About this Dish
Flat rice noodles stir-fried over extreme heat with prawns, cockles, Chinese sausage, bean sprouts and egg in a dark soy and chilli sauce. The wok hei — the smoky char from extremely high heat — is the defining quality of great char kway teow and the reason it is so hard to replicate at home.
IngredientsServes 2
🍜Flat rice noodles (kway teow), 400g fresh or soaked dried
🍤Raw prawns, 200g peeled and deveined
🫙Cockles (blood clams), 100g pre-cooked and shelled
🌭Chinese sausage (lap cheong), 2 links thinly sliced on the diagonal
🥚Eggs, 2 large
🌱Bean sprouts, 150g
🧄Garlic, 4 cloves finely minced
🌶️Fresh red chillies, 2 finely sliced (or 2 tbsp chilli paste)
🫙Dark soy sauce, 2 tbsp
🫙Light soy sauce, 1 tbsp plus fish sauce 1 tsp
Method
1
Mix together the dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and fish sauce in a small bowl and set aside. If using dried rice noodles, soak them in cold water for 30 minutes until pliable but still firm — they will finish cooking in the wok.2
Get your wok screaming hot over the absolute highest heat your stove can produce, then add 2 tablespoons of lard or vegetable oil. This is the most important step — a properly hot wok creates the smoky 'wok hei' char that defines great char kway teow, so don't rush it.3
Add the Chinese sausage slices and stir-fry for 30 seconds until lightly caramelised, then add the garlic and chilli and toss for another 20 seconds until fragrant. Add the prawns and cook, tossing constantly, for about 1 minute until they just turn pink.4
Add the noodles to the wok and spread them out flat against the hot surface. Leave them untouched for 20–30 seconds to get some colour and char on the bottom, then pour over the sauce mixture and toss everything together vigorously.5
Push the noodles to one side of the wok, crack in both eggs into the cleared space and scramble them briefly before folding them through the noodles while still slightly runny — this gives you silky egg streaks rather than dry scrambled pieces.6
Add the bean sprouts and cockles, toss everything together for just 30–45 seconds so the sprouts stay crunchy and the cockles warm through without toughening. Taste and adjust with a little more dark soy if needed, then plate immediately and serve with extra sliced chilli on the side.User Reviews
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