Thai Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao)
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Intro
🌶️ In case it’s not obvious already, I LOVE spicy food 🌶️ I’m so excited to share this recipe, not just because it’s one of my favorite Thai noodle dishes, but also because this is my first Heritage recipe that’s not from me or my family! Some of the core reasons I started this site were to share how to make authentic, non-Westernized recipes and to help other People of Color preserve their family recipes and traditions. This one comes from one of my good Korean friends (JK HE’S THAI DURRR) who made this for me once after we had a particularly late night ranting about how just flat-out wrong many Asian restaurants are (or had to become in order to cater to more American palates). A couple things in particular that really bothered us and which will NOT be present in this recipe:
The Thai food we’ve had in America is TOO sweet (when it’s not supposed to be)
Lots of the wok-fried Thai noodle dishes are SWIMMING in sauce — [angry buzzer sound] this is WRONG. This applies to so many other Asian dishes that are supposed to be “dry” and not swimming in sauce; by “dry” I mean there should be no detectable sauce leftover once you’re done cooking, it should have been fully absorbed and cooked into the dish’s ingredients (e.g. the protein, veggies, noodles)
Too low of a heat level was used, further making the dish overly saucy and not allowing any caramelizing of the flavors or searing of those flavors into the noodles (the Chinese call this “wok hei”)
Fast forward past the crazy hangover I had the day after that shared rant, my friend teaching me how to make his mom’s recipe for Drunken Noodles, me cooking through it a couple times, me researching a crazy amount on how to make the noodles from scratch and then cooking through it a couple more times...we arrive at the recipe below! In this recipe I show you how to make the wide rice noodles from scratch, something that is pretty tedious and does require some special equipment: a steamer setup, a flat and heat-proof container that fits in the steamer setup, and definitely a pastry brush. Since this is a Heritage recipe, it was important to me to learn how to make all of it from scratch plus once you get into the flow of it it’s not that difficult! If you’re uncomfortable with how making the noodles sounds, you can buy fresh noodles from Chinatown supermarkets and/or opt for the dry and packaged varieties like these (I’ve never tried them before but the reviews are overall positive).
For the spice paste, I used a granite mortar & pestle but if you don’t have one you can use a food processor or a small blender. If you DO have a mortar & pestle, though, definitely use that — it creates that same je ne sais quoi effect it does with a pesto.
Obviously, you can make this vegetarian if you want — just omit the chicken. If you do make it vegetarian, though, I’d recommend frying an egg to put on top! Just a quick reminder, too, that because this is a Heritage recipe, I will not be making any ingredient substitutions (except for the palm sugar/light brown sugar sub that my friend told me). Enjoy!!
What You'll Need
The following recipe is for if you’re making the rice noodles from scratch. You can buy fresh-made rice noodles from most Chinese grocery stores — for example, they definitely sell them at Deluxe Super Market in Chinatown (NYC)
This recipe (if you’re making the noodz from scratch) is enough for 2 very large portions or 2 regular portions + enough leftovers for a snack (:
For the noodz:
1 cup rice flour
½ cup tapioca flour
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP neutral-tasting oil + more for brushing and greasing (I used organic canola)
1½ cup lukewarm water $
Special equipment: steamer setup and pastry brush
$ It’s important that the water is neither cold nor boiling!
For spice paste:
16 cloves garlic, peeled
2 serrano chilis, stems removed (remove seeds if you want it to be less spicy)
12 birdseye chilis (if you a little beetch use fewer)*, stems removed
* I’m totally kidding, but I DO like eating very spicy; use fewer if you’re unsure — it’s always easier to make it spicier later
For the noodle sauce:
1 TBSP light soy sauce^
1 TBSP Golden Mountain sauce (or Maggi)
2 TBSP dark soy sauce
2½ TBSP oyster sauce
2 tsp fish sauce (or more to taste)
4 tsp palm sugar (or light brown sugar)
^ NOT to be confused with light sodium soy sauce! This is an actual type of soy sauce
And the rest:
1 medium sweet onion, halved and then thinly sliced
1 serrano chili, finely diced
¾ - 1 lb of boneless chicken thighs
Wide rice noodz
Good amount of holy Thai Basil (or Thai basil) @
Neutral-tasting oil that can handle high heat (I use organic canola oil)
Special equipment: recommend a wok or other large skillet that retains heat well (before I got my wok I used my Creuset Dutch oven, for example)
@ I used 2.5 oz-worth with stems, 1.4 oz with stems removed → roughly 2 cups of leaves
Instructions
Make the rice noodles:
Sift the rice and tapioca flours into a bowl and add the salt and oil; mix together with a fork or whisk
Slowly add your warm water, mixing as you do so. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour, giving it a quick stir every now and then; you can prepare your steamer setup and prepare the spice paste and noodle sauce now if you’d like!
Once you’re ready to start making the noodles, add water to your steamer setup and get the water to boil; brush oil on your pan/plate/flat surface (with the neutral-tasting oil), give the flour mixture a quick stir, and pour a thin layer into the pan
Place the pan into your steamer setup and start a kitchen timer for 5 minutes; leave the pan in the steamer, uncovered, for 30 seconds, tilting your pan around until the unset liquid fills in any gaps left on the pan; once the liquid mixture is more evenly spread around, cover the steamer setup and let it steam for the rest of the 5 minutes
After 5 minutes, quickly remove the cooked noodle sheet from the heat (carefully!), lightly brush some more oil on the top of the noodle sheet and remove; place and cover all finished noodle sheets on a large, lightly oiled plate
Repeat this for the rest of the noodle liquid and cut the noodle sheets (all stacked on top of each other) into 1 - 1½” strips and separate for later
For the spice paste & noodle sauce:
Prepare the noodle sauce by mixing the light & dark soy sauces, Maggi/Golden Mountain sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar; take 2 TBSP of this and add to the bowl of sliced chicken with a drizzle of your cooking oil (e.g. my canola oil in this case), mix well to coat the chicken (Dita tip!); set aside to marinate as you prepare your spice paste
For the spice paste, add the 3 ingredients to a mortar & pestle and grind into a paste (i.e. no fatty chunks or clumps)
Bringing it all together:
Once you’re ready to start cooking, I recommend you have 0 distractions (i.e. make sure everything else is prepped) because you will be cooking on high heat and quickly. Do not be tempted to turn the heat down because the noodles will end up a soupy dish — you want all the lovely umami, caramel, spice, and sweet flavors to cook into all the chicken & noodles. Plus, as you slowly add ingredients this will naturally bring the heat down each time. I also recommend cooking one person’s portion at a time so that all the flavors sear and meld and the wok’s/skillet’s temperature doesn't come down too much (unless you have a super wok or something).
Add a generous amount of oil to your wok/skillet and turn heat to High; add the chili paste when the oil starts to shimmer, quickly stirring so it doesn’t burn; fry until fragrant (~ 1 min)
Add in chicken, cook until all the chicken has a nice sear / is browned (~ 1 - 2 min), then add in the sliced sweet onion, the diced Serrano chili, and noodle sauce mixture; make sure you maintain a high heat and stir quickly so that everything gets a nice coat of the sauce (~ another minute or 2)
Add in your noodles, again stirring quickly so that everything gets a nice coat of spices and sauce (~ 1 min); lastly, add in the holy basil (or Thai basil) leaves and continue to stir and cook for another minute or two
How to Enjoy!
Try to enjoy while it’s still hot! If you have any leftovers, I would NOT reheat in a microwave as the noodles will just become super mushy — reheat on a skillet over Medium-High heat so that the noodles get even more of a sear. Don’t forget to fry an egg to top it off!
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