Pancit Bihon is a popular Filipino noodle dish. Made of rice noodles, shrimp (or chicken), and vegetables, it is delicious! Quick and easy 20 minute meal.
What Is Pancit Bihon?
Pancit is the Filipino word for noodle and noodle dishes.
Pancit Bihon is a specific type of Filipino noodle dish. It is made of rice noodles quickly stir fried with protein (shrimp and/or chicken) and vegetables (onions, garlic, cabbage, and carrots).
Fun fact: The Chinese introduced noodles to the Philippines. The Filipino word pancit came from the Hokkien word pian e sit, which means conveniently cooked.
Makes sense, because this is an easy to prepare and convenient dish. Most importantly, it is onolicious ^_^
Types of Pancit
There are many variations on pancit (and each family makes their own version), but there are two types of pancit that are extra popular.
The main difference between these two types of pancit dishes is the type of noodle that's used.
Pancit Bihon
Pancit Bihon is the dish we're preparing today! This dish is made using bihon noodles. Bihon noodles are also called rice sticks, rice noodles, and rice vermicelli. It is the noodle you see pictured above.
Pancit Canton
Pancit Canton is made from wheat noodles, also called flour stick noodles. These type of noodles are similar to the noodles used for chow mein and lo mein. We will make pancit canton in another post ^_^
Pancit Ingredients
Ingredients
The noodles!:
The meat and vegetables:
- Shrimp - peeled and deveined. We usually do only shrimp, but feel free to use shrimp and chicken (chicken thighs, cut into small pieces)
- Onions - cut in half and thinly sliced
- Garlic - minced
- Cabbage - thinly sliced. Traditional recipes call for green cabbage, but I personally prefer using napa cabbage (tender, softer, sweeter). Both types of cabbage will work, just make sure to slice thin or shred the cabbage.
- Carrots - thinly sliced
Seasoning
The seasoning is quite simple and uses all pantry ingredients:
- Chicken broth - make your own broth, used canned broth, or Better Than Bouillon (which we use a lot for cooking)
- Oyster sauce - Lee Kum Kee Premium is ideal
- Soy sauce - Kikkoman or Aloha Shoyu
- Fish sauce - Three Crabs or Red Boat, up to you! We love both brands.
- Black Pepper - a must. I love this dish with lots of black pepper.
Vegetarian Pancit
Looking for a vegetarian dish? Leave out the shrimp and/or chicken, and this dish will still be super delicious! When leaving out the meat, I usually double up on the vegetables or add additional types of vegetables like:
- Celery
- Green beans
- Snow peas
- Shiitake mushrooms
Noodles Dishes In Hawaii
We love to eat noodles in Hawaii! It seems every Asian culture has at least one or a dozen!) go-to noodle dish. And because Hawaii is a melting pot of many, many Asian cultures, we are blessed with just as many noodle dishes ^_^
If you like pancit, make sure to try these other popular Hawaii noodle dishes:
Chicken Long Rice
Oh how we love chicken long rice! Chicken long rice is Hawaii's version of chicken noodle soup...simple and comforting. We eat this in restaurants, make it at home, and even schools serve this for lunch.
Somen Salad
Super refreshing summer dish, served chilled with a rainbow of toppings. Somen salad is so popular in Hawaii, we can buy it at 7-Eleven Hawaii.
Saimin
Saimin is Hawaii's iconic noodle soup dish. Made of wheat noodles and served in a dashi-based broth, this is the noodle dish we all grew up eating. Saimin is everywhere from McDonald's to Zippy's. We also have restaurants that specialize in saimin like Shige's Saimin Stand, Shiro's Saimin Haven, and Hamura Saimin.
Fried Saimin
Saimin but without the soup! Fried Saimin is served with all the classic toppings like Spam, kamaboko (fish cake), carrots, eggs, and green onions.
Dry Mein
Saimin noodles tossed in a savory sauce. Kind of like Hawaii version of Chinese lo mein. Served with a cup of hot broth on the side. Sam Sato's (on Maui) is credited with inventing dry mein.
Japchae (Korean Glass Noodles)
A super popular Korean noodle dish that is a mainstay in any proper Korean Plate Lunch! Japchae is similar to Pancit Bihon in that you cook the meat and vegetables separately and then combine everything together in the end.
Common Questions
They'll keep for 3-4 days in the fridge.
Easy! Just microwave for a minute and you are good to go.
No. Some pancit recipes call for soaking the noodles in water before cooking (to help soften the noodles). Do not do this because the noodles soak up the water, instead of soaking up all that flavorful chicken broth that we later cook the noodles in.
For a tastier dish, just cook the noodles directly in the chicken broth without presoaking in water.
Pancit Bihon Recipe
See below and enjoy ^_^
Pancit Bihon
Pancit Bihon is a popular Filipino noodle dish. Made of rice noodles, shrimp, and vegetables, it is hearty and delicious! A quick and easy 20 minute meal.
Ingredients
- 1 pound shrimp
- 1 onion, sliced
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 2 cups cabbage, thinly sliced (green cabbage or napa cabbage)
- 1 large carrot, julienned
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 8 ounces pancit bihon noodles
- 3 stalks green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- Fresh calamansi or lime (optional)
Instructions
- Over medium-high heat in a large saucepan, saute the shrimp just until cooked (about 2 minutes). Season with a pinch of salt. Pour the shrimp into a bowl and set aside.
- In the same pan, add in the garlic and onion. Saute for 2 minutes. Add the carrots and the cabbage. Saute for another 2 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt. Pour the vegetables into a bowl and set aside.
- In the same pan, add the chicken broth, soy sauce, fish sauce, and oyster sauce. Bring to a boil. Add the pancit noodles to the pan, and let the noodles soften and soak up the broth.
- When there’s just a little broth left (about a half cup), add the vegetables and shrimp back. Add the black pepper. Mix everything together.
- Turn off the heat. Add the green onions. Mix again and serve! Add a squeeze of calamansi or lime right before eating to make it even more onolicious ^_^
Oil for the shrimp and vegetables?
olive oil or vegetable oil will do
Made pancit with your recipe. Followed it exact with the added chicken. Came out perfect! Thank you.
Aloha Bennie - So happy you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
- Kathy
I went over the recipe three plus times but nowhere did I see how much shrimp is used. Not a really big problem because I don't think u can use too much shrimp but I like to follow a recipe exactly the first time I make a new dish. Thanks
Aloha Mike - Thanks for letting me know! I just added the shrimp amount ^_^
- Kathy