Pancit Chami

Pancit Chami is made with pork belly, chicken liver, miki noodles, carrot, green beans, pechay baguio, bell pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce, garlic, onion, pepper, pork broth cube, sugar an slurry. Quall eggs are added to make it more appetizing and scrumptious. Pancit Chami is a popular Filipino noodle dish, originated from Quezon province. The ultimate characteristic of the pancit chami is that it is incredibly saucy and meaty, unlike other noodles dishes which are dry. This pancit chami dish uses chicken liver and pork belly slices to make the pancit complete. Best eaten during afternoon meryenda!

PANCIT CHAMI RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 250 grams pork belly (sliced)
• 200 grams chicken liver (chopped)
• 500 grams miki noodles
• 1 small carrot (sliced into strips)
• 1/2 cup green beans (chopped)
• 1/4 kilo pechay baguio (chopped)
• 1 small red and green bell pepper (chopped)
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 4 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1 medium size onion (chopped)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 piece pork broth cube
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Slurry (1 tablespoon cornstarch + 4 tablespoons water)
• Quail eggs

Directions:

1. Slice the pork belly into smaller pieces. Put them in a heated pan (no oil) and then add a little water. Cover the pan and let it simmer for a few minutes. Wait until the water dries up and the pork renders natural oils.
2. Saute the minced garlic in the oil for a few minutes until light brown. Then, add the onions, and chicken liver. Saute until the liver changes color. Season with some black pepper and soy sauce to taste. Stir a bit.
3. Add the carrot strips, green beans, cabbage stalks, and the red and green bell peppers. Stir fry them for a few minutes.
4. Remove the contents of the pan and transfer to a container (leave the sauce). Set aside.
5. Add some water, the pork broth cube and sugar. Stir well to dissolve. Wait for the liquid to boil.
6. Once boiling, add the miki noodles. Season with oyster sauce and stir. Add the mixed veggies and meat back to the pan and toss well to combine. Add the slurry to thicken the sauce a little. Stir a bit.
7. Lastly, add the chopped pechay and stir to soften. Add some boiled quail eggs if you like. Turn the heat off.
8. Transfer the pancit chami to a serving plate lined with clean banana leaves. Enjoy this with some calamansi extract on the side. Yum!

PANCIT CHAMI

Aside from rice, we Filipinos love noodles so much. So far, I think we already have hundreds of recipes using noodles! While some of the most popular includes pancit guisado, pancit bihon, canton, and sotanghon, let us now forget Lucena’s pride, the pancit chami.

When I first heard of this dish, I wondered why is it called chami. My first theory is that it is a combination of canton and lomi. But looking through its history, the pancit chami is actually our adaptation to the Chinese noodles chami, which came from the words “Chao” which means to stir fry, and “Mi” which means noodles. Pancit chami is stir fried noodles! It is from the city of Lucena in Quezon where our version of chami was born.

Fun fact: Did you know that the Chami Festival is celebrated every May? It is an additional event to the Pasayahan festival!

Compared to other Pinoy noodles, our version of the pancit chami stood out because of its saucy nature. I personally like pancit chami due to this reason. This is why during many occassions, pancit chami is a common type of noodles served. When it comes to sauciness, it can be a worthy opponent to out favorite spaghetti!

If you wanna know how to make pancit chami at home, read and follow the quick steps below. Happy cooking!

HOW TO MAKE PANCIT CHAMI

Making pancit chami is almost similar with preparing other noodle dishes. If you have tried working with noodles or pancit in the past, then the following steps would be super easy for you.

Let’s start with the veggie and meat mixture. Preparing the meat will give an infused oil that’s why we prepare it first. You can use any pork cut that you like but the pork belly gives a certain special taste which comes from the alternating fat and lean meat. As you sear them, they will release natural flavorful rendered oil which will be used in stir frying other ingredients. I added chicken liver to this chami recipe because this is a special one. But if you do not like chicken liver, you can just add them optionally.

Just like other noodles recipes, we use a mixture of veggies which usually includes carrots, green beans and bell peppers. You can add other veggies if you like. Stir fry them using the oil from the pork belly.

As you cook the mixture, liquid will come out from the veggies and will leave a little sauce. Transfer the meat and veggie mixture and set it aside, as we prepare the broth. The base of the broth will be the liquid from the meat and veggie mixture, which will be heightened by the pork broth cube. Just be gently on pouring water for the broth as too much water can dilute it too much. Take note that the chami is super saucy so make sure that there will be enough broth to cook the noodles and serve as a thick sauce.

Cook the miki noodles in the broth. After a few minutes, they will start to soften. As they start to get chewy, you may add the meat and veggie mixture again in the pan to cook them together. To make the sauce thick, add some slurry. Add the pechay last since the leaves are very quick to cook. You may add boiled quail eggs as toppings if you like.

We usually eat our pancit chami in a plate lined with banana leaves. (We believe this adds extra aroma and experience to the dish!) Squeeze a little calamansi and enjoy!

COOKING TIPS:

• Instead of boiled quail eggs, you can also use boiled chicken egg and slice them to decorate the top.
• Another famous version of this chami is the sweet and spicy one. To do this, just add some extra sugar and a lot of chilies!

Paano Magluto ng Pancit Chami

Mga Sangkap:

• 250 grams liempo (hiniwa)
• 200 grams atay ng manok (hiniwa)
• 500 grams miki noodles
• 1 maliit  na carrot (hiniwa ng strips)
• 1/2 tasang green beans (hiniwa)
• 1/4 kilo pechay baguio (hiniwa)
• 1 maliit na red at green bell pepper (hiniwa)
• 3 kutsarang oyster sauce
• 1/4 tasang toyo
• 4 butil ng bawang (hiniwa ng maliliit)
• 1 sibuyas (hiniwa)
• 1 kutsaritang paminta
• 1 pork broth cube
• 2 1/2 tasang tubig
• 2 kutsarang asukal
• Slurry (1 kutsarang cornstarch + 4 kutsarang tubig)
• itlog ng pugo (nilaga)

Paano Lutuin:

1. Hiwain ang liempo ng mas maliliit na piraso. Ilagay ang mga ito sa kawali (walang mantika) at lagyan ng konting tubig. Takpan ang kawali at lutuin ito ng ilang minuto. Hintaying magmantika ang mga taba nito.
2. Igisa ang bawang hanggang maging light brown. Sunod na ilagay ang sibuyas at atay ng manok hanggang mag iba ito ng kulay. Timplahan ng paminta at toyo.
3. Ilagay ang mga carrots, green beans, tangkay ng repolyo at ang mga bell peppers. Istir fry ito ng ilang minuto.
4. Alisin ang mga laman ng kawali at ilipat sa lalagyan. Iwan ang sauce. Isantabi.
5. Dagdagan ang tubig ng sauce at ilagay ang pork broth cube at asukal. Haluin ng mabuti at hintaying kumulo.
6. Kapag kumukulo na, ilagay ang miki noodles. Timplahan ito ng oyster sauce at haluin. Ibalik ang mga gulay sa kawali. Ilagay na rin ang slurry at haluin para lumapot ang sauce.
7. Huling ilagay ang pechay at lutuin hanggang lumambot. Pwede mong lagyan ng mga itlog ng pugo ang chami at haluin bago patayin ang apoy.
8.   Ilipat ang pancit chami sa serving plate na may dahon ng saging. Enjoyin ito kasama ng kalamansi. Yum!