Triple Garlic Fried Noodles Recipe

If the words "triple garlic" were caught your eye, chances are you're a big fan of the stinking rose. For this recipe, developer Patterson Watkins tosses noodles with garlic-infused oil, then flavors them with chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, hoisin. For the third dose of garlic, she uses fried slices as a garnish to give the dish "a fun textural element," she says. This recipe hits the sweet spot between too simple and too complicated, as it's not particularly difficult, but in Watkins' opinion, "It has that home-cooked-ness feel that makes it special."

Watkins does caution, however, that there's one step of the recipe where you need to proceed cautiously, and that's when you're frying the garlic. As she says, you need to be "almost babysitting those thin slivers of garlic once they hit that hot oil" so that you can remove them when they're just beginning to turn golden. The darker the garlic gets, the more bitter it will taste, and overcooking the garlic will make the oil bitter, too.

The noodles in this recipe — Watkins recommends fettucine or wide lo mein — are coated in vegetable oil, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, chili garlic sauce, and dashi made from reconstituted granules. You'll also need eggs, scallions, and garlic for the topping.

Thinly slice the garlic using a mandolin, or carefully slice using a sharp knife.

Sandwich the sliced garlic between sheets of paper towels and set aside to dry while you preheat the oil.

Fill a large skillet with enough oil to generously cover the bottom, roughly ⅛-inch high. Heat over medium.

Once the oil is hot, add the sliced garlic (working in batches, if necessary), and gently stir, breaking up any clusters for an even crisp.

Fry for approximately 1 minute, until the garlic begins to turn a pale golden brown. Keep a close watch over your frying garlic; the slices will start to darken quickly. The darker the garlic, the more bitter the flavor.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the garlic from the skillet and set aside to drain on paper towels. Reserve the garlic-infused oil, keeping it hot over medium heat.

Place the soy sauce, water, hoisin, dashi, and 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce in a medium bowl, whisk to combine, and set aside.

Carefully add the cooked noodles to the skillet and toss to coat in the oil. Stir-fry for 1 minute, just long enough to reheat the noodles

Add the sauce to the skillet and toss to combine with the noodles.

Simmer and stir for 3–5 minutes, just long enough for the sauce to reduce slightly and begin to cling to the noodles.

Divide the noodles between bowls and top each serving with a fried egg. Generously sprinkle with chopped scallions, fried garlic, and a dollop of chili garlic sauce.

Watkins's recipe makes use of dashi granules which, like dashi powder, allow you to make Japanese-style fish and seaweed broth with the addition of hot water. If you don't have any dashi mix on hand, Watkins says you can make a substitute version by combining a teaspoon of the flavoring packet from shrimp ramen noodles with a tablespoon of the edible seaweed, called nori. Soak the nori in ½ cup of hot water for 2–3 minutes to soften it, then combine the seaweed, soaking water, and ramen seasoning with the soy sauce, hoisin, and chili garlic sauce.

If you don't care for fishy flavors or seaweed, you can get the savory flavor needed for these noodles from a different source. Swap out the dashi powder for dried shiitake mushrooms or bouillon to make a seafood-free dashi substitute. If you want to bring plenty of umami to the mix, use double the usual amount of bouillon (one cube per ½ cup water) and stir in an extra 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

This noodle recipe is sufficiently forgiving, such that you can make all kinds of changes to it without worrying that you'll mess up the delicate balance. For one thing, if you like your food on the salty side, you could use regular soy sauce instead of the low-sodium stuff, and you could swap it for ponzu if you enjoy a hint of citrus. If you want a gluten-free dish, replace the soy sauce with tamari and the fettuccine or linguine with rice noodles. You will also need to use gluten-free hoisin sauce, as well.

While Watkins tops her noodles with fried eggs and chopped scallions, feel free to change things up here, as well. Replace the fried eggs with poached ones or leave them off for a vegan version (in this case, you'd swap out the dashi for vegetable bouillon and soy sauce). You could also go with crispy fried onions in place of the green ones, or add some chopped jalapeños or cilantro to the topping mix. For a heartier meal, you might also wish to add extra protein to your noodles. Leftover sliced steak, pulled pork, or shredded chicken would all work, and you could go also plant-based with tofu.