This is a pretty salty sauce, due to the ground bean paste, so if you taste it on its own, it will be a salt bomb. Feel free to adjust to taste, but know that it’s extra salty because it’s not meant to be eaten on its own – you definitely need to mix it into noodles, preferably ones that haven’t been cooked in salted water. Also, like most Asian noodle recipes, the sauce is secondary to the noodles – I like a 4:1 noodle to sauce ratio, so sauce sparingly. Also, feel free to adjust the bean sauces and soy sauce to taste, this is homestyle cooking after all!

In a pot, heat up the oil over medium high heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, but not browned, about 1 minute. Add in the meat and cook, breaking into pieces, until cooked through. Add in both bean sauces, the soy sauce and water. Simmer until slightly thick, about 10 minutes. Season with pepper.

While the meat sauce is simmering, cook and drain your noodles of choice according to the package. Top with a generous helping of meat sauce. Toss throughly before enjoying!

Notes: I love this meat sauce with all sorts of noodles. Traditionally zha jian mein is served with thick wheat noodles (look in the fridge section of your local Asian grocery store), but the sauce tastes fantastic with spaghetti and I’ve been known to mix it up with rice noodles as well. Go wild, it’s a tasty savory meat sauce that pairs well with virtually any noodle.

On bean pastes: you can find these at the Asian grocery store, usually in the same aisle as all of the other sauces. If you can’t find the sweet bean sauce, hoisin sauce will work in a pinch, but I feel like the sweet bean sauce really adds that extra oomph. If you need pictures, here are some google images for ground bean sauce and sweet bean sauce.