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Dan Dan Noodles
Sichuan dan dan mian is a spicy ground pork and sesame sauce served over a tangle of wheat noodles. We use a few Chinese staple ingredients—oyster sauce, hoisin and chili-garlic sauce—to build big flavor. Preserved mustard greens are a common addition to dan dan noodles; for ease, we instead make a quick pickle with bok choy and stir it in at the end. You can use just about any variety of dried Asian wheat noodles as long as they’re sturdy enough to stand up to the sauce.
4
Servings
Tip
Don’t forget to rinse the noodles after cooking and draining so their excess starch doesn’t make them overly sticky. Tossing them with a couple teaspoons of sesame oil will help prevent them from clinging together so that they’re easier to portion.
1½ hours
50 minutes active
Ingredients
-
10
ounces dried Asian wheat noodles, cooked, drained and rinsed
-
2
tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
Directions
-
01Drizzle the rinsed noodles with the 2 teaspoons sesame oil, then toss until evenly coated; transfer to a serving bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the bok choy and 1 teaspoon salt. Massage the salt into the bok choy, then stir in the vinegar; set aside. On a 6-quart Instant Pot, select More/High Sauté. Add the sesame seeds and toast, stirring often, until golden brown and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Press Cancel to turn off the pot. Using potholders, carefully remove the insert from the housing and pour the seeds into a small bowl; return the insert to the housing. Select More/High Sauté. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and shallots and cook, stirring often, until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the pork and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the broth, oyster sauce, sesame seeds, hoisin and 1 tablespoon of chili-garlic sauce, scraping the bottom; distribute in an even layer.
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May 30, 2023
Dan Dan Noodle Sauce
If I were to make this using your Dan Dan Noodle Sauce, how much sauce would you recommend I use? I can't ask this question without giving a rating, so 5 stars in advance. Thank you.
July 29, 2022
Delicious
Made this last night and it was excellent. I cut the chili garlic sauce in half to make sure my 5 year old and non-spicy-handling husband could enjoy. Both loved it. I only had rice stir fry noodles so I used those and they worked well.
June 16, 2022
So Good!
Just made this tonight. The whole family ate it. Not that difficult. Will definitely include this in my dinner rotation.
May 25, 2022
What did I just experience?
Oh my goodness! This was a great dish. Just the right amount of flavor with nothing more to add. My wife and I had 2 servings. The pickled bok choy is everything!!! Definitely will bring this back to the dinner table.
April 30, 2023
Delicious and different
We really enjoyed this: it's quite different from other dan dan noodle recipes we've made (or eaten at restaurants) but had good flavor and texture. We did make some changes: we like spice, so upped the chili-garlic sauce to 2 TBS, we chopped the bok choy more finely, and we garnished with some chopped peanuts and a few more sesame seeds, because the crunch is a nice complement to the noodles.
H Jennifer -
This recipe is from our book, Milk Street: Fast & Slow, an Instant Pot cookbook of around 130 recipes. Readers love their Instant Pots and are eager to make lots of different types of recipes in them and this is one of them. We are so glad you made it on the stovetop and that it worked just as well!
Best,
The Milk Street Team
Like Jennifer B, after reading the recipe through a few times I couldn't figure out how the instapot was making my life any easier in this particular case. Made it in a skillet. The flavors are nice, but can't really reconcile the name with the resulting dish.
Dandan noodles can be drier - like this recipe- or more soupy, what I am used to seeing both in China and in Los Angeles Sichuan spots. However, don't think I have ever seen the dish without chili oil (although the chili garlic sauce is nice), Sichuan peppers, pickled vegetables, sesame paste, scallions, etc. Some Milk streets recipes seem to aim for authenticity, and others for just inspiration -and this version of DanDan noodles seems to be the later.
We enjoyed this. I can't deal with a lot of Szechuan super-spicy foods, and Dan Dan is usually too spicy for me. However this version (and we used Sriracha) had some heat without making it a painful eating experience. I agree that the use of the Instant Pot made the recipe slightly cumbersome -- but I also just prefer saute-ing foods in a skillet. Overall, I'd definitely make this again.
This is unlike any dan dan noodles recipe I've ever seen, and I can't speak to whether its flavors are authentic, but it was tasty and my husband loved it. Very easy with easy to find ingredients from the grocery store. I've found cooking ground meat in the instant pot makes it more flavorful and tender and found no hassle in bringing out the machine - it lives on my countertop anyway!
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Do youhave a version of the DanDan Noodles that is NOT for an Instant Pot?