A classic Northern Chinese dish and a pure comfort. It’s meaty, salty, saucy, and sweet. No fuss and made in 15 minutes!
This classic is one of my favorite noodle dishes of all time. The magic of this dish comes from the two fermented pastes that are used in the meat sauce.
To give you an idea of the flavor, the two pastes bring a salty, pungent umami to the sauce. The soybean paste is made by fermenting soybeans while the sweet bean paste is made by fermenting wheat flour with a little bit of soybeans, so the main flavor difference between them is the sugar content in the sweet bean paste. The pairing of the deep-flavored meaty sauce with the raw, crisp cucumbers really makes this dish what it is.
These noodles are so easy to make that I promise once you’ve made them once, you’ll add them to your repertoire of quick meals.
Chinese Fried Sauce Noodles: Zha Jiang Mian (炸酱面)
Ingredients
- ¾ pound ground pork
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 3 Persian cucumbers, julienned
- 3 tablespoons fermented soybean paste
- 3 tablespoons fermented sweet bean paste
- 1 pound fresh flour noodles (any kind from the Asian grocery store)
- 8 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
Instructions
- Step 1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook the noodles according to the package instructions. Then drain and rinse the noodles under cold water to prevent them from sticking. Set aside.
- Step 2. Heat up the canola oil in a large sauce pan and sauté the ground pork until golden brown. Add in the garlic and onion and sauté until the onion is translucent.
- Step 3. Add the soybean and sweet bean pastes to cook for 2 minutes to form the sauce, adding water as needed to thin the sauce to your desired consistency (I added about 3 tablespoons of water).
- Step 4. Assemble the bowls by placing down some noodles first, followed by the meat sauce, then top it all off with a handful of the julienned cucumbers. Serve immediately.
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