Zhajiangmian (Chinese Fried Sauce Noodles) Recipe (with Video)

Preparing the ingredients
1. If using dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrate them in 2 cups of water for 30 mins.
2. Prep your other ingredients: slice your cucumbers and carrots into thin, long strips. Then prep all your aromatics: mince your garlic, ginger, and shallot or onion. Once shiitake mushrooms are rehydrated, remove tough stems, then dice into small (about 1/2 inch) chunks.
3. In a bowl, mix your cornstarch slurry with room temp or cold water. Set aside.
Making the sauce
1. Heat up a skillet or wok to medium heat, and add 1 tbsp of oil.
2. Add your aromatics: garlic, ginger, and shallot, and cook until fragrant, or about 1 min.
3. Add your ground pork, break it up into smaller pieces, and spread it out across the pan. Once there’s no more pink left in the pork, add the diced shiitake mushrooms and Shaoxing wine. Mix well.
4. Once the ground pork looks golden brown, use your spatula to push the pork to the sides of the pan to form a hole in the middle. Add your sweet bean sauce and soy bean sauce (it should sizzle!) and let cook for 1 minute. This helps bring out and deepen the flavors of the sauces.
5. Mix the sauce with the pork. Add 1 1/2 cups of the rehydrated shiitake mushroom liquid (or water) and stir. Let the sauce simmer for a minute.
6. Mix any settled cornstarch and add the slurry to thicken the sauce. Cook and stir until the sauce thickens — this should only take a minute or so.
7. Sauce is done! Turn off the heat, and get ready to cook your noodles.
Cooking the noodles and assembling the bowl
1. If you have 2 working stove tops, you can always cook your noodles at the same time as you’re cooking the ground pork sauce.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil, and cook your wheat noodles according to the package instructions. Fresh noodles typically only take several minutes, while dry noodles might take about 7-10 minutes. Optionally, to keep the noodles extra chewy when they’re done cooking, rinse them in cold running water.
3. Place the noodles into your bowls. Top the noodles with a good amount of ground pork sauce, some crunchy cucumbers and carrots, hot chili oil (if using), and green onion. Mix it all up, and enjoy!