Drunken Noodles is the literal translation of Pad Kee Mao because the theory is that these spicy Thai noodles should be eaten with an ice cold beer and that they are a great cure for hangover. I can confirm both cases to be true!
This Thai noodle dish is a very popular both in Thailand and in Thai restaurants outside of Thailand. You will be surprised how fast and easy this recipe is to make!
Drunken Noodles!
Get Drunken Noodles from the streets of Thailand, and unless you have an exceptional spice-o-meter, you’ll be chugging down the beer in an attempt to cool the burn in your mouth.
Make this at home and you can control the heat!
The amount of chilli I’ve included in the recipe is mild enough for most people (I think), but enough so you can taste the heat. By all means, feel free to turn up the spice dial!
What you need
There are all sorts of variations of Drunken Noodles in Thailand and even more in the western world. In Thailand the two constants are chicken and Thai Basil, and quite often it came with baby corn as well, though from my research I couldn’t confirm that this was a “must have” in this dish.
Rice Noodles
Get the widest dried rice noodles you can find at your grocery store. Here in Australian supermarkets, the widest I can find is labelled “Pad Thai”, though ironically, it’s actually too wide for Pad Thai!
Thai Basil
There are actually two types of Thai Basil – regular Thai Basil and Thai Holy Basil. Drunken Noodles can be made with either.
Outside of Thailand, restaurants typically use regular Thai Basil because it is easier to find than Holy Basil. I even have difficulty finding Holy Basil in Thai grocery stores!
Is Thai Basil the same as regular basil?
Thai Basil is not the same as regular basil. It tastes like regular basil with a slight aniseed flavour. A very distinct flavour that you know and love about your favourite dishes at your local Thai restaurant like Drunken Noodles and Thai Chilli Basil Chicken!
Best substitute for Thai Basil
Regular basil! In fact, Drunken Noodles is traditionally made with Holy Basil which tastes more similar to regular basil than Thai Basil!
How to make it
As with all stir fries and stir fried noodles, this moves fast once you start cooking – around 6 minutes start to finish – so have everything ready to go before you start cooking!
Comparison to other popular Thai noodles
Whereas Pad Thai is nutty and sweet, Pad Kee Mao is spicy and savoury. Compared to Pad See Ew, the sauce of Drunken Noodles is lighter in colour and not as sweet.
Also, neither Pad Thai nor Pad See Ew does not have Thai Basil in it, and it is not as spicy.
Actually, Pad Kee Mao is essentially like Thai Chilli Basil Chicken stir fry with noodles added!
Better made at home
In Western Thai restaurants, Drunken Noodles are usually very saucy, oily and salty – too much so in my opinion, and very different from the streets of Thailand. So it’s really nice to be able to make a healthier yet just as tasty version at home!
And remember to crack open an ice cold beer to enjoy these Drunken Noodles with! – Nagi x
More Thai Food favourites
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Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao)
Ingredients
Noodles
- 7 oz /200g dried rice noodles , wide (Note 1)
Stir Fry
- 2 tbsp oil (peanut, vegetable or canola)
- 3 large cloves of garlic , minced
- 2 birds eye chilli or Thai chillies , deseeded, very finely chopped (Note 2)
- 1/2 onion , sliced
- 200 g /7oz chicken thighs , cut into bite size pieces (breast ok too)
- 2 tsp fish sauce (or soy sauce)
- 2 green onions , cut into 3cm/2″ pieces
- 1 cup Thai or Thai Holy Basil leaves (sub regular basil, Note 3)
Sauce
- 3 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce (Note 4)
- 1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce (Note 4)
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Prepare noodles per packet directions.
- Mix Sauce in a small bowl.
- Heat oil in wok or large heavy based skillet over high heat.
- Add garlic and chilli and cook for 10 seconds. Don’t inhale – the chilli will make you cough!
- Add onion, cook for 1 minute.
- Add chicken and fish sauce, and fry until cooked, around 2 minutes.
- Add green onion, noodles and sauce and cook for 1 minute until the sauce reduces and coats the noodles.
- Remove from heat and immediately add basil, toss until just wilted, then serve immediately.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Drunken Noodles recipe originally published July 2014. Updated June 2019 with new photos, new writing, new video and most importantly, Life of Dozer section added!
Life of Dozer
Like my video shooting area isn’t a tripping hazard as it is, let’s add a giant fur ball into the mix. 🙄
(PS the wine is a PROP! I wasn’t having a cheeky glass at lunch!! 😂)
So good! I will definitely be making this again!
Excellent taste! Add broccoli peppers and pea pods -so good!
Such an impressive, quick and easy recipe! I add just a touch of yellow curry powder, green beans, daikon and a little bit of extra garlic to ours. So delicious!
Loved this recipe! The first time I made it I mixed up the ingredients and added way too much soy sauce, but the second time I made it (correctly), it was SO GOOD! And so easy to make! I added gen Lai jr (Chinese broccoli) for some crunch and omitted the basil as I’m not a fan haha. Thanks again, makes me feel like a chef!
