Pad Kee Mao Noodles (Drunken Noodles)

jump to recipe

This noodle dish is one of my favorite noodles. I love the sweet and savory spice and texture. It is super flavorful, simple, and has a nice balance of sweet and savory flavors.

There are many stories about how the name of these noodles came to be. “Pad” means stir fry and “Kee Mao” means drunk/drunkie.

Together, the name is “stir fry drunk” or Drunken Noodles.

One story that I particularly enjoy is that one drunken night there was a person who came to a chefs food stall and asked for something delicious and quick to eat because he was drunk. So the chef whipped up the "extra spicy” noodles with all the scraps and leftovers they had. Which came to be the “Drunken Noodles”

Another story is quite simple, these noodles are just SO GOOD when you are drunk. Either way these noodles are a must try.

Pad Kee Mao Noodles (Drunken Noodles) — Pete Eats (2)

The key to a delicious pad kee mao is making a fresh garlic and thai chili paste. I like making this fresh every time I make these noodles because that is the key to a spicy and aromatic pad kee mao.

My second tip is seasoning your rice noodles with a dark soy sauce so that you get that nice rich dark color on the noodles on top of adding sauce to the noodles when stir frying it.

Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles)

Yield: 2

Author: Peter Duong

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 30 Min

This Pad Kee Mao is super delicious and a hit after a night out. OR if you crave something, savory, sweet, and spicy with the best textures.

Ingredients

Sauce Ingredients

2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Honey or palm Sugar or brown sugar (adjust to your liking)
1 Tbsp Dark Soy Sauce (it is thicker and sweet)

Noodle Ingredients

1 pack fresh rice noodle (can make 3-4 servings) so for every serving = 1 ratio of the sauce recipe. One pack you’ll need to make 4x amount of sauce
6-8 oz protein
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 onion
5 clove Garlic
5 Thai chili
handful of basil

Instructions

Peal apart your wide rice noodles and season with 1-2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
To a mortar, pound your garlic and fresh thai chili into a paste
Prepare your chilis, onion, and peppers by chopping them up into thin slices
Make your sauce by mixing all the ingredients into a separate bowl
To a hot wok, add your chili garlic paste (be careful the fumes will make you cough)
Add your onion and proteins (par cook)
Add your wide rice noodles and toss
Add your sauce mix
Allow noodles to char a bit
Add your fresh thai basil
Give it a mix and enjoy!