How to Make Chinese Egg Noodles From Scratch
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A fun and easy recipe for homemade Chinese Egg Noodles that can be made by hand or with a pasta machine. Perfectly chewy and springy, these noodles will hold up well in your favorite soup or stir-fry sauce without turning mushy.
Kids these days are busier than they’ve every been. From the minute my kids wake up til the time I tuck them into bed, I feel like I’m just ushering them from one place or activity to another. And when they’re home, it’s so easy to set them up with TV or iPad.
So I try to get then into the kitchen and find recipes that we can all make together. I love making noodles from scratch with the kids because we get to create something tangible (and edible!), it teaches them that not everything needs to be bought from the store, it taps into their heritage, and I get to spend quality time with them.
Andy they love noodle-making because it’s so tactile (they get to squish, knead, crack eggs, crank the pasta machine, stomp on dough with their feet) and they feel so proud of themselves afterwards.
For us, it’s important that a noodle recipe is fast and fun. After school, activities, and homework, there’s limited time before dinner, bath and bed witching hour. The kids have really enjoyed making these Chinese egg noodles from scratch because I introduced a new “kneading” technique for them: “Why roll the dough when you can beat it?”
What are Chinese Egg Noodles?
Chinese egg noodles are made from wheat flour and egg. These noodles are added to soups (like wonton noodle soup) and also used in many stir-fry dishes like Mie Goreng (recipe coming soon).
You will make these in the exact same way as my ramen noodle recipe but with the addition of egg and salt.
Can I Successfully Make Chinese Egg Noodles at Home?
Yes you can! My kids did and so can you.
Like making ramen noodles, you will need an alkaline agent – either *baked* baking soda or lye water (aka “kansui” which is sold in bottles at Asian grocery stores). Click here for my instructions on how to EASILY make *baked* baking soda at home.
Now, you don’t have to use an alkaline agent, but without it, the noodles could turn out mushy and will fall apart once you add it to your soup broth or sauce. Who want’s mushy noodles? Not I.
I also highly recommend using a pasta machine for this dough. You can certainly knead by hand and I did so the first time I made these Chinese egg noodles.
While the initial hand-made noodling experience was fun, it was also time consuming and difficult for the kids to manage on their own. Now, we let our pasta machine do all the work and the final results are great every time AND we can even manage it on a school night.
Wondering which pasta machine is best to buy? Click here to read my review of two popular Italian-made brands: the Marcato Atlas versus the Cucina Pro Imperia.
Ready to get started?
You most likely will have all the ingredients in your pantry to make homemade Chinese egg noodles from scratch.
To make fresh Chinese egg noodles at home, all you need is:
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Eggs
- Water
- Alkaline agent: either lye water (aka “kansui” which can be purchased from an Asian grocery store) or baking soda.
To use baking soda to make Chinese egg noodles, you must first bake it in the oven for one hour. Click here for my instructions on how to make *baked* baking soda and why alkaline agents are essential to making many types of noodles.
How to Make Homemade Chinese Egg Noodles From Scratch
Continue reading below for detailed instructions (with step-by-step photos) on how to make Chinese egg noodles from scratch or you can click here to jump to the print-friendly recipe.
Read through the instructions and then give it a go yourself. Be sure to leave a comment below and let me know how it turned out (and what you served with it) – I would love to know!
The basic steps are as follows:
- Mix dry ingredients: salt and flour.
- Mix wet ingredients: water, lye water (or baked baking soda), and eggs
- Mix dry and wet ingredients together and knead for 1 minute.
- Rest dough 30 minutes.
- Knead 3-5 minutes.
- Rest dough for another 30 minutes.
- Roll dough flat with pasta machine or rolling pin.
- Cut dough into long strips of noodles.
- Simmer noodles briefly in boiling water.
You will need the following (serves 4):
- 240 grams all-purpose flour (2 cups)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon lye water (aka kansui) or 1 teaspoon baked baking soda
- 2 eggs
- 1 – 2 tablespoons water
- Pasta machine or Rolling Pin and Knife
- Large mixing bowl
- Fork or spatula or chopsticks
- Measuring cup or kitchen scale. I prefer a kitchen scale (I have this OXO one) because it makes for more consistent measuring as one cup of flour can range anywhere from 100 grams to 300 grams depending on how lightly or tightly packed your flour is.)
Step 1 — Mix flour and salt together.
In a large bowl, add the flour and salt together and mix a couple times with a fork or chopstick.
