that while these crispy fried noodles may have been popular in the Northeast, they were a rare sight in American Chinese restaurants elsewhere.
You may recognize them as something similar to the crispy noodles in Asian-inspired American salads, i.e. as something of a crouton replacement. You may also be familiar with pre-packaged La Choy chow mein noodles.
That said, once you make these at home, I don’t think you’ll ever go back to store-bought!
How to Serve Chinese Crispy Noodles
Since these Chinese crispy noodles are part of our American Chinese food culture, they go best with soups you might find on a takeout menu. Soups like egg drop soup, hot and sour soup, or wonton soup.
If you’re going really retro, you can serve them over American Chicken Chow Mein or Chicken Chop Suey.
You can even use them in those Asian-inspired salads I mentioned! You can add as many as you want. Not just the tiny pouch that comes in the pre-made salad mixes.
Or, to keep things simple, they are great on the table alongside any soup or stir-fry, or even alone as a snack!
Regardless of what dishes you serve these with, the contrasting sweet and spicy flavors of homemade Restaurant-Style Duck Sauce and Chinese Hot Mustard are delicious with these fried noodles.
What Are Crispy Noodles Made Of?
You can use any fresh egg noodle to make deep-fried crispy noodles. These Chinese wide egg noodles were the closest thing I could find in our local Asian grocery store. (The noodles we used to use in my parents’ restaurant were a bit wider, but these worked just fine.)
If you can’t find noodles, egg roll skins or egg wonton skins both work. Both can be cut into wide strips for frying.
Here are the Egg Roll Skins after frying:
And here are the fried wonton skins:
We’ve found we get the best results with egg roll skins or wide egg noodles.
Egg wonton wrappers work, but they’re thinner and aren’t as satisfyingly crunchy. They also absorb more oil than the other two, so they can be a little bit oily.
Tips for Deep-frying Noodles
- I want to debunk a myth here: You might see some recipes calling to boil the egg noodles before frying. We never did that in any of my years working in restaurants. If using egg noodles, they must be fresh uncooked noodles. Cooked noodles will not yield the same results.
- Use a small amount of noodles for the first batch to get a feel for how to fry them.
- To avoid fire hazards, do not fill the wok or pot past the halfway point. The noodles will expand, and the hot oil must stay confined to the pot!
- Check the oil temperature often with a thermometer, and increase or reduce the heat to keep it at 375-400°F (190-204°C). A high temperature is required for the noodles to fry and expand.
Chinese Crispy Noodles: Recipe Instructions
If using fresh egg noodles, there is no need to do anything to prep them, as they will be easy to snap into snackable pieces after frying. If using egg roll or wonton wrappers, cut them into 1×4 inch (2.5×10 cm) strips.
In a wok or deep medium pot where the oil will only come up about half the height of the pot, heat the oil to 375-400°F (190-204°C). Use a deep fry thermometer/candy thermometer to maintain temperature.
Take a small handful of the noodles, and carefully drop them into the oil.
As soon as they hit the oil, use a pair of wooden or bamboo chopsticks to break them up and prevent them from sticking together as they fry and expand.
Fry for 20-30 seconds. Using your chopsticks or a slotted spoon, carefully flip the noodles and fry for another 20 seconds, or until evenly golden brown.
The fresh noodles will stick together in a single mass, but if using egg roll or wonton wrappers, they will separate and may need individual flipping. Work quickly, as it takes less than a minute for them to brown!
Here’s what the egg roll wrappers look like while frying:
And here’s what the wonton wrappers look like:
Drain the fried noodles of excess oil, and transfer them to a plate or sheet pan lined with paper towels to cool.
Sprinkle salt over the noodles to taste. Repeat until you’ve fried all of your noodles.
Serve with duck sauce and hot mustard.
Chinese Crispy Noodles
Ingredients
- 4 ounces fresh uncooked egg noodles (can substitute 5 egg roll wrappers or 20 egg wonton skins, cut into 1×4 inch strips)
- 2 cups vegetable oil (or canola oil or any other frying oil of your choice)
- salt (to taste)
Instructions
- If using fresh egg noodles, there is no need to do anything to prep them, as they will be easy to snap into snackable pieces after frying. If using egg roll or wonton wrappers, cut them into 1×4 inch (2.5×10 cm) strips.
- In a wok or deep medium pot where the oil will only come up about half the height of the pot, heat the oil to 375-400°F (190-204°C). Use a deep fry thermometer/candy thermometer to maintain temperature.
- Take a small handful of the noodles, and carefully drop them into the oil. As soon as they hit the oil, use a pair of wooden or bamboo chopsticks to break them up and prevent them from sticking together as they fry and expand.
