Dan Dan Noodles – the iconic spicy Sichuan noodles, a flavour explosion with slippery noodles tossed in an intense spicy sesame sauce and pork. You’ll need to visit an Asian grocery store but once you’ve got what you need, it’s a cinch to make! (Plus, I’ve provided loads of substitution options.)
Dan Dan Noodles
The beautiful Northern Beaches area of Sydney in which I live is many things….but certainly not known for great authentic Sichuan food!!!
And given that Dan Dan Noodles is literally one of my all time top 3 foods, it was essential that I arm myself with a totally doable home version that is everything you want in a bowl of slippery, spicy noodles laced with the sesame flavoured Dan Dan Noodle Sauce, wafting with the scent of Chinese five spice.
With the signature slick of fiery red chilli sauce on the surface, it actually looks more fierce than it is. I’m one of those people who likes to think they can handle really spicy food – but actually, I can’t at all. So while the recipe provided has a good kick to it (I wouldn’t serve it to a toddler 😂), it is not blow-your-head-off spicy!
Usually I’d start with a visual of the ingredients, but in this case I think it’s better to give you an overview of how it’s assembled so you can see the different components of Dan Dan Noodles.
How to make Dan Dan Noodles
Unlike most noodles, such as Lo Mein and Chow Mein noodles, Dan Dan Noodles aren’t tossed together with sauce, vegetables and proteins. Instead, it’s served layered for a DIY toss situation, as follows:
Dan Dan Sauce in first – the savoury, Five Spiced sesame sauce with a slick of the signature chilli oil that you know and love about spicy Sichuan noodles!
Noodles next – but don’t mix it through;
Toppings – stir fried pork, preserved mustard greens (Sui Mi Ya Cai), choi sum and green onions;
Peanuts – finish with a sprinkle of chopped nuts;
Serve it just like that, with the sauce pooled at the bottom; then
To eat, you toss it all together so the white noodles become stained red with the spicy sauce, then devour!
What goes in Dan Dan Noodles
Here’s an overview of what you need and how to make each component for these spicy Sichuan noodles.
1. Dan Dan Noodles Sauce
Here’s what goes in the sauce – it’s not cooked, it’s just mixed up in a bowl.
Chinese Five Spice Powder is a spice mix of (don’t fall of your chair!) five different spices. It’s a common spice blend sold at grocery stores (🇦🇺Woolies, Coles);
Sichuan Pepper is the pepper that’s used in Sichuan cooking and other iconic Chinese dishes such as Kung Pao Chicken. It has a spiciness that is numbing rather than the usual fiery heat, and a slight lemony flavour. Available at Asian stores and some grocery stores with speciality spices (eg 🇦🇺Harris Farms), it’s best to freshly grind your own if you can but for convenience, just use pre ground. Substitute with white pepper.
Chilli Oil – Bright red in colour, and as spicy as it looks! You’ll find Chinese chilli oil in any Asian grocery store, otherwise, any chilli oil will do just fine. Substitute 1 part sriracha to 2 parts oil.
Chinese Chilli paste in oil – My favourite is Fuyun Xiang La Wang (chilli sauce) which is sold at most Chinese grocers. Substitute any Asian chilli paste (preferably in oil), a plain chilli paste, sambal oelek, and add an extra glug of chilli oil;
Chicken stock/broth – though I say this sauce is not cooked, this is heated up until hot and this heats up the sauce;
Chinese Sesame Sauce or paste (pictured below) – a key ingredient for the sauce flavour. It’s made from ground sesame and is like tahini (used in Hummus) but has a more intense sesame flavour, and it’s darker. Sold at Asian stores, substitute with tahini. Also used in Creamy Sichuan Sesame Sauce for Lettuce Salad.
2. Pork Toppings and Pickled Mustard Greens (Sui Mi Ya Cai)
Dan Dan Noodles are topped with pork mince and pickled mustard greens (called Sui Mi Ya Cai):
The making part is literally a less than 5 minute effort – just cook the pork, add the Chinese five spice flavoured sauce. Transfer to a bowl then just heat the pickled mustard greens (more on this below).
3. Sui Mi Ya Cai – Sichuan Preserved Mustard Greens
Firstly, don’t fret if you can’t find this, it’s not a make-or-break ingredient. Recipe only uses a sprinkle that’s added at the end when assembling the dish.