Step 2 — Make alkaline solution.
- If using lye water: Crack the eggs into a small bowl and add the lye water (aka kansui) to the eggs.
- If using *baked* baking soda: Dissolve the baked baking soda in 1 tablespoon of water and mix (make sure there are no lumpy bits) and then add the mixture to the eggs.
Whisk eggs a few times with a fork or chopstick to thoroughly mix the eggs and kansui/baking soda.
Step 3 — Add alkaline egg mixture to the flour and squish into a ball.
Pour the egg mixture into the bowl of flour and mix with a fork or chopstick.
The flour will become a crumbly texture and that is what you want for now. If you put the dough to your nose, you will be able to detect the distinctive smell of alkaline dough.
Use your hands to squish the flour crumbs together into a ball. The dough texture will be softer than my ramen dough recipe due to the addition of the eggs.
If the flour doesn’t completely form a ball after a bit of squeezing, then a little water, but only a tablespoon at a time, until you get one cohesive ball.
This is what you are aiming for – a dry and crumbly looking dough with barely any crumbs left in the mixing bowl:
Same as in my ramen noodle recipe, you want to keep the dough on the dry side. If it is too soft and wet then the dough will be hard to roll out and it will be difficult to cut into individual strands because they will stick together.
Step 4 — Knead dough for 1 minute and rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
Knead the dough for a minute (just squish it around inside the mixing bowl) and then wrap it in plastic (or place it in a bowl covered with a damp towel) so that it doesn’t dry out.
Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Step 5 — After resting, knead dough for 3-5 minutes.
Take the dough out of the plastic wrap (do not toss the plastic wrap away as you’ll need it again) and knead it for about 3-5 minutes.
This is not a difficult dough to knead like ramen dough but little helpers might have trouble doing it themselves. In that case, you can hand your child a rolling pin and use it to beat the dough on all sides for those two minutes. You just hit the dough with the rolling pin, turn the dough over, and repeat. I got this idea from who doesn’t knead her dough at all.
According to my kids, beating the dough is much more fun than kneading. Use a large-diameter rolling pin, preferably one with a long handle that they can hold on to. But anything will do as long as you don’t hurt yourself.
The kids had so much fun with this part that they couldn’t stop laughing and giggling. Rolling pin dough-beating was a novelty to them and they took turns doing it while grooving along to music. We are dough-beating and beat-bopping to my son’s favorite song at the moment: “Once I Was 7 years Old” by Ben Shuller.
By the end of the song, the result was just like as if we had kneaded by hand – the dough had become nice and smooth. See for yourself:
Step 6 — Rest dough for another 30 minutes.
Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic (or place it in a bowl covered with a damp towel) and rest it for 30 minutes at room temperature.
If you won’t be using the dough immediately, stick it in the fridge and take it out 30 minutes before you need it so that it returns to room temperature.
Step 7 — Roll the dough flat with a pasta machine (or by hand).
Take the dough out of the plastic wrap, give it a few quick kneads. Divide your dough in half and return the unused half to it’s plastic wrap or towel-covered bowl.
Flatten the other half of your dough as much as possible by hand (or whack with the rolling pin again) and start feeding it through the pasta machine.
Starting with the widest roller setting, feed the dough through 3-4 times. Then adjust the rollers to the next setting and feed dough through 2 times per setting until desired thinness. We liked the dough thickness of level 6 (~1.2 mm).
If rolling by hand, be sure to sprinkle lots of flour on the dough and the rolling pin so that the dough doesn’t stick.
Step 8 — Cut dough into long strips of noodles with the pasta machine (or by hand).
Finally we are ready to cut the dough into strands! Our Marcato pasta machine came with two size options – a thick fettucine size and a thin spaghettini size. We used the spaghettini cutter to make thin Chinese egg noodles. (For thicker noodles, which my dad prefers, we tried the fettucine cutter but it was too wide so we just used a large knife to cut the dough into the width he likes.)
First, cut the dough in half if it is too long to work with.
Next, lightly dust the dough with flour or corn starch and then pass it through the cutters.
Repeat with the other half of the dough.
If cutting by hand, fold the dough in layers either like a tri-fold letter or into an S-shape. Cut into strands with a large knife to desired thickness. Remember that the noodles will expand slightly when cooked.
The first time I made these Chinese egg noodles from scratch, I tried rolling and cutting the dough by hand but the dough wasn’t very elastic so it kept springing back into a smaller shape. I persevered and was finally able to roll the dough thin enough to our liking. But I definitely prefer flattening the dough with the pasta machine.
