Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy is a mouthful of simple, yet complex flavor. Ready and on the table in less than 30 minutes.
The Inspiration for Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy
This recipe for Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy is one I found on sfgate.com about a year ago. It intrigued me because it uses ground lamb and it was Chinese.
I'd never really thought of lamb as being a part of Chinese cuisine, but apparently, it’s very popular in both Northern and Southern China where oxen were forbidden to be slaughtered since they were the workhorses of the farming community. Lamb and mutton, not so much.
Jump to:
- The Inspiration for Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy
- Ingredients and Substitutions for Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy
- FAQ's
- Instructions
- LindySez Tips for Success
- Wine Recommendation for Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy
- Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy
Ingredients and Substitutions for Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy
- ½ pound ground lamb or other ground meat
- Bok Choy - Also known as Chinese Cabbage. Found in most supermarkets. Best if it's baby bok choy, but larger stalks will also work.
- Wide pasta such as tagliatelle or fettuccine. To keep it gluten-free, wide rice noodles.
- Saki or Chinese Rice Wine. Dry white Vermouth or dry white wine will also work.
- Garlic, fresh ginger, and green onions - the trinity of Chinese Cooking.
- Garlic chili sauce, for heat. Garlic chili sauce is available in almost all grocery stores in the Asian food section.
- Soy Sauce - I always use low-sodium naturally fermented soy sauce.
- Toasted Sesame Oil - also found in the Asian section of your supermarket. If you don't use this often, it's best kept in the refrigerator as it turns rancid quickly.
- Neutral oil - I like grapeseed oil.
- Special Equipment - A deep heavy skillet or wok.
FAQ's
While this can be made with another ground meat, turkey, pork, or beef, I think the lamb gives it a nice earthy flavor that you would lose if you substitute another ground meat.
Bok Choy is a type of Chinese cabbage. While it doesn't grow into a head as you might expect of cabbage, it looks more like celery, with a rather firm bottom and a leafy top. It has a very mild, slightly cabbagy flavor.
If you can't find baby bok choy and need to use the larger ones, I generally remove the larger outside leaves to make this recipe, keeping the tender inside to quickly grill as a side to another meal.
For this recipe, I use fettuccine pasta, but you could use wide rice noodles, such as Asjantaboonn (wide noodles) or Pad Thai, medium noodles) to keep this gluten-free.
Of course, you would need to use a gluten-free soy sauce.
Instructions
- Mise en Place - Have all of your ingredients ready to go before you start cooking.
- Prepare your Pasta - Have whatever noodles you decide to use cooked and ready. You can rinse them with water or toss them lightly in oil to keep the noodles separated.
- Mix the rice wine, sesame oil, and soy sauce together and add half to the meat along with half of the garlic. Then proceed to finish your sauce ingredients. Putting half of the marinade INTO the meat flavors from the inside with the same great flavor as the sauce.
After the meat has had the marinade added, heat a wok or heavy high-sided skillet to medium-high and add the meat, break it up into small chunks. Then add the garlic, ginger and green onion. Add the bok choy bottoms.
Toss in the noodles and using tongs, toss to incorporate.
Add the sauce and toss well to combine.
Once tossed, add the bok choy tender tops and toss to complete the dish.
LindySez Tips for Success
- Mise en Place - Again, I repeat, have everything ready before you start.
- Separate the bottoms from the tops of the bok choy. Because the bottom will take longer to cook and you don't want the top to turn into mush.
- READ the recipe in its entirety. Note that the sauce is a 2-step process. Note the ginger goes in at the end.
Wine Recommendation for Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy
For pairing wine with Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy, I recommend a light California, Oregon, or Washington State Pinot Noir. Look for, or ask your wine merchant to recommend one that is a little earthy, it will complement the earthiness of the lamb. Another good wine choice would be a Cab Franc most commonly known as a blending grape, but yummy on its own as well.
