Fried Noodles with Chicken
Instant noodles boiled, drained, then crisped in a pan with pouch chicken and oyster sauce.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- 700 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant ramen | 2 blocks | set the seasoning packets aside, you use them later |
|---|---|---|
| Foil pouch chicken | 1 pouch, about 5 oz | the original used a cooked breast, which needs a fridge |
| Oyster sauce | 2 tbsp | decanted into a small squeeze bottle |
| Cooking oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Ketchup packets | 2 | optional, at the table |
Method
- Boil about 700 ml of water and cook the noodle blocks plain for two minutes. No seasoning yet.
- Drain. Tip the water into a bottle for dishes rather than dumping it in camp.
- Wipe the pot dry, add the oil, and put it back on a low flame.
- Add the noodles and the chicken, broken up with the spoon. Press the noodles flat and leave them alone for two minutes so the bottom browns.
- Sprinkle in one seasoning packet and add the oyster sauce. Stir, press flat again, and brown for another two or three minutes.
- Taste before adding the second packet. One is usually enough. Ketchup at the table if it lands too salty.
This is a two-stage noodle dish and the second stage is the whole point. Boiling ramen and eating the broth gives you soup. Draining it and putting the noodles back on heat with oil gives you browned edges and a sauce that clings instead of pooling. The seasoning packet becomes a dry rub rather than a broth base, which is why one packet does the work of two.
The original called for a cooked chicken breast, which means a cooler and a cutting board. A foil pouch gets you the same protein with no fridge and no knife. Oyster sauce is the other carry: it is shelf-stable, it is sugar and salt and glutamate, and two tablespoons will season a whole pot. Drain step matters more than it sounds. Wet noodles steam instead of frying, and you end up back at soup with extra steps.
Packing
Noodle blocks and their packets in one bag, chicken pouch and oil bottle in another. Oyster sauce goes in a leakproof squeeze bottle inside a zip bag; it is the one thing here that will ruin a pack.
Variations
- Swap the chicken pouch for a foil packet of tuna or a hard salami cut into coins.
- A packet of soy sauce plus a pinch of sugar stands in for the oyster sauce.
- Dried scallions or a spoonful of chili crisp goes in with the seasoning.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/oodels-of-noodles