Salted egg noodles are incredibly rich and savory using salted duck eggs! The combination of the cured yolks help create the most creamiest, perfect sauce for the noodles.

What are salted eggs?

Salted eggs are basically preserved duck eggs that were brined in a salty solution, or more traditionally, coated with a thick layer of salted charcoal or clay paste.

After letting the eggs cure for anywhere between 3-4 weeks, the resulting egg becomes compact and firm, and its flavor transform tremendously!

In the Philippines, we’d call this itlog na maalat, which literally translates into “salty egg”. They’re typically sold with their shells dyed a vibrant purple color in order to differentiate the standard eggs from the salted ones.

Due to their salty, umami, and rich taste, you can find salted eggs as a common ingredient in many Asian cuisines. Chinese cuisine, for example, commonly uses it with congee and mooncakes. Filipinos also implemented it in dishes such as tomato ensalada and bibingka to utilize its savoriness.

Craving for more delicious noodle dishes? Check out these trending recipes:

Ingredients for salted egg noodles

Salted duck eggs: Salted duck eggs can be found refrigerated in either boxes or packaged in plastic. Be sure to buy the ones that are already cooked (it should state this on the package). Since we’re only using the yolk, you could also just buy the cured yolks themselves rather than purchasing the whole egg (only some stores will carry this) as another option.
Noodles: For this recipe, I used Dao Xiao Mian, or most commonly marketed in the west as “knife cut noodles”. They’re my absolute favorite kind of noodles since I have a thing for the wide/thick style cuts, and the fact that they’re slightly wavy means that the sauce can cling onto them better (yum). You can try to find these in the noodles section of most Asian groceries, but if you don’t have any luck, feel free to go for other varieties.
Pork belly: You can really go for any kind of protein for this dish (I’d imagine chicken or shrimp would work amazing in here as well). For clarification, I just used standard pork belly (no seasonings), but you could also substitute this with bacon.
Garlic, evaporated milk, lime juice, salt, pepper: This will be the other components of our sauce. The garlic gives a toasty, aromatic flavor. Evaporated milk is just regular milk, but more dense and thick, which will make our sauce that much richer. Lime juice helps to cut through some of that richness. Salt and pepper is purely up to taste, but I highly recommend adding them as it helps to bring out the flavor of the cured egg yolks.

Instructions

Prepare the salted eggs:

Cut the eggs in half. Scoop out the yolks into a bowl and mash them together until smooth. Set aside.

Prepare the salted egg noodles:

Cook the noodles according to packaged instructions until al-dente (slightly firm). Reserve some noodle water, and drain the excess boiling liquid. Set aside.

Chop the pork belly into bite-sized pieces. Add to a dry pan (no oil), and slowly cook over medium-high heat to render its fat until browned and slightly crisp. Scoop out the pork and set aside.

Saute the garlic in the rendered fat for 1-2 minutes until golden.

Pour in the cooking wine to deglaze and scrape the bottom of the pan to dislodge the fond (caramelized bits). Let it boil and thicken for ~1 minute.

Add the mashed yolks to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the yolks turn frothy.

Pour in the evaporated milk, noodle water, and lime juice. Toss in the noodles and mix to combine until the sauce is just thickened.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Top with the crispy pork belly and green onions. Enjoy!

What to do with the left over egg whites?

While most of the richness comes from the yolks, the whites also pack some serious umami flavor. Here a couple uses for those leftover egg whites:

Salted egg and tomato salad
Topping for congee or porridge
Use in stir fries or fried rice