Braised yee mee is one of my favourite 15-minute comfort meals — saucy, slurpy, and perfect for using up whatever vegetables and protein you already have at home.
The first dish my mum ever taught me, it’s her go-to solution for days when she can’t decide what to cook. Why? Because it’s easy, tasty, and a Malaysian kitchen always has the basic ingredients for a yummy yee mee.
Time and again, I’ve found myself reverting to this dish when I’m stumped for cooking ideas, or when I want something comforting and saucy.
Check out my IMPROVED braised yee mee recipe here!
Along the way, I’ve given it my personal healthy touch. In the original recipe, Mum uses fresh wantan noodles and deep-fries them in a wok of oil. Super delicious, but not very healthy lor.
So one day, I tried replacing it with baked organic, vegetable-based yee mee and found that I love it! Pumpkin yee mee works the best. The pumpkin adds a nice sweetness to the dish and I love the healthier benefits.
I’ve tried a number of organic pumpkin yee mee, but so far my favourite is this product from Cottage Farm. The noodles are thinner than the other versions in the market.
Plus it’s made from real pumpkin flesh, not pumpkin juice, so more bulk, yay!
Braised yee mee is the perfect one-pot dish for the post-COVID age of frugality. You can use up vegetable scraps. Think wilting cabbage, your last bits of carrot, bean sprouts, any kind of mild-tasting vegetables are fine.
For protein, I usually use chicken and/or prawns, but you can also add fishballs and other kinds of meat. To bump up the umami factor, I often add mushrooms and make my own prawn or chicken stock where possible.
Enjoy!
For more comforting one-pan dishes, try my easy-peasy Thai glass noodles with prawns
Braised Yee Mee
Equipment
- wok
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 noodle cakes (see notes)
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 4 cloves garlic, diced
- 50g boneless chicken meat, cubed and seasoned with salt
- 80g prawns, seasoned with salt
- 3 dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated - keep water.
- 1/2 cup cabbage, thinly shredded
- 1/4 carrot, julienned
- 1 1/2-2 cups water or stock, including water from soaking mushrooms
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1/2 tbsp dark soya sauce
- pinch of white pepper
Instructions
- Heat up oil in wok. Add in chicken and spread out on the wok. Chicken takes longer to cook, so best to add it in first.
- Put in chopped garlic, julienned carrots and cabbage. Adding the carrots in early, at this stage, helps flavour the oil. Add shrimps.
- Add dark soya sauce, oyster sauce, salt and pepper and stir to mix evenly. Now add water to form gravy. Start with 1 cup first.
- Add noodles. Press the noodle cakes gently and break them up with your spatula (wok chan).
- Once noodles are soft enough, serve up!
Notes
- What type of noodles can I use?
Any yee mee works — baked, organic, or pumpkin yee mee for a healthier twist.
Cabbage, carrots, choy sum, mushrooms, bean sprouts, or leftover veggie scraps. 3. What proteins can I add?
Chicken, prawns, tofu, fishballs, sliced pork, or egg. 4. How do I keep the noodles from getting soggy?
Simmer just until softened, then turn off the heat. The gravy will thicken on its own. 5. Can I make this vegetarian?
Yes — use tofu/mushrooms and vegetarian oyster sauce. 6. Can this recipe vegan-ized? Yes! Just replace prawn/chicken stock with vegetable stock, and add more mushrooms, carrots and cabbage in place of the meat. You can also use vegetarian oyster sauce. 7. Do I really need to add stock or will water do? In this video, I used prawn stock since I make large batches of this ahead of time. However, if you don't have the time, you can use stock cubes or even just water as the vegetables, meat and sauces will contribute enough flavour to the dish. 8. Can I add an egg at the end of the cooking process to get a more "wat tan hor" kind of sauce? Yes, just turn off the stove when you do that. The heat from the noodles is enough to cook the egg.
Alexandra Wong is a Malaysian food writer, recipe developer and the author behind Cook With Ipohbunny. She shares practical family recipes, restaurant recreations and home-cooking tips inspired by Malaysian Chinese cuisine.
Very taste like mom’s cooking
Yay! So happy to hear that, and thank you for leaving a comment 🙂
Hi, I tried your recipe & my family loved it! It’s so simple yet tasty. Tks for sharing your recipe.😊
Yes, this is such an easy yet delicious recipe by my mum – so glad you enjoyed it!
I think I have tried this recipe for more than 5 times now and it’s such an easy dish to whip with common kitchen ingredients! Love that it’s a crowd pleaser due to it being a classic comfort-food and a balanced meal with protein and vegetables no less!
Made this today. Delicious – thank you!
I’m glad you found my Mum’s recipe delicious. Thanks so much for letting me know!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I love noodles of any type, so of course, I would love to try this recipe. Looks good and simple enough. My mum was a great cook. I loved her cooking but unfortunately, I never really learned to cook from her while she was alive. I would watch and help her in the kitchen when the mood moved me from time to time. She usually would make “soupy” kind of mee or mee with some sauce or gravy. Fried mee was very rare. So I appreciate this recipe. I’m not a good cook, so I hope it will turn out well.
Yanna, thank you for sharing your lovely memory with your mum ❤️. This is one of the earliest recipes my mum taught me, and I hope that I have explained it in sufficient detail to ease your discovery. Let me know if you do make it 🙂