A hearty one-pot meal made with thick noodles, marinated chicken, and tossed in a rich and flavorful dark sauce. Ready in less than 30 minutes and is way better than take out!
Lo Mein - is a Chinese noodle dish, made with vegetables, lo mein egg noodles and sometimes includes meat (beef, pork), poultry (chicken), or seafood. The noodles are tossed in rich dark and moderately spicy sauce and served with sesame seeds and green onions.

If you like Asian-style recipes be sure to check out my best takeout copycat recipe for Teriyaki Chicken and Broccoli bowls, the best gluten-free noodle alternative made with soba noodles, my Soba Noodles Stir Fry, and readers popular Napa Cabbage Stir Fry.
There is a skip-to-recipe button in the top left corner along with a clickable table of contents list (just below) that will quickly take you to the part you are more interested in. Enjoy!
Table Of Contents
Gluten Free Note
Just as a side note, to make sure your noodles are gluten-free, please always check that the package has the ''GF'' label on them. If it doesn't, even though they are not made of wheat does not mean they are gluten-free.
They can be made in places where there is a risk of contamination with other gluten-free products. Just for you to be aware!
Besides these mentioned, you can also find plenty of other gluten-free noodles in Asian supermarkets that are made for instance from quinoa, chickpea and other ingredients.
Ingredients
Chicken Lo Mein is not a complicated dish and you can customize it with other veggies (for example, try mushrooms, spinach, zucchini) or change the meat to beef or pork.
Step by step process
Prep. Cook spaghetti as per package instructions but don’t overboil them as they will continue to cook later in the sauce.
Sauce. In a medium-size bowl, mix all the sauce ingredients until combined. Set aside.
Chicken marinade. In a medium-size bowl, add chicken breasts and pour 2 tablespoons of the sauce, cover with plastic wrap and let marinate for 1 hour.
(If you’re in a rush, either make marinade a night before, and leave the chicken overnight to marinade or marinade as little as you have time, but definitely do eat as it will give extra flavor and tenderness to the chicken!)
Cook chicken. Heat up vegetable oil in a large skillet (or wok pan, but not necessary!) over high heat.
Cook chicken for 3-4 minutes on both sides until slightly golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
Cook veggies. In the same skillet, cook mushrooms (3-4 minutes) over medium heat, then add the rest vegetables and cook until bell peppers become softer but not too soft. (1-2 minutes).
Combine. Reduce the heat to low.
Pour in the sauce, return chicken and noodles to the skillet and toss everything together until all of the noodles are brown and covered with sauce.
Serve! Garnish with green onions, sesame seeds, and serve while warm!
If you'll love this you should try these recipes next: BBQ Pork Fried Rice, Thai Style Easy Chicken Stir Fried Rice
Top Tips
- Noodles. For chicken lo mein it’s best to leave your noodles a little bit undercooked (al dente) before adding them to the sauce. When noodles are cooked, always add a drizzle of vegetable oil to prevent them from sticking to each other. Not only for this recipe but whenever you are cooking noodles. 🙂
- Marinade. For better and extra tender chicken, marinate the chicken overnight but if you’re in a rush then at least 30 minutes.
- How to Store. Best enjoyed right away but it can keep 2-3 days refrigerated in an airtight container. In the freezer for 1-2 months. Make ahead by prepping the sauce and marinating the chicken a day before.
- Oyster sauce - Oyster sauce commonly contains wheat flour as a thickener so please choose the ones that have a ‘’gluten-free’’ label on them.
- Soy sauce - soy sauce has also wheat in it but thankfully, like oyster sauce, there are companies that make ‘’gluten-free’’ soy sauce. Another substitute for this will be coconut aminos.
FAQs
What is the difference between lo mein and chow mein?
Traditionally, both lo mein and chow mein are made with egg noodles (thick wheat flour and egg noodles). But the main difference between these two is how the noodles are prepared. For lo mein, we toss the noodles in sauce and vegetables but for chow mein, we’ll fry the noodles along with the sauce and veggies near the end of cooking.
What is lo mein sauce made of?
Usually lo mein sauce has a combination of soy sauce, oyster sauce and toasted sesame oil, and a generous amount of ginger and garlic. There should be plenty of sauce to coat the noodles until they become golden brown in color. Today we are going to make this simple dish but with gluten-free ingredients. Read along!