This is a signature ingredient used in Dan Dan Noodles. It’s Chinese pickled mustard greens (a type of green vegetable) that comes from the Sichuan region of China. It has the texture and saltiness of kimchi, but it’s not spicy. So that’s the best substitute – kimchi!
We’re almost there! Here’s the last part.
4. Noodles, Chinese Greens and Garnishes
Noodles – just any medium thickness, white Asian noodles. Not rice noodles, wheat noodles (check the ingredients list if you can’t read the packet 🙋🏻♀️). White is best for the most striking contrast of colour – the red chilli oil against the white noodles. However, any noodles will do just fine here, even noodle cakes (like ramen packs). Just prepare per packet;
Choi Sum – or other Chinese greens, briefly blanched; and
Garnishes – peanuts and green onion.
Cook the noodles first, then blanch the choi sum in the same water (just add it into the same pot and drain together for simplicity).
Then layer it all up – sauce in first, noodles next, then all the toppings.
Then mix it all up and devour!!
I know it’s a looooong post, with lots of ingredients visuals and breaking down the components. But don’t fret! Once you’ve gathered all the ingredients, the making part is straight forward.
You also don’t need to rush and worry about cooking all the components so they’re piping hot when you put it together. The sauce and pork and be lukewarm because it gets heated through when you toss the hot noodles through. It’s the Dan Dan way! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Dan Dan Noodles
Ingredients
Dan Dan Sauce:
- 2 tbsp Chinese sesame paste (sub tahini, Note 1)
- 1.5 tbsp Chinese chilli paste in oil , adjust spiciness (Note 2)
- 4 tbsp light soy sauce (Note 3)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 3 tsp white sugar
- 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder (Note 4)
- 1 tsp Sichuan pepper powder , preferably freshly ground (Note 5)
- 3 tbsp (or more!) chilli oil , preferably Chinese (Note 6)
- 3/4 cup (185ml) chicken broth/stock , hot, low sodium
Pork topping:
- 2 tsp Hoisin sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce (Note 7)
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (sub 2 tbsp extra chicken stock)
- 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder (Note 4)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 250g/ 8oz pork mince (ground pork)
Sui mi ya cai (preserved mustard greens):
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 30g (1/4 cup) Sui Mi Ya Cai (preserved mustard greens) , finely chopped (Note 8)
To serve:
- 500g/1lb white fresh noodles , medium thickness (Note 9)
- 16 choy sum stems , cut into 15cm pieces
- 2 green onions , finely sliced
- 1 tbsp peanuts , finely chopped (optional)
Instructions
Dan Dan Sauce:
- Mix all ingredients except oil and chicken stock. Then gently stir in oil and stock – oil should be sitting on surface. Set aside.
Pork:
- Mix together hoisin, soy, Chinese wine and five spice (“Sauce”).
- Heat oil in a skillet or wok over high heat. Add pork and cook, breaking it up as you, until it changes from pink to white. Add Sauce and cook for 1 minute, then transfer into a bowl.
Sui mi ya cai (preserved mustard greens):
- Return skillet to stove, reduce to medium heat. Add oil into middle of skillet.
- Add Sui mi ya cai and stir for 30 seconds, just to warm through. Set aside.
Noodles & choi sum:
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Cook noodles per packet directions.
- Add choi sum for last 1 minute of cooking.
- Drain.
Assemble:
- Ladle 1/4 of Dan Dan Sauce into a bowl. Pile in noodles, top with pork and Sui mi ya cai. Place choi sum on side.
- Sprinkle with peanuts and green onions and serve.
- To eat, mix it all up to coat the noodles well with Sauce, then devour!
Recipe Notes:
- Recipe as written is spicy but not blow-your-head-off spicy
- Reduce spiciness by using less chilli paste, Sichuan pepper and lastly, less chili oil (the oil is a key part of Dan Dan Noodles – look, mouthfeel and flavour)
- Pork amount is small – not supposed to be meat loaded, just a sprinkling. Can double pork (click Servings and slide to scale)
- Can add more steamed Asian greens to make complete meal
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Plant shopping!
He spent the entire time snuffling around frantically. Some people said it’s because of all the exciting smells – fertiliser manure and the like.
