Pancit is a Filipino stir fry dish made with thin rice noodles and any vegetables you’d like. Beef or chicken is usually added too. It’s perfect for using up leftover turkey. Pancit is usually cooked at celebrations such as birthdays to bring good luck and it features on many festive tables. This noodle dish is ideal when catering to a group or large family as part of a holiday meal.
The word "pancit" refers to noodle in Filipino. During Spanish colonial times many Chinese migrants in the Philippines worked as street vendors and became known as panciteros. The Chinese word pien-sit means ready-made or cooked food. They mostly cooked for women who worked in cigar factories and had no time to cook at home. Nowadays, every pancit recipe is different. Some have boiled eggs or Chinese sausage and others have pork or shrimp. Pancit Bihon uses thin rice vermicelli noodles and Pancit Canton uses wheat-based.
You can use any noodles for this dish but thin rice noodles work best. You can buy the ready-to-wok variety or soak them in boiling water first before adding them to the pan.
Whenever I’m cooking food quickly in a wok or similar, it makes sense to have all of the ingredients prepared well ahead of time. This means you can focus on the cooking. Have your mise-en-place set up and ready so you can grab the shredded vegetables when the wok is hot.
I’ve used Chinese cabbage here and have also added some seasonal sprouts. Green beans, sugar snaps, broccoli, mushrooms or celery can all be added too. The cabbage should still retain some bite when cooked. If you can’t find Chinese cabbage, then use regular white cabbage or bok choy and shred it finely, or add extra Brussels sprouts – they taste so great with the garlic and soy sauce. Oyster sauce is sometimes added to this dish too.
The beauty of this recipe is that it’s all made in one pan. If you don’t have a large wok or frying pan, then fry the vegetables in batches and keep them warm, then fold them together at the end. It’s a complete meal of protein, vegetables and noodles. It’s quick and easy to make as well as being nutritious.
I sometimes add firm tofu that I’ve marinated in soy sauce. Either way it’s the ideal dish for using any leftover scraps of vegetables that may be in your fridge over the holiday season and is perfect for leftover roast turkey. If you’re adding cubed ham, then use less soy sauce as it may become too salty.
I always serve my pancit with a bowl of kimchi, wedges of lemons and sriracha sauce. It’s incredibly tasty and the perfect fast food for this time of year.
