These 15-Minute Chinese Hot Oil Noodles are beyond easy to make. Here’s the basic gist: You boil some noodles and veggies in the same pot, throw them in a bowl with some seasonings, pour a couple tablespoons of hot oil over everything, and mix. DONE. How’s that for easy Chinese noodles recipe!
It’s deceptive, how easy it is. You wouldn’t think that such a simple dish could be that amazing, but with good ingredients (your favorite chewy noodle, for instance. We used this flat xi’an style noodle similar to what we used in our Beijing Fried Sauce Noodle recipe), it’s going to win you over big time. For a while, my mom was going on and on about this dish, and how awesome it was. Having never tried it, I made it for the first time last weekend, and it was a serious epiphanic moment. Where have these noodles been all my life?
This dish gets most of its intense flavor from 2 cloves of raw garlic. Now that may seem really strong. And it is. But in Northern China, raw garlic is used extremely often, and we grew to love it. The hot oil poured over the top mellows it out a bit, but you still get that spicy hum throughout the dish. If you’re not in love with garlic like I am, you can reduce the amount you put in.
But that would make me sad.
But don’t mind me. Feel free to adjust the quantities of any of the seasonings in this dish to your liking. I myself tend to add way more chili and garlic than is probably advisable.
Recipe Instructions
Boil the noodles according to package directions until al dente.
In the same pot, blanch the leafy greens until cooked through. Drain.
Add the cooked noodles and greens to a heatproof bowl, along with the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, scallion, cilantro, and minced garlic.
In a small pot, heat the oil until shimmering. Carefully pour the hot oil over the bowl of noodles…
And mix everything together. Serve!
15-Minute Hot Oil Noodles (You Po Mian)
Ingredients
- 4 oz. dried wheat noodles
- a handful of leafy greens (choy sum, spinach, or baby bok choy)
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar
- Crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
- Salt (to taste)
- Chopped scallion
- Chopped cilantro
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 1/2 tablespoons oil
Instructions
- Boil the noodles according to package directions until al dente. In the same pot, blanch the leafy greens until cooked through. Drain.
- Add the cooked noodles and greens to a heatproof bowl, along with the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, scallion, cilantro, and minced garlic.
- In a small pot, heat the oil until shimmering. Carefully pour the hot oil over the bowl of noodles, and mix everything together. Serve!
Love your blog and youtube videos! Thank you for this gift! A comment/question – the “surprise me” button has the same few posts on a loop. Could we add some more?
Thank you for speaking for me, Janice, my thinking exactly. I will pass your comment to Sarah as she manages the blog :-)
W.O.W! Quick and mind-blowingly delicious! I used to wonder what the fuss was about with these “hot oil noodles” or how much flavour could be released without cooking the aromatics in the pan…now i know :D Bf loved it too and we are gonna cook it again tomorrow night. Thank you so much for this recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it :-)
Might be a dumb question, but how do I know if a bowl is heatproof?
Hi Mina, basically avoid plastic or glass (unless you know it’s heat tempered). Stainless steel, corningware, or Pyrex are safe bets—if you have a different glass or ceramic bowl, it may say whether or not it’s oven safe on the bottom. :-)
Definitely I will try this recipe!! It sounds easy to make but super tasty!! But… It will be my challenge to find out that type of wheat noodle here in a little town in Italy. Any suggestion to substitute that wheat noodle?
Since italian pasta is usually made of wheat, I would think just about any long noodle, especially thinner flat noodles, would work. Although, I might be tempted to try Buccatini with the little wholes holding more of the sauce. Buona mangiata
Hi Misook, I’d use thin spaghetti if I had to :-)
Thanks!! Then spaghetti and fettuccine both would work! Also buccatini can be an interesting option! :-)
Hahaha…why not!
Loved the dish.
I think the marinade will go well with chicken wings as well.
Try it, Adriel :-)
Made this today for lunch. Will definitely make it again. Super tasty!
Agree! :-)
Thank you! This was amazing to make at home in Germany. I have longed for this taste of China for so long. I used to eat these noodles regularly in China and the taste is so authentic. I didn’t go light on the garlic and, whew, it blew me away! No access to daoxiaomian but I used packaged dry wheat noodles and they tasted great. Love your recipes!
This is my go-to lazy lunch too.
Have loved this recipe since it was first published. Awesome, fast, easy and pretty nutritious (leafy greens heeeey) – the whole family loves it even the little people! But since we’re all sheltering in place and eating every meal from scratch, this dish is EVEN MORE amazing. Thank you WOL for saving us and our taste buds!
Hi Mel, you’re welcome – this is one of those easy recipes that you just don’t get tired of! Stay safe and keep up the great cooking!
Hey! First of all, ya’ll rock. No. Seriously. When all of this is over, let’s get your super fans – like me – together and go on a cooking journey. Somewhere close. Like Toronto. Or Savannah. Or maybe even San Francisco, although that’s so cliche. Who cares? They have Dungeness crab. We can have a culinray experience. Just tell us what city, what day and recommend a hotel. Pick us up the day after we arrive and we’re all yours! Hell, I’ll arrange a group.
Okay, enough of that. My question is this:
If we had 30-minutes in the grocery store today to grab what we want (let’s assume we already have a wok, soy sauce [regular] and hoisin sauce, rice paper wrappers and cellophane noodles :) ), what would be the top Asian ingredients we should buy to hunker down with?
Alison
p.s. What kind of oil are you using?
Hi Alison, thanks for your comment and kind words!! Check out our post on the 10 Chinese Pantry Ingredients you need to make the majority of the recipes on our site! https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-pantry-essential-ingredients/
Those are the top ones! Plus things like rice, noodles, tofu, etc. depending on the specific dishes you need!
As for oil, we tend to use avocado oil or light olive oil for stir-frying. Avocado oil is best for very high heat cooking. We keep extra virgin olive oil around for Italian/other Western dishes. Regular vegetable/canola oil is also fine to use for most neutral oil applications!
As another huge fan of WOL, I would be totally interested in joining such a food tour. I’m in Atlanta, which has Buford Hwy so food tours probably exist. But the WOL family is tried and true.
Bill, Judy, Sarah, Kaitlin — Thank you all for documenting so many recipes! They’ve helped me recreate favorite childhood dishes that I didn’t learn to make bc I was a silly teen.
That’s great, Sandy, so glad the blog has helped you :-)