Pancit Bihon is a Filipino noodle stir-fry dish with Chinese origins. While the ‘Bihon’ version uses glass noodles, the ‘Canton’ version calls for lo mein type egg noodles.
For those who know me, I’m am loud and proud about my love of Filipino food!!! I even dedicated a whole post to why eating is more fun in the Philippines. Pancit is a symbol for longevity (aka a long, happy life) and is eaten at every special occasion, especially at birthday parties! There are two types: pancit canton and pancit bihon. The two are distinguishable based on the noodles used to make them. Filipino food has yet to be consumed by the mainstream, which is primarily because its a bit inaccessible unless you know/are friends with a Filipino person. All you need to have when cooking Filipino food is tested recipe and we are going into my family’s treasury as the recipe included at the bottom is a recipe from my very own Lola (meaning grandma in Tagalog) recipe.

Now watch me whip (Kill it!) / Now watch me nae nae (Okay!)
ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS
- Cellophane noodles ARE NOT rice noodles. They’re made from a starch such as mung bean, yam, potato, or cassava. We like to use the mung bean one.
- If you’re big on veggies, the recipe printable gives you additional veggies to beef up the mix. If you want to make a purely vegetarian dish, just take out the chicken and substitute the chicken stock with vegetable broth. And this is vegan friendly too minus the eggs! I really love the shitake mushrooms in there.
- If you feel like you have the time, boil your own chicken (like Tom and Mira did) but I’m lazy and go straight for rotisserie. Get a can of chicken broth if you go the rotisserie route.
- The soy sauce used in the video is a Filipino variety called ‘Toyomansi’ (toyo = soy sauce + mansi = calamansi.) Calamansi is akin to a Filipino key lime and it packs a powerful punch. You can find it at any Asian store. But from what I learned from my Lola, she always goes with Chinese soy sauce.
- And to add some brightness, squeeze some fresh calamansi over the pansit, do it! Otherwise a lime will work just fine 😉
PANCIT BIHON COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
ONTO THE PREP WORK! FIRST, GET THEM VEGGIES CHOPPED!
CONTINUING THE PREP, DON’T FORGET TO SHRED YOUR CHICKEN!
NOW ONTO THE COOKING!
PRO-TIP: Be careful with adding too much broth. Remember, you can add but you can’t subtract broth.

That glorious bowl of noodle goodness!!

