This Thai Drunken Noodles recipe is a fast, easy, 30-minute weeknight dinner! Full of umami flavor, make it with chicken, shrimp or crispy tofu!
What Are Thai Drunken NoodleS?
Thai Drunken Noodles ( also called Pad Kee Mao)hail from the streets of Thailand and are a spicy, savory stir-fried noodle dish made with wide rice noodles, chicken or shrimp, vegetables, and signature Thai basil in a saucy, flavorful stir-fry sauce. Contrary to popular belief, Drunken Noodles contain no alcohol!
Our version of this popular dish remains authentic while including the option of adding more veggies and crispy tofu for a plant-based option.
Table of Contents
THai Drunken Noodles Recipe Ingredients
Protein: Thinly sliced Chicken breast, shrimp or crispy tofu work well here.
Wide Rice Noodles. Dried, wide rice noodles are traditional.
Vegetable Options. Onions, bell peppers, baby corn, snow peas, asparagus, mushrooms, green beans, bok choy or roma tomatoes.
Basil. Thai basil or holy basil are both tradional- or in a pinch use regular fresh basil. Be extra generous with the basil, which sets this dish to a whole level of deliciousness.
Fresh chilis. The traditional taste of drunken noodles is spicy, savory, salty, and subtly sweet. For extra heat, add more fresh jalapeños, serranos, or Thai chilis.
Oyster sauce. Oyster sauce adds a deep umami flavor found in Drunken Noodles. Don’t skip it if you can help it. Feel free to buy or make vegan oyster sauce.
Fish sauce. Not all fish sauces are made equal in quality and saltiness. Use it sparingly as you can always add more at the end. You can also make our vegan fish sauce!
Soy sauce. Soy sauce is a must for this recipe. Any brand is fine, as well as GF liquid aminos.
Sweet dark soy sauce. Sweet dark soy sauce adds sweetness and a distinct smokiness. It also gives the rice noodles their dark golden brown color. Use soy sauce and honey as a substitute.
Sugar. Honey, agave syrup, brown sugar, or any sweetener of choice is great.
Rice Vinegar or lime juice. A touch of it will give the noodles a nice balance of tanginess.
THai Drunken Noodle Recipe (Instructions)
Step one. Make the Thai Drunken Noodle Sauce. Whisk all the ingredeints together in a small bow.
Step two. Cook the rice noodles. Soak rice noodles in hot boiling water until softened to al dente, 5-10 minutes depending on the size of your noodles.
Step three. Heat a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Turn your hood on! Add oil and garlic and chili and cook until brown, 20-30 seconds.
Step four. Add the thinly sliced chicken (or shrimp or tofu), season with salt and pepper, and cook until lightly browned 3-4 minutes. See notes for tofu.
Step five. Add onion and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until tender-crisp.
Step six. Add any quick-cooking vegetables and stir fry, and cook for 2 minutes, until tender-crisp.
Step seven. Add the softend rice noodles, and stir fry for 1-2 minutes- a little crispy is good here! If sticking add a little more oil.
Step seven. Add the sauce, stir fry and let cook for 2 minutes. Turn the heat up to high and stir fry briefly.
Step eight. Turn the heat off, add the Thai basil, stir well one final time, and serve hot.
Serving Suggestion
Sprinkle drunkle noodles with more Thai basil, a squeeze of fresh lime juice, fish sauce or Thai chili flakes for extra bold and spicy flavors. Add any of the following.
- Crunchy Cucumber Slices
- Lime Wedges
- Garlic Chili Paste or Sriracha
Storage
Leftovers will keep 3-4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat in a suacepan on the stovetop over medium low heat.
Recipe Faqs
Thai drunken noodles taste savory and deep with lots of umami flavor and are traditionally spicy (we make it milder here) with a hint of sweetness and tanginess from the lime juice.
Yes, use crispy tofu instead of chicken, leave out the fish sauce (or make our vegan fish sauce) and use our vegan Oyster sauce. Adjust the flavors with more soy sauce and sweet soy sauce to taste.
Pad Thai is a dry- style stirfry and less saucy, while Drunken Noodles are more savory, salty and spicy, and saucy with deeper soy flavors.
More Thai Recipes to Enjoy!
- Vegan Oyster Sauce
- Vegan Fish Sauce
- Best Pad Thai Noodles Recipe!
