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Drunken Noodles

Drunken Noodles or Pad Kee Mao are a typical Thai street food. The literal translation of Pad Kee Mao is “Drunken Noodles” because the theory is that these spicy noodles are perfectly accompanied with an ice cold beer and also that they are a great cure for hangover.

Not what you are looking for? Try these other excellent noodle recipes:

Ingredients

Scale
  • Noodles

  • 7 oz pad thai noodles, dried (see notes)
  • Stir Fry

  • 7oz chicken thigh fillet, cut into bite size pieces
  • 1 cup basil leaves (packed), preferably Thai holy basil but normal basil is fine too
  • 2 scallions, cut into 2” pieces
  • 3 large cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 birds eye chili, de-seeded (or to taste), very finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp oil (peanut, vegetable or canola)
  • Sauce

  • 3 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce (or all purpose soy sauce)
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp water

Instructions

  1. Pour boiling water over noodles in a large bowl (or pot) and set aside for 5 minutes (or as per packet instructions), and drain when ready.
  2. Put Sauce ingredients in a small bowl and mix to combine.
  3. Heat oil in wok or pan over high heat.
  4. Add garlic and chilli and cook for 10 seconds. Don’t inhale – the chilli will make you cough!
  5. Add chicken and fry until cooked, around 2 minutes.
  6. Add the scallions and about 1 tbsp of the sauce and stir fry for 30 seconds, just to coat the chicken.
  7. Add the noodles and sauce and cook for 1 minute until the water evaporates and the sauce has coated the noodles.
  8. If your noodles absorbs all the sauce liquid very quickly, this is probably because your noodles were a bit underdone. If this occurs, just add a splash of water (preferably hot) and this not only helps finish cooking the noodles but also revitalises the sauce.
  9. Remove from heat and immediately add basil leaves, stir until just wilted, then serve immediately.

Notes

  • Light soy sauce is lighter in color than normal dark soy sauce but it is actually saltier. If you don’t have/can’t find light soy sauce, you can substitute with regular soy sauce but the color of your noodles will be slightly darker and the flavor slightly less salty.

  • If you can’t find dried Pad Thai noodles, you can use any other wide flat rice noodles or even egg noodles, dried or fresh. However, I don’t recommend making this with vermicelli noodles (the very thin rice noodles) – it clumps together and you can’t stir fry it to disperse the sauce evenly throughout.

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