This recipe is excellent! Don’t change a thing, Nagi has it perfectly figured out – and it’s easy! Every recipe from Nagi i’ve tried has been a total hit! Thank you so much for sharing them, Nagi! <3
This was AMAZING!! I had pinned this recipe years ago and finally got around to making it. Wish I hadn’t waited so long as this was out of this world tasty! Better than any drunken noodles I’ve had in restaurants. This exceeded my expectations, the sauce is so flavorful and rich. It really is a quick dish and not complicated at all to make. It tastes like it was complicated. It’s amazing how so few ingredients can produce such depth of flavor. My family loved it. Will be making again and again. Thank you for this recipe.
Amazing! This was my first try at Thai food. I sub chili sauce for the Thai chili and used regular basil. It was quick and easy to make. I will def make this again.
First of all, this is one of the most thoughtfully laid out recipe sites I’ve ever seen!
This dish is my usual go-to at any Thai place, so to find such a seemingly simple recipe was great! These turned out absolutely delicious! I used all regular soy sauce and subbed chili paste for the fresh chilis and it was pretty darn near perfect!! Thank you!
This was really good! I’ve been trying to make drunken noodles that taste as good as my local take-out, and this is very close! Thanks 🙂
Mine was too salty and I used low sodium soy sauce. Any advice to reduce sodium?
Could try diluting the sauce with more water, using less soy sauce, or if it was just mildly too salty, add a bit more sugar to counteract it.
Let’s see…
1) Hey, what an inviting, colorful, unpretentious food blog;
2) Nice food descriptions! the “slight aniseed” flavor of Thai basil vs. others, or the “nutty and sweet” Pad Thai vs. the “spicy and savoury” Pad Kee Mao.
3) I like that you mention cost – although I do not look at many food blogs, they often seem to be…displaying…the good fortune and leisure and ‘House Beautiful’ decor of the individuals who run them…which – also – seems very different from your ‘behind the scenes’ pic of your work table/lights/camera set up, and your statement that food is not just a passion or an avocation, or something you do when you’re not raising kids and cooking for the perfect husband – but your WORK and your JOB.
4) Question – I occasionally cook Asian recipes – and there seems to be a view, that I’ve run into more than once, that home stoves don’t have the firepower to heat a wok enough to avoid steaming vs. sauteeing in the wok ‘hot spot’. Your view?
5) Will get back to you after cooking the Pad Kee Mao…which I guessed were called “drunken” because the noodles get so saturated with the sauce…
6) Hope you and people and the animals of Australia are recovering…as a New York City school teacher, I teach my kids about global warming when I can…
Paul Jackson
NYC
school teacher
Hello Paul! What a lovely message to read first thing on a dreary Sydney Tuesday morning! I feel that those of use in Australia can count ourselves lucky compared to the doom and gloom I read about other parts of the world, so I’m not complaining 🙂 In answer to your question – it is true that home stoves do not have the same heat as restaurant stoves re: wok cooking. It doesn’t mean that we can’t wok cook as well at home though, it is just that there are a few things we cannot do as well as restaurants do. Namely – the char that they can get which is a characteristic of some signature Asian dishes that makes it SO good! Like – real Chinese fried rice as a slight charred flavour to it which is called “wok hei” (pronounced “hey”). Without that charred flavour, it’s not real fried rice. We can’t achieve that at home but fried can still be totally delicious! other foods that have wok char or caramelisation include other iconic asian noodles like Char Kway Teow and Pad Thai. But don’t let that stop you! I usually add a little something extra into the sauce to make up for it 🙂 N x
I NEVER leave reviews but I had to for this! This was absolutely delicious and as good as takeout! I made a couple of tweaks: used crushed red pepper instead of the chiles; added broccoli and bell pepper; subbed regular soy sauce for both soy sauces; added a drizzle of extra agave into the pan at the last minute for just a bit more hint of sweetness. SO GOOD.
I was nervous about making this but it actually turned out great!! Super easy to follow and very delicious. I didn’t find the Thai chillies so I used jalapeños and it was perfect. Would highly recommend it!
I have been craving drunken noodles from my favorite Thai restaurant for years after moving to the UK. After finally finding wide enough rice noodles (10mm) at a local Japanese supermarket, I made this recipe and it was PERFECT. Thought I was back at the restaurant. Made it with just one regular red chili because my wife doesn’t love spice, but it was still good. If it were just for me I would have turned up the heat. Thank you for this amazing recipe, I will definitely be making it all the time now!
Do you recommend adding salt when making this? I made this and it was great but i felt like something was missing
Hi Anisha, no as the salt comes from the fish, oyster and soy sauces. N x
Came out great! Thanks! I added shrimp, baby corn, snap peas & red bell pepper! Yum!!
Wow! This is seriously ridiculously good! Just as good as any Thai restaurant I’ve been too. This is definitely a keeper. We added shiitakes and shredded carrots. 🧑🏻🍳
This was so good. Thank you!!
Loved it turned out so well . Tasted great too. I did add little bit of schechuan sauce since dint have thai chilli and it was perfect
Ironically made this dish for myself after a few drinks…Amazing recipe, flavor and taste, Thanks Nagi