If you love Thai food, then you’re probably already familiar with drunken noodles, or pad kee mao. There are a few theories about the origin of the name. The most common explanation is a simple one: these noodles are perfect after a night of drinking with friends!
If you love eating this dish out at restaurants, try making a restaurant-worthy version yourself at home. It all happens very quickly at the stove, and we’ll guide you through it.
What Noodles to Use in Drunken Noodles: Fresh vs. dried rice noodles
If you have this dish in Thailand, you’ll likely be eating fresh rice noodles. You can find those in the refrigerated section of your local Asian grocery store, near all the other fresh noodles.
However, they can sometimes be hard to locate, even in Chinese groceries. They also don’t last very long in the refrigerator and must be used soon after buying.
The other issue with store-bought fresh rice noodles—especially if they have been refrigerated—is that they can end up hardening and stubbornly sticking together, making them very difficult to stir-fry.
That’s why we actually recommend using dried rice noodles in this recipe. The quality is more consistent.
We used a Chinese brand of dried wide rice noodles, and it came out really well. The noodles were soft and chewy, coming pretty close to the fresh rice noodles we use in our Beef Chow Fun. Thai or Vietnamese brands will also work fine.
The best part? Dried wide rice noodles are infinitely easier to find than fresh, and you can keep the dried noodles in your pantry any time the mood for drunken noodles strikes!
Look for them in the Asian market in the dried noodle aisle. You may even be able to find them in a well-stocked regular grocery store these days. Since they’re shelf stable, you can also order them online.
Combine those rice noodles with spicy chili peppers, basil, fish sauce, and chicken, and this drunken noodle recipe is awesome…regardless of whether you’re in a drunken stupor or just enjoying dinner on a weeknight or lazy Sunday.
Gluten-free?
Rice noodles are naturally gluten-free, adapting this recipe to a gluten-free diet is easy!
You’ll need to substitute a gluten-free soy sauce for the soy sauce in the recipe. For the dark soy sauce, you can make our dark soy sauce substitution, or just use GF soy for that too—the color of the noodles in the final dish just won’t be as dark.
Be sure you’re using GF fish sauce (Red Boat is a great brand, and their entire product lineup is gluten-free) as well as a GF oyster sauce (Lee Kum Kee makes one.) Finally, to substitute the Shaoxing wine, use a dry cooking sherry. Even a dry white wine would work in a pinch.
Switching Up Proteins
We’re making our pad kee mao with chicken here, but you could use shrimp, pork, beef, or any combination instead.
Regardless of which protein you use, the order of operations is the same: simply marinate and pre-sear it in the wok before you cook the rest of the dish. This process is called velveting.
The protein should be about 90% cooked, and it will finish cooking when you add it back to the wok later.
If using a different protein, use the marinating technique specific to that protein. Here are our recipes for preparing shrimp, pork, and beef:
- How to Velvet Shrimp / Prepare Shrimp for Stir-fry
- How to Velvet Pork / Prepare Pork for Stir-fry
- How to Velvet Beef / Prepare Beef for Stir-fry
Vegetarian or vegan?
If you want to make a vegetarian version of the dish, you can substitute tofu. Simply pan-fry the tofu in oil first, or use Sarah’s method for making crispy tofu. You’ll also need to substitute vegan fish sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce to make the dish fully vegan / vegetarian.
Go make this drunken noodles recipe (aka pad kee mao) now and you’ll wonder what else you’ve been missing in life! It’s seriously that good, folks. Also check out our recipes for other beloved Thai noodle dishes like pad see ew and pad thai!
Drunken Noodles: Recipe Instructions
Work the 2 tablespoons of water into the sliced chicken with your hands until the chicken absorbs the liquid. Add the cornstarch, oil, and soy sauce (Thai thin soy sauce preferred), and mix until the chicken is evenly coated. Set aside for 20 minutes.
For more information and preparing chicken for stir fries, see my post on Chicken velveting 101.
Follow the directions on the dried rice noodle package to prepare them. What I usually do is fill a stainless steel bowl with hot tap water to soak the noodles for about 20 minutes. Then I just drain them and set aside.
You can also quickly boil them just until they are cooked through and al dente, then rinse under cold water.
Stir together the dissolved brown sugar/water mixture, soy sauces (Thai soy sauce preferred), fish sauce, oyster sauce, and white pepper in a small bowl and set aside.
Heat your wok until it’s close to smoking, and spread 2 tablespoons of oil around the perimeter of the wok.
Add the chicken and let it sear for 1 minute on each side until it’s about 90% cooked. Remove from the wok and set aside.
If the heat was high enough and you seared the meat correctly, your wok should be still clean with nothing sticking to it. (Read more about why this is the case in Judy’s article, How to Prevent Food from Sticking to a Wok/Pan.) If not, you can wash the wok to prevent the rice noodles from sticking.
Continue with the wok on high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil, along with the garlic and grated ginger.
