Pancit - Easiest Filipino Stir Fried Noodles

Recipe: Pancit Recipe »

Make this easy Filipino pancit noodle recipe with vermicelli noodles, pork and vegetables! A quick, delicious noodle dish made with easy to find ingredients perfect for weeknight dinners, meal prep or lunchboxes.

About This Pancit Recipe

Pancit (or pansit) is a delicious and simple Filipino stir fried noodle dish that is easy to make and a complete meal in itself. Pork is pan fried with sliced vegetables and noodles and then a stock is added that cooks the noodles.

Pancit was originally introduced to the Phillippines by Chinese migrants and has become such a staple dish. There are many types of pancit and this one is Pancit Bihon Guisado or salted pancit.

Why You'll Love Pancit:

Once you have all the ingredients prepped, it takes around 10 minutes to cook!

These noodles are not too oily at all and the stock is what the noodles soaks up for flavour, not the oil!

Pancit is VERSATILE with a capital V - in this recipe we use carrot, cabbage and capsicum pepper but you can also slice up shiitake mushrooms or use green beans, broccoli or cauliflower too.

You can also replace the pork belly with sliced chicken breast or thigh fillet, sausage, squid, crab or fish balls. These vermicelli noodles use mince.

Choose your noodle! Pancit can be made with bean, rice or wheat vermicelli or egg noodles. This is pancit bihon made with rice vermicelli but really this works on all types of noodles.

I love making pancit and I made pancit into a birthday cake for my fried Monica with spring rolls which was so fun! My signature noodle dish using vermicelli is this XO Vermicelli Hot Pot but this more Chinese in flavour.

Video How To Make Pancit

Video: How to Make Pancit

Ingredients For Pancit

Noodles - You can make pancit with vermicelli (rie, mung bean, wheat, sweet potato) or egg noodles. Pancit is best made with thin noodles.

Meat - Del uses pork belly but you can also use chicken or seafood like prawns.

Onion - 1 large red onion

Garlic - Large fresh cloves of garlic

Carrot - 1 large carrot or 2 medium

Capsicum - Use half a large red capsicum. Red is sweeter than green capsicum.

Cabbage - Just regular white cabbage

Broth - Del uses shrimp or prawn broth. I use chicken broth

Soy sauce - light soy sauce

Oyster sauce - Found in the Asian aisle. Store in your fridge once opened.

White pepper - ground white pepper. Popular in Asian cooking.

Tips For Making Pancit

1 - The first thing to do is soak the vermicelli noodles in water for around 20-30 minutes. They'll soften slightly but won't become completely soft. Use cold water from the tap, not hot water. If you are using egg noodles or canton noodles there is no need to soak noodles.

2 - Use that soaking time to do the mise en place ie chop and prep the rest of the ingredients. With Asian cooking, having an mise en place makes things really easy.

3 - It might seem counter intuitive to add oil when cooking the pork belly but you don't want the pork belly to stick to the bottom of the pan. If you get bits stuck then they turn black when cooking the noodles.

4 - Vegetables cook at different times so we don't add them all at once. Carrot takes the longest to cook so add that first and cabbage takes the least time so add that last.

5 - Cut the vegetables so that they can cook quickly. Slice the capsicum into thin slices. The carrots should be julienned so that they cook quickly.

6 - When my mother cooked noodles for dinner after finishing work, she would chop up the ingredients in the morning or the night before and then keep them covered in the fridge ready to cook that night.

7 - Del also likes to make pancit with char siu.

8 - Pancit keeps really well and makes for a great lunchbox meal to take to work.

If you love Filipino recipes try Kare Kare beef stew (also from Del), chicken inasal or chicken adobo!

Pancit Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 15 minutes plus 30 minutes soaking

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients Needed

• 250g/8.8oz dried vermicelli
• 2 teaspoons oil
• 300g/10.6ozs pork belly diced or diced char siu
• 1 red onion
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 large carrot, peeled
• 1/2 red capsicum
• 150g/5oz white cabbage
• 2 cups/500ml/17fl oz shrimp or prawn broth (or chicken broth)
• 50ml/1.7 fl oz soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons white pepper

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 PREP - Cover the noodles completely in cold water and allow to soak for 25-30 minutes. Prep the vegetables - peel and slice onion, finely chop garlic, julienne the carrot, thinly slice the capsicum and thinly slice the cabbage.

Step 2 PORK BELLY - Add oil into a deep pan or pot and cook the pork belly on medium heat until cooked through. Remove the pork belly from the pan and set aside. Remove any excess fat from the pan reserving a teaspoon or two of fat. If there is any fond (browned and cooked bits on the pan base) then clean the pan.

Step 3 SAUTE - Cook the onion for 3 minutes until translucent and fragrant and then add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Increase to medium high heat and add the julienned carrot and saute until starting to soften, then add capsicum stirring frequently. Lastly add the cabbage and stir constantly to cook all of the vegetables until tender. Remove cooked vegetables from the pan and set aside.

Step 4 NOODLES - Add the broth to the pan (no need to clean it) and heat to a simmer. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce and white pepper and bring to a boil. Add the drained vermicelli noodles and stir to coat the noodles and cook until the broth has almost soaked up and the noodles are flavoursome and tender. Return the vegetables and pork back into the pan and toss gently to distribute and the stock to completely absorb.

Personal Note

I made this pancit on my recent trip to Singapore to see my mother and sister. This recipe is from their lovely helper Del who teaches me Filipino dishes every time I come to visit. My mother loves pancit as it is very similar to the Singaporean and Chinese beehoon noodles she makes.

On this trip, we decided to stay at a new hotel. My mother isn't super mobile any more so she can't travel but we thought the next best thing would be having a staycation at the new rainforest resort just near Singapore Zoo. There were five of us: my sister, mother, Del, Mr NQN and I.

My sister Blythe mentioned bringing the air fryer which I thought was a great idea. When we go away as a family we like eating in the room because my mother gets tired easily and doesn't want to go out for dinner and delivery is so easy in Singapore. So along came the air fryer in Blythe's suitcase. Everyone's family is a bit weird and our thing is food.

We ordered Chinese food to eat in one night and it was wonderful being able to eat in our room and then kick back and enjoy ourselves in the hotel. Then for breakfast we ordered some yum cha delivered and did the same in the morning. It was truly awesome as you can go to both meals in your pyjamas. The only problem was that we never got to use the air fryer which Blythe had to bring along!

So tell me Dear Reader, when you travel, do you eat meals in your room? And do you bring along cooking equipment?