Choosing Gluten Free Noodles for Lo Mein
There are several Asian noodle varieties that are in fact, gluten-free. And for this Chicken Lo Mein recipe, you can use any of the following that I've listed down below (+ regular gluten-free spaghetti, fettuccine, and linguine too).
Which Asian noodles are GLUTEN FREE?
- Rice Noodles - popular thin rice noodles (vermicelli) or thicker kind called sticks or ribbons.
- Soba - Japanese noodles made from buckwheat flour.
- Tapioca noodles - made from tapioca starch.
- Soy bean noodles - made from pressed tofu.
- Mung bean starch
- Sweet potato noodles
- Shirataki noodles - also called konjac noodles, are made from glucomannan, a type of fiber extracted from the root of the konjac plant.
What's your favorite Asian noodle recipe? Please leave a comment down below 🙂
I hope you'll enjoy this Chicken Lo Mein recipe.
Thank you,
Julia
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Easy Asian Style Recipes
Recipe
Chicken Lo Mein Recipe (Gluten-Free)
INGREDIENTS
Chicken & Vegetables
- 8 oz Gluten-free spaghetti/fettuccine (linguine or soba, thicker rice noodles)
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast (cut into small bite-size cubes or thicker strips)
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil or avocado oil
- 1 large carrot (julienned)
- 1 medium red bell pepper
- ½ of large yellow bell pepper
- 1 medium white onion (sliced into ¼ thick circles)
- 2 cups of mushrooms ((champignon, shiitake or your favorite choice, sliced))
- 2 stalks of green onion or a handful of chopped chives
- 1 tablespoon of toasted (optional sesame seeds (white or black and white mix))
Lo Mein Sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoon of dark soy sauce (gluten-free - or sub with coconut aminos)
- 1 ½ tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce (gluten-free - or sub with coconut aminos)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ½ cup chicken broth or vegetable
- 3 tablespoons of gluten-free oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil (i prefer using toasted!)
- 1 teaspoon coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 1 heaping teaspoon ginger (grated)
- 2 teaspoon chili flakes
- ½ teaspoon black ground pepper (or spicy ground chili mix for extra flavor!)
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 4 cloves garlic (minced)
INSTRUCTIONS
- Prep. Cook spaghetti as per package instructions but don’t overboil them as they will continue to cook later in the sauce.
- Sauce. In a medium-size bowl, mix all the sauce ingredients until combined. Set aside.
- Chicken marinade. In a medium-size bowl, add chicken breasts and pour 2 tablespoons of the sauce, cover with plastic wrap and let marinate for 1 hour. (If you’re in a rush, either make marinade a night before, and leave the chicken overnight to marinade or marinade as little as you have time, but definitely do eat as it will give extra flavor and tenderness to the chicken!)
- Cook chicken. Heat up vegetable oil in a large skillet (or wok pan, but not necessary!) over high heat. Cook chicken for 3-4 minutes on both sides until slightly golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In the same skillet, cook mushrooms (3-4 minutes) over medium heat, then add the rest vegetables and cook until bell peppers become softer but not too soft. (1-2 minutes).
- Reduce the heat to low. Pour in the sauce, return chicken and noodles to the skillet and toss everything together until all of the noodles are brown and covered with sauce.
- Garnish with green onions, sesame seeds, and serve while warm!
NOTES
PRIVATE NOTES
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
Adrianne
I seriously love noodle recipes and this looks sensational. Also like that you have given a gluten free option for the noodles. The sauciness, veggies and chicken combo is a winner and I can't wait to try it, cheers!
Julia
Thank you Adrienne, and thankfully there are still GF options for us noodles addicts :))
Julia
thankfully there are GF options for us noodles addicts haha 🙂 thank you, Adrianne
Beth Sachs
Such a flavourful sauce. The kids loved this chow mein recipe.
Julia
Thank you so much!
Julia
thank you so much, glad you loved it!
Anjali
Yum!! This lo mein recipe turned out amazingly well -- thanks to your delicious and flavor-packed sauce recipe! My whole family loved it!
Julia
thank you Anjali, glad you liked it!
Chichi
Am I permitted to eat off my screen? This looks sooo good! Can’t wait to make it. Yummy!
Julia
thank you, haha! Hope you'll like it.