- Tom Kha Soup (Thai Coconut Soup)
- Tom Yum Soup
I hope you enjoy this recipe! I truly love sharing what I know about making tasty Thai food and bringing a little bit of my Thai culture to your kitchen. Food is a huge part of Thai culture, and we truly believe that sharing and eating food with others makes life so much better. I hope this recipe brings great delight to your heart and home!
~ Suwanee
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Thai Drunken Noodles Recipe
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 35
- Yield: 2-3 1x
- Category: main
- Method: Stir fry
- Cuisine: Thai
Description
This Thai Drunken Noodles recipe is a fast, easy, 30-minute weeknight dinner! Full of umami flavor, make it with chicken, shrimp or crispy tofu!
Ingredients
- 6–8 ounces dried wide rice noodles ( or sub linguini or fettuccini or soba noodles)
- 2 tablespoons high-heat oil- peanut or coconut oil
- 4–6 garlic cloves, rough chopped
- 1 teaspoon chili flakes or (1–2 fresh Thai chilis, finely minced)
- 6–8 oz chicken, thinly sliced (or sub shrimp, and see notes for crispy tofu)
- pinch salt and pepper
- 1 large shallot or 1/2 cup onion, sliced long and thin
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced long and thin
- Optional: 1/3 cup jalapeños, cut into long thin strips
- Optional: 1/2 cup Roma tomato, sliced into long wedges,or sub other quick cooking vegetable
- 1 cup fresh Thai Basil, holy basil or regular basil – this makes it!
- garnish: lime wedges, chili paste
Drunken Noodle Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce (or sub our homemade vegan oyster sauce)
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sweet dark soy sauce (or substitue 2 teaspoons regular soy sauce+ 1 teaspoon honey)
- 2 tablespoons sugar, brown sugar, agave, or honey
- 1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar or lime juice, more to taste
Instructions
- Cook noodles: Prepare the noodles, according to the package directions. Either boil, or soak in hot water until soft, 5-10 minutes, depending on the size of your noodles.
- Make the Stir-Fry Sauce: Whisk the Drunken Noodle Sauce ingredients together in a bowl and set aside by the stove.
- Stir-fry: If making crispy tofu– see notes and do this first.
- Heat a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Turn the hood fan on. Add oil and garlic and cook until brown, 20-30 seconds. Add the chicken (or shrimp) and chilies, season with salt and pepper and stir fry until lightly browned, 3 minutes. Add onion and cook for 2 minutes or until tender.
- Add the vegetables- bell peppers, jalapeños, and tomato, stir, and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the drained noodles, stir in well and cook for 1 minute
- Add the sauce, stir and let cook for 2 minutes. Turn the heat up to high and stir only once more.
- Turn the heat off, add the basil, stir well one final time, taste and adjust as desired- add more lime juice, more fish sauce, more chili flakes, more sweetener, more salt, if you like- all to taste. Find your perfect balance.
- Serve with lime wedges, chili paste.
Notes
- If making crispy tofu, cook the cubes of tofu in oil with salt and pepper, set aside, then add back in it the end at the same time as the sauce so it stays crispy. This Crispy Tofu post is helpful.
- If wanting to add steamed veggies like broccoli, drop it in the simmering noodle water for the last 2-3 minutes of cooking, and strain with the noodles.
- Use Holy basil or Thai basil if possible, for the BEST most authentic flavor. Italian sweet basil is fine as a substitute. Just add a little extra…
- Other Vegetables for drunken noodles are broccoli, pea pods, bok choy, green beans, asparagus, carrots, and baby corn- any quick-cooking veggie- ether stir fry or steam.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 ½ cups
- Calories: 414
- Sugar: 4.3 g
- Sodium: 1053.9 mg
- Fat: 12.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 53.7 g
- Fiber: 2.6 g
- Protein: 19.3 g
- Cholesterol: 55.2 mg
Delicious! Better than take-out.
Great!
Oh my – this hit the spot! I spent a year living in Thailand and drunken noodles was one of my favorite dishes (although its truly hard to pick a favorite). This dish took me back! Authentic flavors and textures. It had a nice layered spice and sweet-umami sauce. I will definitely come back to this recipe!
Glad to hear this Amanda!
