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Our easy Drunken Noodles recipe (Pad Kee Mao) is a spicy Thai stir-fry with wide rice noodles, chicken, vegetables, and fresh Thai basil in a savory-sweet sauce. It's ready in just 30 minutes and you can add whatever protein you like and adjust the spice level to your preference.
I love to make Drunken Noodles at home.
I love to make Drunken Noodles at home.Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao) is hands down my favorite Thai dish, and making them at home is a total game-changer. You can control the spice level – extra spicy for me, mild for the kids. You can also swap out the chicken for tofu, shrimp, or pork. And like most things, making it yourself is less expensive, better for you and fast–this stir-fry hits the table in 30 minutes. And if you've never tried drunken noodles before, you'll find out why this is such beloved Thai street food!
Try my other Thai-inspired recipes, like Pad Thai, Thai Meatballs, Thai Basil Chicken, Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and Fresh Spring Rolls!
How to make Drunken Noodles:
Prep Noodles and Sauce: Cook noodles according to package instructions. In a mixing bowl, whisk all sauce ingredients and set aside.
Cook Chicken and Veggies: Sauté shallots and carrots in a little olive oil in a wok or large skillet. Add chicken and season with pepper and sauté until cooked through. Stir in garlic and ginger then toss in bell pepper, zucchini, tomato, and the whites of the green onion.
Combine and Serve: Dump strained noodles into the pan then pour sauce over noodles. Toss and cook for a few minutes, until warm. Take off heat and stir in chopped basil. Serve Thai Pad Kee Mao immediately, topped with remaining green onion and extra chili sauce, sriracha, or crushed red pepper if you want more spice.
A Word About Thai Basil:
Basil: There are 3 main types of basil, and each will add a different flavor profile. For most Thai food recipes, you want to use Thai Holy Basil.
- Thai Holy Basil (or Hot Basil): This is what we use in this drunken noodles recipe. It's a basil leaf that adds heat to dishes. It may be hard to find in grocery stores, but try an Asian market, or have Amazon ship it to you, or substitute regular sweet basil.
- Thai Basil: It has purple stems and a spicy licorice-anise flavor. It's not commonly found at the grocery store, but can usually be found at Asian grocery stores. It is a good substitute for Thai holy basil.
- Sweet Basil is the most common in US grocery stores and recipes. It can be substituted for Thai holy basil, you just lose a little of the unique flavor from Thai Holy Basil.
Drunken Noodles
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 oz wide rice noodles
- 2 Tbsp sesame oil , (or canola)
- 2 shallots, , chopped
- 2 carrots, , thinly sliced
- 1 large chicken breast, , chopped (or shrimp or tofu)
- 3 large cloves of garlic, , minced
- ½ teaspoon fresh minced ginger
- 1 zucchini, , thinly sliced
- 1 green bell pepper, , thinly sliced
- 2 green onions, , chopped
- 1 roma tomatoes, , sliced
- 1 cup fresh Thai Holy Basil leaves (or substitute regular basil), , roughly chopped
For the sauce:
- 3 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp water
- 1 teaspoon Thai red chili paste, , more or less, to taste (or substitute sriracha or crushed red pepper flakes)
Instructions
- Cook noodles according to package instructions.8 oz wide rice noodles
- Mix sauce in a small bowl and set aside.3 Tbsp oyster sauce, ⅓ cup low sodium soy sauce, 2 teaspoons fish sauce , 2 teaspoons brown sugar, 2 Tbsp water, 1 teaspoon Thai red chili paste
- Saute: Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in wok or large skillet over high heat. Add shallots and carrot and cook for 2 minutes. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan. Add chicken and season with pepper, cooking until it's cooked through. Add garlic and ginger and cook for 10 seconds. Add bell pepper, zucchini, tomato and the whites of the chopped green onion and cook for 2 minutes.2 Tbsp sesame oil , 2 shallots, 2 carrots, 1 large chicken breast, 3 large cloves of garlic, ½ teaspoon fresh minced ginger, 1 zucchini, 1 green bell pepper, 1 roma tomatoes, 2 green onions
- Add noodles to the pan and pour the sauce over the noodles. Toss and cook for a few minutes until warmed through. Remove from heat and stir in chopped basil.1 cup fresh Thai Holy Basil leaves (or substitute regular basil)
- Serve immediately, garnished with remaining green onion and extra chili sauce, sriracha, or crushed red pepper, for added spice.
Notes
- Add more vegetables: yellow squash, broccoli, baby corn, etc.
- Swap out the protein: shrimp, tofu, beef, chicken thighs
- Vegetarian drunken noodles: substitute tofu for chicken. You may choose to sauté the tofu separately until browned on all sides before adding to the dish.
- Vegan Drunken noodles: substitute tofu for chicken, soy sauce for the fish sauce, and hoisin sauce for oyster sauce.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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this was absolutely delicious. Sauce was awesome
This is the best recipe. Wow. Totally scratches my Thai craving itch and is my husbands fave meal.
We like to use tofu and coat it in cornstarch fry separately then combine with everything!
Way too much sodium more than half of what you should have per day…I live in an Asian community and kidney and heart failure are common because of high salt…you can unami without the high salt.
Don’t eat this everyday then? Weird comment Patricia.
This was my first time attempting to make drunken noodles and I loved it! Thank you, I’ll be making it all the time now!
This recipe was great! My family really enjoyed it. My personal changes were doubling the sauce and adding only 3/4 of fish sauce, and instead of the Thai chili paste I simply used 3 Thai chilis (deseeded), added in with the shallot. I definitely plan to make this againb
This recipe gave me confidence, I didn’t realize it was simple to recreate one of my favorite takeout dishes at home. I’m fortunate to have easy access to fresh wide rice noodles and other Thai ingredients. I used regular soy sauce (not low sodium) and ground turkey as a protein due to what I had on hand.
Followed the recipe to a T and it was delicious! Loved it.
Just ok. Not nearly as good as the restaurant version. Definitely won’t bother making this again. It just doesn’t compare
I made a vegetarian version of this with fresh spinach stirred in at the end (wilted). Even without the chicken I had to double the amount of the sauce for a good flavor. Very tasty!
Amazing dish. Made it as the recipe said and would do it again and again…. Tried it with Shrimp the first time – will do it with Chicken next time and I’m sure it will be amazing again. So darn good.
First time making this and from reading some reviews I added 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. Next time I will add much less. I also only added 3 Tablespoons of soy sauce and the dish was not salty enough. While eating it I was tempted to shake some salt on it. And in case your package of rice noodles is unclear. You put the noodles in boiling water, you don’t continue to boil them like regular pasta.
Keeper recipe! YUM!
The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of soy sauce. So you didn’t follow directions and then continued to complain about the changes you made in a comment? Make it make sense.
I love Asian Food, and this recipe looks divine. That being said, it is a sodium bomb. Any suggestions for lowering the amount of sodium without compromising the flavor?