After the dough is cut into strips, sprinkle more flour or corn starch over the noodles before jiggling the shaking them open into long beautiful strands.
Step 9 — Simmer noodles in boiling water.
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Do not add salt. Cook the noodles for 2 to 3 minutes depending on the thickness of your strands. Test cook a few strands before throwing in the whole batch. It is better to undercook the noodles slightly than to overcook them because they will continue to soften as they absorb the liquid in the final soup or sauce.
Drain, rinse with cool water so they don’t stick. Serve with your favorite soup or stir-fry sauce.
Voila! An easy, fast and fun recipe for homemade Chinese egg noodles from scratch. Easy enough that even my 8-year old can make it by himself and fun enough that he’ll want to make it again and again with his sister (and me!).
Be sure to tag us on Instagram (@gingerandscotch) and Twitter (@gingerandscotch) and show us your noodle-making in action.
Happy Noodling!
-Sandy
Homemade Chinese Egg Noodles From Scratch
Ingredients
- 240 grams all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baked baking soda or 1 teaspoon lye water (aka "kansui")
- 2 eggs
- 1-2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Mix flour and salt together. In a large bowl, add the flour and salt together and mix a couple times with a fork or chopstick.
- Make alkaline solution. If using kansui: Crack the eggs into a small bowl and add the lye water (aka kansui) to the eggs.If using *baked* baking soda: Dissolve the baked baking soda in 1 tablespoon of water and mix (make sure there are no lumpy bits) and then add the mixture to the eggs.Whisk eggs a few times with a fork or chopstick to thoroughly mix the eggs and kansui/baking soda.
- Add alkaline egg mixture to the flour and squish into a ball. Pour the eggs into the bowl of flour and mix with a fork or chopstick. The flour will become a crumbly texture and that is what you want for now. Use your hands to squish the flour crumbs together into a ball. If the flour doesn’t completely form a ball after a bit of squeezing, then add more water, but only a tablespoon at a time, until you get one cohesive ball. You are aiming for – a dry and crumbly looking dough with barely any crumbs left in the mixing bowl.
- Knead dough for 1 minute and rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. Knead the dough for a minute and then wrap it in plastic (or place it in a bowl covered with a damp towel) so that it doesn’t dry out. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Beat the dough for 3 to 5 minutes. Take the dough out of the plastic wrap (do not toss the plastic wrap away as you’ll need it again) and knead it for about 3-5 minutes.This is not a difficult dough to knead like ramen dough but little helpers might have trouble doing it themselves. In that case, you can hand your child a rolling pin and use it to beat the dough on all sides for those two minutes.Use a large-diameter rolling pin, preferably one with a long handle that they can hold on to. But anything will do as long as you don’t hurt yourself.
- Rest dough for another 30 minutes. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic (or place it in a bowl covered with a damp towel) and rest it for 30 minutes at room temperature.If you won’t be using the dough immediately, stick it in the fridge and take it out 30 minutes before you need it so that it returns to room temperature.
- Roll the dough flat with a pasta machine (or by hand).Take the dough out of the plastic wrap, give it a few quick kneads. Divide your dough in half and return the unused half to it’s plastic wrap or towel-covered bowl.Flatten the other half of your dough as much as possible by hand (or whack with the rolling pin again) and start feeding it through the pasta machine.Starting with the widest roller setting, feed the dough through 3-4 times. Then adjust the rollers to the next setting and feed dough through 2 times per setting until desired thinness. We liked the dough thickness of level 6 (~1.2 mm).
If rolling by hand, be sure to sprinkle lots of flour on the dough and the rolling pin so that the dough doesn’t stick. - Cut dough into long strips of noodles with the pasta machine (or by hand).Finally we are ready to cut the dough into strands! Our Marcato pasta machine came with two size options – a thick fettucine size and a thin spaghettini size. We used the spaghettini cutter to make thin Chinese egg noodles. (For thicker noodles, which my dad prefers, we tried the fettucine cutter but it was too wide so we just used a large knife to cut the dough into the width he likes.)First, cut the dough in half if it is too long to work with.Next, lightly dust the dough with flour or corn starch and then pass it through the cutters.Repeat with the other half of the dough.If cutting by hand, fold the dough in layers either like a tri-fold letter or into an S-shape. Cut into strands with a large knife to desired thickness. Remember that the noodles will expand slightly when cooked.After the dough is cut into strips, sprinkle more flour or corn starch over the noodles before jiggling the shaking them open into long beautiful strands.
