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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.