I think he was looking for food – because I know how he thinks. He truly believes that people eat their lunch while browsing nurseries and accidentally drop half their sandwich and leave it for lucky dogs to discover.
This was very nice! I haven’t used Chinese 5 spice before and it won’t be the last time. I substituted tahini/sesame oil and kimchi as suggested and the amount of chili oil in the sauce was a bit too hot for my daughter. Next time I will use a bit less chili oil in the sauce and we can add more at the table to taste. It’s too delish for anyone to miss out. I love your site and get a lot of menu ideas and Asian cooking techniques from it.
This recipe was fantastic. I made homemade Chinese noodles and wanted to used them in the perfect recipe. Of course, I turned to Nagi
:-). The flavors were fantastic and it was so, so easy. I will be making this again.
Hi Nagi,
I wanted to make this but my son is coeliac. What noodles would you suggest.
I tried to find both dry and precooked Soba noodles but they are all containing gluten.
Thanks
Pam
Pam, you might try glass noodles for your son – they are made from vegetable starch (mung bean/potato/sweet potato). They won’t absorb the sauce the same way as a wheat noodle but would probably still be very tasty.
Nagi, you’re a food and spice alchemist. We loved every mouthful of this delicious recipe. Thank you so much
I loved this, tastes like din tai fung and it’s so easy!
Hi Nagi, can you please allow me to like this so it saves in my recipe tin. Thanks so much, Tanya.
Hi Tanya, simply click the heart to save into your My RecipeTin folder 🙂 – N x
Hey Nagi,
These noodles were divine, but may I ask which brand of chilli oil you use? I love spicy food (your green curry is my fave) but when I made this it was way, way, way too spicy – definitely blow-your-head-off spicy. I used the same brand of chilli paste that you mention so I’m wondering if the chilli oil I used was extra spicy or something, because I reduced it by 2/3 when I made it a second time and I was still struggling (still delicious though!). The brand I bought is ‘koon yick wah kee’.
Hi Paige, this recipe is supposed to be spicy, but still edible! Are you sure you didn’t mis-measure anything? It could definitely be the chilli oil – I use a brand labelled House Ra-Yu. N x
Love Dan Dan! This was really easy, and the flavor was SO good. I added shiitakes because i love them. Don’t do what I did, which was to use rice noodles. (They were the only type I had in my pantry…) Too delicate and not as chewy as they should have been. That said, I still am rating this 5 stars – and will make them with a proper noodle next week!
Thank you for this great recipe! In lock-down I am missing being able to travel to China and Taiwan and eat all my fav foods, like dan dan mian, so this made me feel like I could at least still eat amazing dishes and that make me so happy. It’s now a household staple.
Your recipes are AWAYS so user friendly and extremely delicious!!!
Yet another ‘praise be to Nagi’ for an explosion in my mouth, a truly amazing dish. There are a lot of ingredients but most can be prepared in adcance and easily pulled together in minutes.
WOOT! This is awesome Ann! N x
My family loved these spicy noodles!!! 😍😍😍
Holy crap these noodles are sooooo good. Will defo make again and again.
More Chinese recipes please Nagi – if possible! <3
I made 8 portions for 4 adults and it was a massive hit! I substituted Quorn minced meat for the pork as we are vegetarians. Next time, I’ll half the chilli paste as it was quite spicy. I used the same noodle brand as you have and loved the texture and chewiness of the noodles. Great recipe, will make again and again. Thanks so much!
Love your recipes. They all work…..so far!! Waiting for one on chilli sauce………
Delicious! Easy! Impressive! I absolutely loved this recipie and think it’ll be a new family favourite. Thank you.
This dan dan noodle recipe is the real deal! I thought the sauce wouldn’t be enough at first, but its smooth and rich so you really just want to coat your noodles and toppings. I cut back on the chilli oil and used olive oil instead (that’s all I had) and used tahini with a bit of peanut butter. Came out great.
I’ll be making this recipe again soon thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Janice, that’s great to hear! N x
It was great to see that this recipe featured in the SMH goodfood section. Great work!
Thanks so much Neville 🙂 N x
This is so good Nagi! My whole family loves it. Thank you!
Hi Nagi, I cant wait to try this recipe! Does the sesame sauce need to be stored in the fridge after opening ?
Hi Kiera, I store mine in the cupboard 🙂 N x
Thanks so much!!!