- Fry for 20-30 seconds. Using your chopsticks or a slotted spoon, carefully flip the noodles and fry for another 20 seconds, or until evenly golden brown.
- Drain the fried noodles of excess oil, and transfer them to a plate or sheet pan lined with paper towels to cool. Sprinkle salt over the noodles to taste. Repeat until you’ve fried all of your noodles.
I also wonder if rice noodles can be used as I am Celiac and need Gluten Free. And can I use the dried rice noodles asn that is all I can buy here.
Hi Myrna, rice noodles fry up puffy also but they are lighter. Very similar to Shrimp chips/prawn crackers – see our post here on Chinese New year showing fried shrimp chips They also have to be fried at lower temperatures, and you have to move fast because they burn very easily.
What a coincidence- We tried air frying some left over spring roll wrappers in the Instant Pot air fryer last week and it turned out surprisingly good. Just separate thinly cut strips and spray lightly with canola oil. Sprinkle a bit of salt when done. Of course it’s more work to clean if that’s all you are doing but we were air frying some spring rolls anyways and that was a good way to use the few wrappers that were left over.
Hi Karen, thanks for sharing that information on the spring roll wrappers!
I love your posts. For years I have been looking for a recipe for Scollop Rolls. We used to get them at a restaurant called Lychee Gardens in Toronto Ontatio. They were minced scallops and scallions rolled in what appeared to be thin white bread. I would love to make them. Any ideas?
Hi Lois, I have not seen nor had the scallop rolls you describe but will do some research ;-)
A great big thank you. For the past ten years we have lived in coastal North Carolina. Although our Chinese take away restaurants put a wax paper bag of noodles in with our orders, they look and taste nothing like what we grew up eating when we lived in N.J. and N.Y. ( neither does the food, but that’s a whole different story).
From your photos I can see that one of our favorite places used won ton wrappers and the other used egg roll wrappers.
Tomorrow night I’ll be making Mongolian beef using your excellent recipe. I’ll try my hand with the egg roll wrappers since this is the kind of noodle our N.J. restaurant served where we ordered this dish. It will be like having a taste of home.
Hi dayle, you’re welcome and thank you for sharing your story!
You always provide new ideas to try! I’ve never had fried noodles in this way but we did used to fry egg roll pastry to sprinkle on top of congee for texture.
Hi Wendy, yes, it’s the same concept and they are so tasty with a nice beer or other cold beverage.
Here on the left coast, we have no won ton noodles, which makes me very sad since that was a big part of my childhood. And a few weeks ago we went out for egg roll wrappers. The guy at the Asian market looked at us funny, said “We don’t get much call for those” but they did have some in the freezer – locally made. No shortage of spring roll wrappers which aren’t suitable for this. Of course, duck sauce is also strange to them but they have the little jars of Dynasty which are a bit too smooth in consistency but taste OK (usually buy the Gold’s brand in Safeway).
Happy New Year to you all!
Thinking about this, we used to use frozen spring roll wrappers imported into the UK from either San Francisco (Menlo) or Singapore (I can picture the packaging but can’t remember the brand) in my parents takeaway and they are definitely fryable! There is no other way to make spring rolls!
Happy New year Jeff! Over here on the east coast, supermarkets sell egg roll and sometimes wonton wrappers in the produce section along with tofu. Since egg rolls sold in Chinese restaurants are not popular among Chinese, only the largest of the Chinese grocery stores in NYC carry them.
Can I use the dried noodles that are sold in stores? if I do use the dried noodle do I need to soak them in water to hydrate them first? Thanks very much
Hi Sid, I have not tried soaking dried egg noodles or frying boiled noodles like pasta. I know they won’t turn out the same, but not sure if they would be acceptable.
may be wishful thinking here, but any chance this recipe can work with air frying?
Hi Sue, that was wishful thinking because they do require oil to fry them up like you see. Without the oil, they won’t expand and bubble but instead will just harden into thin crackers – no bueno.
I have a question. Can I use rice noodles? I must be gluten free. Thanks!
Hi Alene, rice noodles can work, but depending upon the type they may require lower or higher oil temperatures. They are similar to Shrimp chips/prawn crackers – see our post here on Chinese New year showing fried shrimp chips. They also have to be fried at lower temperatures, and you have to move fast because they burn very easily. The resulting texture will also be quite different.
Just looking at the bubbles on the fried wonton wrappers makes me nostalgic for the Chinese takeout of my childhood! I moved away from the Northeast and haven’t seen these in years. I’m definitely going to have to try this recipe.
Hi Rebecca, definitely give it a try but I warn you, they can be addictive ;-)