After a few seconds, add the shallots. Stir-fry for 20 seconds and add the scallion, Thai red chili peppers, Thai basil (or holy basil), baby corn and Shaoxing wine.
Stir-fry for another 20 seconds and add in the rice noodles. Use a scooping motion to mix everything for another minute until the noodles warm up.
Next, add the prepared sauce mixture. Stir-fry at the highest heat for about 1 minute until the noodles are uniform in color. Take care to use your metal spatula to scrape the bottom of the wok to prevent sticking. Add the seared chicken and stir-fry for another 1 to 2 minutes.
Serve your Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao) immediately with your favorite chili oil.
And that’s it!
Before you scroll down to the recipe card, we have a couple more notes about adjusting the spiciness of the dish and types of Thai basil, below:
Controlling the Spice Level
The beauty of cooking this dish at home is that you can control the spice level and make it to your liking. While we used 4 de-seeded Thai chilies, you can reduce that number to make the dish less spicy.
Add 3, 2, or just 1. Or substitute red bell pepper to make the dish totally mild.
To make the dish spicier, leave the seeds in 1-2 of the chilies!
A Note On Thai Basil
One disclaimer I must make is about the type of basil used in this dish. Traditionally, pad kee mao features holy basil, which has a very distinct licorice flavor and spicy undertones.
I know people can be purists about using Thai holy basil versus regular Thai basil, but the fact of the matter is, holy basil is extremely hard to find in the U.S.
We have personally never seen it, even in Asian markets. The only way we’ve accessed it is by buying specialty seeds online and growing it ourselves in our garden!
More About Thai Basil
Learn more about how to grow Thai Basil in our Gardening series. There, Sarah also talks about different Thai basil varieties!
Thai basil is much easier to get in Asian markets here in the U.S., and it works great in this recipe.
Thai basil and holy basil each have their own special flavor, which is missing from regular old Italian basil, so my rule is that you must use one of these two types.
Holy basil has a strong licorice-like taste, while Thai basil has a cinnamon-y, anise flavor. They are very different from your run-of-the-mill sweet basil.
Sarah has a different view. She emphasizes in her Pad Gra Prow recipe that regular basil is better than no basil at all.
I can sort of agree with that, especially if it’s difficult to find Thai basil locally. BUT even if you do use Italian basil because it’s all you can find, you must seek out Thai basil at some point to try in this dish.
Try the Thai or holy basil once, and I will bet it will be hard to settle again for any substitute.
Enjoy the recipe!
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Recipe
Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao)
Ingredients
For the chicken & marinade:
- 2 tablespoons water
- 12 ounces boneless skinless chicken thighs (or breast, thinly sliced)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
For the rest of the dish:
- 8 ounces wide dried rice noodles
- 1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar (dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce (Thai soy sauce preferred, but any soy sauce will do)
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce (see note)
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
- pinch ground white pepper
- 3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil (divided)
- 3 cloves garlic (sliced)
- ¼ teaspoon fresh grated ginger
- 2 shallots (sliced, about 1/3 cups)
- 1 scallion (julienned into 3-inch/8cm pieces)
- 4 Thai red chili peppers (deseeded and julienned or chopped)
- 1 cup holy basil or Thai basil (loosely packed)
- 5 to 6 pieces baby corn (split in half, optional)
- 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine
Instructions
- Work the 2 tablespoons of water into the sliced chicken with your hands until the chicken absorbs the liquid. Add the cornstarch, oil, and soy sauce, and mix until the chicken is evenly coated. Set aside for 20 minutes.
- Follow the directions on the rice noodle package to prepare your noodles. Soak the noodles in hot tap water for 20 minutes, or quickly boil them just until al dente, then rinse under cold water.
- Stir together the dissolved brown sugar mixture, soy sauces, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and white pepper in a small bowl and set aside.
- Heat your wok until it’s close to smoking, and spread 2 tablespoons of oil around the perimeter of the wok. Add the chicken and let it sear for 1 minute on each side until it’s about 90% cooked. Remove from the wok and set aside. If the heat was high enough and you seared the meat correctly, your wok should be still clean with nothing sticking to it. If not, you can wash the wok to prevent the rice noodles from sticking.
- Continue with the wok on high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil, along with the garlic and grated ginger.
- After a few seconds, add the shallots. Stir-fry for 20 seconds and add the scallions, chilies, basil, baby corn, and shaoxing wine. Stir-fry for another 20 seconds and add in the rice noodles. Use a scooping motion to mix everything for another minute until the noodles warm up.
- Next, add the prepared sauce mixture and stir-fry at the highest heat for about 1 minute until the noodles are uniform in color. Take care to use your metal spatula to scrape the bottom of the wok to prevent sticking.
- Add the seared chicken, and stir-fry for another 1 to 2 minutes. Serve!
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Facts
Note: We originally published this post on March 4, 2016. We have since updated the post with clearer instructions and helpful links. Enjoy!
