Pancit bihon guisado — thin rice vermicelli stir-fried with pork and vegetables

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Pancit Bihon Guisado — Filipino Rice Noodles

Name: Pancit Bihon Guisado — Filipino Rice Noodles
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Filipino
Ingredients: 450 g (1 lb) Pancit bihon (thin rice noodles); 225 g (0.5 lb) Pork, thinly sliced; 225 g (0.5 lb) Chicken, cooked, deboned and thinly sliced; 150 g Carrot; 55 g (1/8 lb) Snow peas; 0.5 small head Cabbage, chopped; 150 g Celery leaves, finely chopped; 1 Onion, chopped; 0.5 tbsp Garlic, minced; 2 tsp Chicken powder; 5 tbsp Soy sauce; 720–960 ml (3–4 cups) Water; 3 tbsp Cooking oil; Calamansi or lime, halved

The noodle dish that appears at every Filipino birthday, because long noodles mean a long life. Thin rice vermicelli is cooked directly in the savoury broth left from the pork, chicken and vegetables, so it absorbs everything instead of being sauced.

Source

Recipe by Vanjo Merano · 📱 Influencer · Vanjo Merano — Filipino food writer behind Panlasang Pinoy, the largest Filipino recipe site

Names of cooks and creators appear as source credit only. More Recipes Please is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by them.

Panlasang Pinoy (Vanjo Merano) — Vanjo Merano's published pancit bihon guisado. Noodles came to the Philippines with Chinese immigrants and the word 'pancit' itself is Philippine Hokkien; 'guisado' is Spanish for sautéed. Bihon means the thin rice vermicelli used here, as opposed to the thick wheat canton.

Cook: Vanjo Merano

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Vanjo Merano Pinoy Taste Recipes Kuya Fern's Cooking

⏱ 55 min🍽 8 servings🔥 240 kcal🇵🇭 Philippines

Dairy-free

Steps

Soak the bihon noodles in cool water while you prepare everything else — about 10 minutes, until they bend without snapping. Drain well.
Heat the oil in a wok or wide pan over medium heat and cook the garlic and onion until soft and fragrant.
Add the pork and chicken and cook for 2 minutes, until the pork loses its raw colour.
Sprinkle in the chicken powder, pour in the water, and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the carrots, snow peas, cabbage and celery leaves and simmer just until they are tender.
Lift out ALL the vegetables and meat with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Leave the liquid in the pan.
💡 This looks like a fussy extra step and it is the one that separates good pancit from bad. The noodles need 5–10 more minutes in the pan; anything still in there will be grey and limp by then.
Stir the soy sauce into the liquid, then add the drained noodles. Cook, lifting and turning them with tongs, until every drop of liquid has been absorbed.
💡 Lift and fold rather than stir in circles — bihon is fragile and stirring shreds it into short broken bits. If the noodles are still hard when the pan goes dry, add hot water 60 ml at a time.
Return the meat and vegetables, toss for 1 to 2 minutes to reheat, and serve hot with calamansi or lime on the side.

💡 Tips

Squeezing citrus over pancit at the table is not optional garnish — the dish is soy-heavy and slightly oily, and the acid is what makes a second helping possible.
This scales in both directions and is forgiving about contents — shrimp, Chinese sausage, whatever vegetables you have. The technique matters far more than the exact list.
Pancit canton uses thick wheat egg noodles in the same method. Making both and serving them side by side on one platter is a standard party move in the Philippines.