Zhajiang Noodles (Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles)
Cuisine: Chinese
Zhajiang Noodles (Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles) is a home-style staple dish at difficulty 3/5 (Intermediate), about 1272 kcal. Ingredients and step-by-step instructions are below, with notes for home cooking.
3 / 5
★★★☆☆
1272 kcal
Ingredients
- Diced or minced pork
- Noodles (dried noodles or regular noodles)
- Garlic
- Vegetable toppings (to taste, usually 4-10 kinds, such as cucumber, napa cabbage, radish)
- Doubanjiang (broad bean paste)
- Sweet bean sauce (tianmianjiang)
Steps
- Julienne the vegetable toppings and set aside.
- Chop the scallions. Heat oil in a pan, add the scallions and meat and stir-fry until the meat is fully cooked (no pink)
- Add the doubanjiang and sweet bean sauce and keep frying until slightly thick. Remove: this is the *zhajiang*.
- Fill a large bowl with cold water and set aside.
- Cook the noodles until just done (no white core), then put them into the cold-water bowl from step 4.
- Immediately drain and transfer to a clean bowl.
- Pour the zhajiang from step 3 into the bowl and mix well. Then add the vegetable toppings from step 1 and mix well.
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Notes
Zhajiang noodles are a traditional Beijing home-style noodle dish with a rich, savory sauce and chewy noodles, served with fresh vegetable toppings, balanced between salty and sweet. The main nutrition comes from lean-meat protein and vegetable vitamins, providing plenty of energy. It's beginner-friendly and takes about 30 minutes; once you're practiced, you can shorten the time by prepping the vegetables while the sauce cooks.
Estimated difficulty: ★★★
Estimated calories: 1272 kcal
Calculation:
Before each preparation, decide how many servings you plan to make. One serving is just enough for 1 person
Per serving:
- Diced/minced pork 150g
- If you choose *dried noodles*: 150g
If you choose *regular noodles*: 250g
- Scallions 15g
- Vegetable toppings, 35g in total
- Cooking oil 10g
- Doubanjiang 20g
- Sweet bean sauce 20g
- Lean diced pork is recommended for better texture; buy it fresh and use it right away.
- *Regular noodles* are recommended.
- The key to the noodles is chewiness. Don't choose thin noodles like "dragon whisker" noodles.
- If you have the means (a second pot) and experience, steps 2-3 and steps 1, 4, 5, 6 can be done in parallel.
- Everyone has their own preference for sweet versus salty; you'll need to iterate on the ratio of the two sauces yourself.