Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles (Zhajiangmian)

These saucy noodles are quintessential Beijing street food, a popular dinner dish that has lines for weeks. With just a few ingredients, this simple recipe is packed with authentic flavor and ready in 30 minutes.

These noodles are my favorite noodle dish since I was a kid living in China. My family is from ShanXi province (just west of Beijing), which prides itself as the noodle capital. There, people eat steamed noodles, soup noodles, one long noodle that fills an entire bowl (it really is LONG), beef noodle, and Beijing fried sauce noodles, aka Zhajiangmian. The Chinese characters for Zhajiangmian are 炸酱面. 炸 means fried, 酱 means sauce, and 面 means noodles. The sauce itself (before being packaged into a jar at the store) is fried, hence the “fried” in the  name. Since this dish originated in Beijing, it is translated to Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles. 

Beijing fried sauce noodles are made by cooking the sauce and mixing it into plain white noodles that are boiled separately. The dish is garnished with a big dollop of sliced cucumber, for a crunchy saucy noodle when it’s all mixed together. The sauce is the best part, and you can eat it with rice too if you like rice better!

This dish is also a fast one – you can make it in just 30 minutes! It’s one of the simplest noodle recipes I know and people really enjoy it (great for potlucks). If you want to cook food that will last you a couple meals, this is also where it’s at. I make Zhajiangmian frequently when I am busy and this recipe lasts me for a week of dinners. When you reheat the Zhajiangmian sauce, add a little water to make it fluid again (it tends to thicken up in the fridge), boil it for a few minutes till it’s hot, and spread it on plain noodles for a yummy 10 minute dinner.

Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles (Zhajiangmian)

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Ingredients

  

• 1 lb ground pork
• 6 tablespoons black bean sauce
• 2 russet potatoes diced 1cm x 1cm x 1cm dimensions
• 2 cups boiling hot water
• 24 Oz Chinese noodles*
• 1 cup cucumber cut to matchsticks
• 1 tablespoon oil

Instructions

 

• Peel and dice two russet potatoes. Let soak in water as you prepare the rest, so the starch comes out to the water.
• Add 1 tablespoon of oil to a wok or stir fry pan on high, and let the oil heat up for 1 minute.
• Add thawed ground pork and break into pieces with a spatula, stirring ask you cook till meat is brown all over and only small pieces are left.
• Meanwhile boil some Chinese noodles on high heat in a separate pot.
• Add 6 tablespoons black bean paste to the ground pork, and stir till equally mixed.
• Add drained diced potatoes, then add 1.5 cups of hot boiling water. This can be the water leftover from boiling the noodles (contains starch from the noodles to help thicken the sauce). You can also use the water you soaked the potatoes in if you heat it up first.
• Turn the heat down to medium-low and boil 10 minutes with a lid on the sauce, until potatoes are cooked (soft). Depending on your stove, you may use medium instead of low heat - use the heat setting that lets you see soft bubbles but not full blown boiling. Make sure to keep the cap on so the potatoes cook fast and the sauce doesn't get too dry.
• If most of your liquid has boiled off in the previous step, add 1/2 cup to 1 cup hot water to the cooked sauce to make the sauce more saucy . Stir well.
• Pour 1 serving of meat sauce over 1 serving of noodles and garnish with cucumbers cut into matchsticks.
• Mix and enjoy!

Notes

Nutritional information is for 8 servings

*Chinese noodles can be purchased at your local Asian store, pre-made to raw noodles. Don't use the dry kind, use the fresh raw noodles. These can be frozen in your freezer if you don't eat it all at once.
*Black Bean Sauce can also be purchased at your local Asian store or online if you don't live close to an Asian store. I used the Lee Kum Kee brand.

Like Asian Noodles? Check out these recipes:

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

BBQ spare rib noodle soup