Wild Turkey Dan Dan Noodles

I love everything about dan dan noodles. Simple preparation, complex flavors, carbs, a touch of heat, and a ton of umami. This popular street dish is another takeaway from Fuchsia Dunlop’s incredible book on Sichuan cooking, “The Food of Sichuan”. 

This dish is essentially seasoned ground meat over noodles, which are plated over chile oil and other savory sauces. One of the reasons I love this dish is the simplicity of the sauce(s)- just pour them in the bottom of the bowl. No emulsifying, cooking, simmering, thickening. Just put a bunch of tasty sauces in the bottom of the bowl and top it off with some chewy noodles and meat.

Aside from the meat and ginger, and optional vegetables, every ingredient is a pantry item. This is a make-anytime dish that does not lack any depth or punch. 

Dan dan noodles are super flexible- you can make this dish with any ground meat you have on hand. It would be just as good with ground venison or duck. For that matter, the base sauce can and should be altered to your liking. I’ve changed up a few things from the original recipe. It’s heavier on the meat and seasonings in general, but I also swapped in jarred preserved vegetables instead of the traditional ya cai. This eliminates a cooking step, making this dish even faster to prepare. Also, what I call the “Charlie Brown-Fallout brand” preserved veggies are amazing, an umami bomb with texture and flavor. If you like fermented, pickled, savory, stuff, this is for you. I wish I had experienced these decades ago.

Once you have the water boiling for the noodles, you can have this dish ready to eat in 10 minutes. Just gather your ingredients, prep the bowls, cook the noodles and meat and assemble. 

Turkey Dan Dan Noodles

INGREDIENTS:

~1/2# noodles (fresh dan dan or knife-cut noodles are ideal, but dried japanese udon is a fine substitute)

Handful of leafy asian greens

For the meat:

~6 oz ground turkey meat (10% pork fat)

1 tsp ginger, minced

½ tbsp shaoxing wine

1 tsp sweet flour sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

½ tsp dark soy sauce

For the bowls:

2 tsp sesame paste (NOT tahini)

2 tbsp your favorite chinese preserved vegetable

2 tbsp light soy sauce

½ tbsp dark soy sauce

4 tbsp chili oil + 1 tbsp sediment

1 tbsp chinkiang vinegar

1 tsp ground sichuan pepper

2 tbsp sliced scallions

method:

Cook the noodles as recommended on the packaging, then drain and rinse under cold water. Toss with a splash of oil to prevent them from sticking together. Set aside.

Cook the meat topping. Heat a wok or large saute pan over medium high heat, add some oil and add in the ground meat. Once lightly browned, stir and cook until almost cooked through. Push all the meat to one side of the pan, and tilt the pan so the oil pools up. Add the ginger to the oil, and stir, cooking until very fragrant. Add the sweet flour sauce to the oil and stir, cook for about a minute or until the oil is infused with the sauce. Add the shaoxing wine, then add in the soy sauces, and stir to evenly coat the meat. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Prep the bowl. Divide all the ingredients for the bowls between two bowls. Top with noodles. Add the meat topping. Garnish with some scallion greens and ground sichuan chiles if you like. Stir to evenly coat the noodles with the sauce and dig in.

Advertising Disclosure:

As an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases. With that being said, none of these companies asked or paid me to include their products in this dish. These are the products we keep in our pantry and used in the creation of this recipe.

---