This was easy and flavorful, and for me the flavors of the sauce were unique. I had most of the ingredients in my panrty since I frequently cook stir fry. It will be easy to adapt this recipe to use whatever vegetable, protein and pasta I have on hand. I shopped at my local Asian grocery for dark, sweet soy sauce but after reading the ingredients will stick with using honey and soy sauce as the recipe suggests. I will also try molasses and soy as others noted in comments.
Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed! Such good suggestions in the comments!
Delicious!! Two Thai chilis made this SUPER spicy, which was perfect for me but too much for my partner. I was not complaining about having it all to myself though, I absolutely loved it.
Hahaha! Thanks for letting us know!
Absolutely spectacular. I had to make some tweaks based on what I could get (tamari instead of oyster sauce, two Fresno Chiles in place of jalapeños and Thai Chiles, a bit of gochugaro in place of Chile flakes, and pad Thai noodles instead of the wide ones. I did 14oz of crispy tofu to keep it vegetarian. All of that said and done, it was spectacular, better than restaurant quality, and shockingly fast to make. I don’t know how to make it better, but I’ll make an effort to get all the right ingredients next time!
Love this Delphulia! Great to hear how you improvised.
This is the perfect pick-me-up. I’ve made it after a 24-hour shift, and this meal revived me like nothing before.
Glad you liked it Efrat. AND, the fact that you cooked for yourself after working 24 hours straight, instead of grabbing take-out is impressive!
I’m just going to drown myself in this flavor bomb of a dish!! Drunken noodles are now my favorite Thai dish! Thank you for sharing!
So glad you gave this a go Tom!
We absolutely love this drunken noodle recipe! Easy & detailed instructions, perfect for someone who’s new to Thai cooking! Thank you!
Great to hear Lincoln!
Oh my word. I make Thai food often and this Drunken noodle recipe blew me away with flavors! Thank you for sharing!
so happy you enjoyed this Adam!
This drunken noodle recipe is AMAZING! We loved it so much and couldn’t stop eating! Full of delicious umami flavors! Thank you!
Thanks Angela- glad you like it!
Delicious! My husband said it was the best noodle dish I’ve ever made, and I’ve made quite a few so that is an excellent compliment to the recipe creator!
Awesome to hear Brittany!
I was originally going to make pad thai because I was short on time…but this recipe has been on my mind so I thought I’d try it. Honestly, it took me about the same amount of time (I usually add extra veggies to my pad thai) and I actually like it better!! I used up the veggies in my fridge…broccoli crowns (which I stir fried and it tasted great), red pepper, mushrooms..I only added half of a small red onion and 1 clove garlic. I also only used chilli flakes. I made crispy tofu with minimal oil in my air fryer. For the sauce, I used molasses as a sub for the dark soy sauce and maple syrup for sugar. I didn’t have basil but cilantro was washed and ready to go so I used it instead – so delicious!! I know, probably not authentic but still so good 🙂 ! Thanks for another great recipe, Sylvia!
Sounds perfect Leanne- so happy you liked this!
Amazing recipe! I made this for my wife and son. We devoured it : )
The flavors were great. We used chicken and could see using tofu too. Thanks again Sylvia! Your recipes are incredible…..
Great, so glad to hear you are enjoying!
Another winner! First time using Thai chilis- 2 were perfect- can’t imagine why they sell packages of 20 or more. Also don’t think I will buy any basil other than Thai from now on— such great flavor. I did use molasses. And I made your recipe for Asian cucumbers. Heavenly meal.
Perfect Julie! So happy you enjoyed this and thanks for sharing your recipe notes. 🙂
What can you use if you can’t find fresh Thai basil, can you use dried?
Hi Stacie- I’d use regular fresh basil!
Looking forward to trying this! Sylvia – the noodles in your picture look to be 1/2″ to 3/4″ wide, but the noodles in the Amazon link are typical pencil wide. I’ve tried finding really wide noodles – especially for Pad See Ew – in stores, Asian markets and online and no luck so far. Do you have an online source? Thank you!
Hi- I linked a product from Amazon in the ingredient notes. 🙂
Hi! Is there an oyster sauce alternative for those who are Kosher? Thank you!
Hi there- you could use more soy sauce and a little fish sauce to taste. 🙂
You can also use the vegetarian mushroom sauce that imitates the oyster sauce flavor 🙂