Get to business with this new dish. It doubles as a beautiful centerpiece!
There you have it! This is pancit at is finest as made by the Pulido girls by way of the Tangonan knowledge collective. This dish is my family’s specialty, both my Lola’s and now my mom’s. My dad even made a killer pancit recipe and he made the BEST pancit palabok (another noodle dish with a seafood-infused sauce topped with cooked shrimp, crushed chicharon, fried garlic, and scallions. SO GOOD!) I honestly cannot think of a better meal that reminds me more of home and now my siblings and I are set to continue those traditions and master the recipe just like our parents and grandparents before us.
Feel free to print this out. This recipe has been passed down my mom’s family from generation to generation.
WATCH THE TUTORIAL VIDEO TO GET ALL THE STEPS RIGHT
Looking for more recipes?
Spanish Lemongrass and Chili Croquetas
Italian “Pasta Alla Carbonara”
👉 In the kitchen… comment below to share more recipes for me to discover!
Give me a shout-out on Pinterest pretty please?
Wendy
This is the most sophisticated pancit, ever! Hahaha! Beautiful graphics and beautifully prepared! Of course, I love pancit! Aside from spaghetti, Pancit is a must for us Filipinos for long life.
Izzy Pulido
This is definitely a labor of love from how many times I’ve seen it prepared in my lifetime. Thank you for the graphics and thank you on behalf of my sister for the preparation. Oh you mean Filipino spaghetti I’m sure 😛 We have so many ways to celebrate from our singing to our eating! PS happy birthday Wendy! The celebrations looked so wonderful!
The Toronto Seoulcialite
Ooooh DEFINITELY pinned this one! I think I can actually find all these ingredients in Seoul (Seoulfood, anyone?). I’ll need to put my chef’s hat on when “le man” arrives, and this seems like an impressive, but not too tough solution! Thanks 🙂
Izzy Pulido
Awww thanks Kate! I think you should be able to find all the ingredients, theres tons of international food shops all around Seoul. Did you end up making it for “le man?”
Nina
I can only drool on these photos:) I am not allowed to eat any food that contains starch.
Izzy Pulido
Oh no ?? So that’s like gluten-free to the next level? I’m highly gluten sensitive and these noodles made out of rice and other alternative carbs are my saving grace!
Gina
I’m the worst at cooking Asian dishes so I really like how you broke this down. The photos are so helpful and so is the video! Your video editing is great! Really! What editing software do you use? I’m going to try making this and definitely refer to your awesome post!
Izzy Pulido
I’m so happy to hear the breakdown works for you. And I think your video editing is fantastic too! I just use Apple Imovie and Wondershare by Filmora. Wondershare is kinda expensive and you have to buy extension packs for it but I love it!
JM
A very detailed and interesting way on how to prepare a very traditional Filipino food. Great job on that. I am sharing this post to encourage other people to try the Filipino pancit.
Izzy Pulido
Thanks for sharing JM! Really appreciate the spread of knowledge, esp. because Filipino Food is still very misunderstood,
Vyjay
The dish looks visually very apeealing and am sure has a taste to match. I loved all the graphics and the video. Nice presentation too.
Izzy Pulido
Thanks Vyjay! Always good to get a stamp of approval 😉
Natasha
This looks really good and kind of similar to chapchae — a Korean noodle dish. I love learning about local foods when I travel. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Izzy Pulido
It is really similar to Japchae although Japchae noodles are made from potato starch but I was addicted to Japchae while in Korea sooley for this fact alone!
Hung Thai
What an excellent guide and tutorial for this great look dish. I love fresh food and this definitely looks that way. I think I might have all the ingredients to try it this weekend as well!
Izzy Pulido
Fresh food is the BEST food! Let me know how it turns out!
shayan Naveed
A very well made guide. It’s so easy on the eyes as opposed to many recipes. I love it. Looks like you put a lot of effort into this!
Also I’d love to try this dish. Most Filipino food I’ve seen at my university (it’s international and we have cultural fairs all the time), it’s mostly pork. Not a big fan of pork so nice to see something chicken.
Izzy Pulido
Wow thanks Shayan! You are one of the most validating people in the blogging community! I appreciate the compliments. And yes, Filipinos LOVE pork but I tend to like the preparations of chicken much better. Chicken tocino is a Filipino breakfast dish I think you would love!
Adonis Villanueva
I cook this stuff all the time 🙂 I also ate a lot of it in Dumaguete and Cebu where I grew up. I thin its origin is from the Visayas but what do I know. I also like mixing the types of noodles for a slight variation. Dat’s some good eatin’ Izzy!
Izzy Pulido
Ahhh this is my family’s favorite thing to cook as well! I’m not sure about the origin but we love it. I have to tell my Lola to try mixing in different types of noodles although I’m not sure she’d be happy if we switched her longtime recipe 😛
Alla Ponomareva
Mmm, that looks delicious and I love all the graphics (as always). Great job friends and sister! I bet it was a wonderful feast and Happy Birthday!
Izzy Pulido
Awww thanks Alla for all the positivity 🙂 I always love reading your comments!
Don Macdonell
Looks very, very yummy. Filipino food is the bomb! I used to eat it quite a bit back in Toronto, though I don’t think I’ve tried this dish.
Izzy Pulido
Oh so cool! There are TONS of Filipinos in Toronto and I love when I hear people actually knowing about the cuisine. Makes me really happy 😀
Emre
That looks delicious! And so easy to make with these instructions. I think I need to try this.
Izzy Pulido
Do it Emreeee you will love it 🙂
Laura Nalin
I’m totally going to make a veg version of this and report back! It looks so delicious. I’ve always been curious about Filipino food so I’m glad to have this knowledge from a real source! Thanks for sharing this – love it!
Izzy Pulido
Please report back! I would love to see how it pans out. I forgot to mention substitute the chicken broth for vegetable stock. And legit, if we ever find ourselves back in the States, you are always invited to my family home to try all these good things out 😀 Really cool that you have such an openmindedness to Filipino cuisine!
Nathan
This looks delicious and not so difficult to prepare! I would love to try this. And Tom your taste tester is cute lol! I also really like your layout for this post. It’s really impressive.
Izzy Pulido
Thank you for the compliments and I’ll be sure to pass along the love to Tom too 😉
Mridula
Thank you so much for suggesting the noodles to me! I am going to try it out in Manila!
Maricris
I like pancit bihun with canton for life it’s my favorite dish!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