- Simmer noodles in boiling water. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Do not add salt. Cook the noodles for 2 to 3 minutes depending on thickness of your strands. Test cook a few strands before throwing in the whole batch. It is better to undercook the noodles slightly than to overcook them because they will continue to soften as they absorb the liquid in the final soup or sauce. Drain, rinse with cool water so they don’t stick. Serve with your favorite soup or stir-fry sauce.
Notes
• Marcato pasta machine
• Imperia pasta machine
• OXO digital scale
• OXO dough cutter and scraper
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Do these noodles freeze well? I would like to make them ahead and then use them for quick weeknight meals.
You can freeze the noodles after they have been cooked, drained, and cooled.
Made these today and served it Yo Po Mian style. Absolutely delicious! I used half the recommended lye water as i was skeptical about the taste. The dough was an absolute nightmare to knead though. I had to add some water during the second knead to be able to make a dent in the dough 😀 had to do a third knead with more water as the dough was breaking into pieces in the pasta machine. But in the end it worked out just fine 🙂 Could you please tell me how much the eggs weigh? Perhaps mine were too small…
When it comes to dough and water, lots of factors can affect the total amount of water needed. Humidity, flour brands. If you can make a note of how much flour (and the brand) and water you used, then start with that amount the next time you make the dough. You have the right idea there to add a little water at a time until the dough works for you. These notes are for you to use each time you attempt the recipe.
Just made this recipe and it was better than I expected! I followed your instructions for making baked baking soda and it worked beautifully.
Since I had extra egg yolks (that I keep for making fresh pasta) I used only one whole egg, three yolks and one extra tablespoon of water. Worked fine and made a chewy noodle that I boiled and then used in a stir fry.
Your instructions were clear — made the process so easy. I will definitely try some of your other recipes!
I followed the recipe exactly and it came out perfect!
A friend sent me this recipe almost a year ago, and I finally made them for the Lunar New Year. They came out perfectly. I have had a marcato pasta maker in the basement for 5 years, never used, because I thought noodle making would be hard. This was so easy, my 8 year old helped, and he loved them all by themselves. Thanks for this recipe. I can’t wait to make the Tonkotsu Ramen!
I am so happy to hear that you dusted off the Marcato pasta machine! It makes noodle-making so much easier. Give the udon noodle recipe a try too with the machine – they come out so slippery and smooth.
Hi, have you tried using automatic electric noodle making machine to make chewy and springy egg noodle ? My machine don’t have the resting, beating and rolling function as making with hands do. Any tips to enhance the noodle texture in using this type of noodle machine? Thanks for your sharing:)
I don’t have an automatic noodle machine like the one Philips makes but maybe one day.
Mine turned out a little gummy and I’m not sure what I did wrong. Looks like everyone else had success with this recipe so I’m a little embarrassed that I failed. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi, I’ve made your Chinese noodles numerous times with the baked baking soda but I recently purchased food grade Sodium Hydroxide Lye micro beads. Can I use this to make lye water? If so what amount would I use? Thank you!
This recipe is very easy. I have lye water so I didn’t need to make it myself. The dough is so crumbly at the start that I didn’t think it would come together but following the instructions, it came out perfect. Used it for some wonton noodle soup and it was great.
I successfully made the noodles on my first attempt. Only thing I did not like the colour of my noodles, the were greyish not yellow.
But when I stir fried them with soy sauce, it was fine and the whole family enjoyed it
Thanks for your recipe
Hi! Did you boil the noodles before stir frying?
Yes I boil first. Drain then stir-fry.
Thank you so much for your recipe. It is hard to find alkline water in where i live, so i’ve looked up on the internet and found baked baking soda from your site. Then i follow your recipe and the outcome is perfect . I will definitely do it agian. Thank you for sharing.
Hello, thank you for this! I successfully made this recipe using your instructions for the baked baking soda, I made some terrific noodles using All Purpose Flour… However, I recently purchased a bag of wheat flour from a local Chinese Grocer. I was wondering if I could use wheat flour instead of A/P for this recipe?
Thank you so much,
Daniel
Hi Daniel, I’m so happy to hear that your noodles turned out terrific!
I’m not sure I understand your questions. You are asking if you can make noodles from wheat flour? Well, all-purpose flour is wheat flour since it is made from wheat.