Need to use up that left-over ground lamb? Try these delish Sirloin Beef and Lamb Burgers with Feta and Cilantro Mint Sauce
Chinese Style Noodles with Ground Lamb and Bok Choy
Equipment
- Wok or
Ingredients
- 4 - 6 ounces wide pasta such a tagliatelle or fettuccine, cooked according to package directions, drained and set-aside or rice noodles prepared according to directions (can do this part while you are doing the other part, then your pasta will stay hot)
- 3 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or saki. (I used saki as that is what I had)
- 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce I can’t see any reason ever to use full salted soy sauce, low-sodium has plenty
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil I keep mine in the refrigerator so it stays fresh, as this, and other nut oils, turn rancid easily
- ½ pound ground lamb
- 4 cloves about 2 teaspoons minced garlic, divided
- ¼ cup water
- 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce found in almost every supermarket now, or your specialty Asian store
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 6 baby bok choy trimmed, large outer leaves removed, small tender inside core cut into halves, rinsed well (you can use larger bok choy if you need to, separate all the leaves, remove the tender top leaves from the stems and then slice the stems into 1 – 2-inch pieces)
- 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil or other vegetable oil, but I always use grapeseed
- 2 teaspoons minced ginger
- 4 green onions sliced about ½ inch thick, part of the tops reserved for garnish
Instructions
- Combine the rice wine, sesame oil, and soy sauce into a measuring cup. Put the lamb into a bowl, add ½ (¼ cup) of the rice wine mixture and ½ of the minced garlic. Mix well.
- Add the water, chili garlic sauce, and cornstarch to the remaining rice wine mixture, mix well, and set aside.
- Heat a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat; add 1 tablespoon of the oil, when hot, add the lamb and cook for about 3 minutes, breaking the meat up into large pieces as you cook it (the meat pieces should be about ½ inch big).
- Reduce the heat to medium; add the remaining tablespoon of oil along with the remaining garlic, the ginger, and the green onion (except for the part that you are reserving for garnish); stir-fry for a few minutes, then add the bok choy. Cook until the bok choy is just cooked through, but still has a little bit of crunch in the stem; about 3 minutes. (If you had to use larger bok choy, add the stem pieces first, stir fry until tender then add the tops.) Add the noodles to the pan, along with the reserved rice wine mixture; stir-fry until the noodles are hot and coated with sauce.
- Serve in wide warmed bowls (remember to always warm your plates so the food stays hot longer); sprinkle the reserved green onion tops over.
Jena says
This was VERY good! The only issue I had was there was no mention of draining the grease after cooking up the lamb. I drained some of it but don't think I got the rest at the end. I think it would've been better to remove the lamb and add it back after doing the other veggies. Any thoughts? I feel like the grease diluted the sauce
Linda Baker says
Hi Jena, I'm sorry you had a lot of grease. My lamb is pretty lean so it's not been an issue. But yes, f your lamb leaves a lot of grease, or greasy water as is sometimes the case, I would drain it first then proceed, including adding the lamb back so it can absorb the flavors you are adding after it is browned. Hope you try it again. Cheers ~ Lindy
Chloe says
This turned out great. I found the recipe by searching the web for two ingredients I had (ground lamb and bok choy). I had to sub dry white wine for the rice wine, siracha for the chili garlic sauce and used the whole 1 lb of ground lamb. I used pad thai type noodles. Also added shitake mushrooms because I had them on hand. Was a winner for sure - husband said he'd like to have it every week.
Linda Baker says
Hi Chole, thanks for your comments. Your changes sound like reasonable changes, and I'm glad it turned out well. My husband has made the same comments to me but he LOVES noodles and he LOVES Bok Choy so 🙂 Thanks for sharing. Cheers ~ Lindy
Cher says
Sounds fabulous, Linda! I like that you suggest a wine to go with it!
LindySez says
Thank you. I sometimes forget to do that 🙂
Jessica says
This looks and sounds like it would be a hit with my family! I can't wait to give it a try!
giselle bisson says
This is a great dish to feed a crowd or potluck ... made ours with rice fettuccine, added cilantro and a bit of sliced red pepper. We had red onions not green, and I substituted siracha chili sauce for the chili garlic sauce. Yummy!
LindySez says
Thank you for posting this. Sounds like some nice change outs, and your use of rice fettuccine makes it gluten free. Cheers!