A quick chicken drunken noodles made with rice sticks, chicken thigh, crisp green veggies for a flavourful perfect Thai street food craving. You can create this delicious Thai spicy noodles in 20 minutes with our simple recipe tips!
Creating restaurant-quality stir fry dishes can be quite a challenging for some people. But with this recipe you can make it happen at home without using any special wok skills or equipment. It is so much easier than you've imagined. I can guaranteed that!
If you love Thai street food you'll definitely love our viewers' favourite Pad Thai, Thai Green Curry Chicken, Thai Wings, Thai Vegetable Stir Fry and Thai Spring Rolls recipes.
This is one of the most refreshing noodles I’ve ever had in Thailand. The soft chicken pieces in basil and chilies along with the chewy noodles made me feel refreshed, energized and satisfied same time. Since then, I’ve been trying to make the exact same taste at home for years and finally it’s here! I’m sharing with you all so you can try it and face another day refreshed and energized!
What do we need?
Noodles - Widest available rice noodles with regular thickness is best for this recipe. Fresh rice noodles are better option than dry and they can be found at refrigerated corner of the supermarkets. If they are nowhere to be found, you can use dried rice stick and prepare by the packet instructions.
Pro Tip: If you are using dry rice noodles, soak the noodles in warm water for 15-20 minutes and drain the water out. Don’t boil them too soft as they need to be stir-fried with the sauce so it’s important to keep its hardness and chewiness. Overcooked noodles can be too soft and broken easily. It won’t look great or tasty after stir frying them.
If you are using fresh noodles, you just need to rinse them with water to separate if they are too sticky. If the noodle strings are sticking to each other a lot, you definitely need to separate them with hands before adding to stir-fry.
Protein - It is most popular with chicken at Thai street food stalls. Ground pork, beef, prawns and seafood are also available as other options. Chicken or ground pork is mostly used but you can swap with your favourite meat or seafood at home. Because why not!
Vegetables -Don’t skip Basil! Because this dish is basically spicy noodles with basil fragrant. Thai basil or Thai holy basil leaves are ideal to use but what’s important is to add any basil you can find. You will also need fresh chilies and spring onions to enhance the flavour.
Drunken Noodles Sauce- Fish sauce, oyster sauce, light and dark soy sauce will be needed for the sauce. Details are written in the recipe card below.
Fun Facts of Drunken Noodles
This is an original Thai spicy rice noodles dish called Pad Kee Mao before being known as Drunken Noodles. It is similar to Pad Thai and Pad See Ew which are both rice noodles dishes and popular Thai street foods.
You can find all of these noodles in Thai restaurants outside of Thailand as well. Pad Thai got the sweetest taste among all three dishes and Pad Kee Mao tastes the spiciest. Pad See Ew is in middle of these two. In Pad Kee Mao, the rice noodles used are wider than the other two so you need to find the widest noodles at your local Asian groceries.
What makes Drunken Noodles special is it got Thai basil in the ingredients while the rest don’t. It is really important to add Thai basil or holy basil (or Regular/Italian basil if you can’t find) to the dish to make it taste just like the original Thai street food dish.
Here is more of our family's favourite Asian Rice Noodles Recipes you might like:
- Chicken and Rice Noodle Stir Fry
- Tom Yum Soup & Noodles
- Beef Chow Fun
- Beef Noodle Soup
- Pad See Eww
- Glass Noodles Stir Fry
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Drunken Noodles ( Pad Kee Mao )
Ingredients
- 250 g Chicken thigh Boneless skinless chicken thigh/breast ( about ½ lb )
- 100 g Dried rice noodles Dry rice stick 100mm (Or fresh rice noodles 250-300 g)
- 3 stalk Chinese Broccoli ( Kai Lan/ Gai Lan ) or Pak Choy/ Bok Choy/ Tenderstem Broccoli
- 2 cloves Garlic Finely chopped
- 1 Shallot Finely chopped
- 3-4 Bird Eye Chilli Or any hot chilli ( adjust amount according to taste )
- 1 Red Chilli Pepper Or red bell pepper
- handful Basil leaves Thai/ Italian/ Regular Sweet Basil
- 2-3 tbsp Vegetable oil Or neutral flavour oil
Sauce
- 2 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 3 tbsp Oyster sauce
- 2 tsp Dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Fish sauce
- 1 tbsp Sugar
Garnish
- Lime Wedges
- Red Chilli Slices
Instructions
- First soak the dry rice noodles in warm water for 15-20 minutes then drain the water out and set it aside. Cut the chicken thigh into medium bite-size pieces. Cut stem part of Chinese broccoli into 1" pieces and leaves into 2" pieces. Separate the stem and leaves. Finely chop the shallot, garlic and onion.
- Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Mix well until sugar dissolve and set it aside. To season the chicken pieces, add 1 tablespoon of sauce mixture, mix well and set aside.
- Heat the large wok/pan into medium-high heat, drizzle 2-3 tablespoon of oil. Add chopped shallot and stir fry until translucent, then follow with the garlic, stir for few seconds. Next add the chopped chillies and continue stir fry for about 1 minute, until nice fragrant comes out.
- Then add the chicken and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until no longer pink, then add the stem part of Chinese broccoli stir for 1 minute and follow with leaves.
- Stir for few seconds, place the noodles in the middle of the wok. Pour the sauce over the noodles. Stir fry with high heat for about 2 minutes until the noodles are cooked through, then add the chilli slices and continue stir fry for another 1-2 minutes.
- Last, turn off the heat and add a handful of basil leaves. Combine well with everything.
- Transfer to serving plate and serve immediately. Garnish with lime wedges and chilli slices.
Notes
- Dark Soy Sauce - Suggest to add dark soy sauce in this recipe to bring more colour to the noodles.
- Fish Sauce - Fish sauce is made from fermented anchovies, small fishes or squid. It has a unique funky smell but the taste is umami, rich, salty and savoury. Must add ingredient to make Pad Kee Mao sauce. You can easily find it in Asian/ Oriental grocery stores or supermarket Asian counter.
- Fish Sauce Substitute - You can simply substitute with light soy sauce, or tamari.
Mark T says
My son loved this Thai noodles. We made with pak choy. The best Pad Kee Mao we’ve ever had. Better than our local Thai takeaway. Thank you so much for sharing this easy recipe.
Khin says
I am so happy that your son enjoyed this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing feedback with us.
Jen says
I love this recipe! Thank you!
Khin says
My pleasure! Glad you liked Jen!