What is drunken noodles
With a name like drunken noodles, you might be wondering if they’re loaded up with alcohol. However, in this Thai dish, rice noodles, fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic, and chili are what gives it the flavors you’ll soon come to love. The name comes from the fact that very often, this dish is the go-to snack after a night of drinking. No need to be drunk to enjoy your drunken noodles, though. My husband and I love them on busy nights. It’s so easy to throw drunken noodles together on a whim, yet they taste like you slaved over them for hours. The rice noodles are stir-fried using a rich and savory brown sauce. Bright and cheerful vegetables along with chicken make this such a simple and speedy meal and it tastes way better than takeout.
Drunken noodles ingredients
What type of rice noodles to use
With these drunken noodles, I used fresh rice noodles from Chinatown. This gives it a stunning appearance and more of a meaty texture. Not to mention, you can directly use the noodles in the stir fry without any prep, further reducing the cooking time. Keep your eyes peeled for the fresh noodles when you go to your local Asian market. If you can find them, they are the absolute best choice. But don’t worry if you can’t find them fresh. You can use the dried ones which will work quite well too. You’ll just have to make sure to rehydrate them as instructed on the package.
Protein of your choice
While my recipe does list chicken thigh in the ingredients, please feel free to use any protein you wish for your drunken noodles. You can even leave it out if you’d prefer. For example, beef, pork, shrimp, and tofu will all work perfectly. Unlike most of my Chinese stir fries, where I always use cornstarch to marinate the meat to give it a tender texture, I skipped that step in this one so the result is closer to the restaurant style. This method works really well with shrimp and beef (keep the beef a bit pink inside so it remains juicy and tender). If you use a lean cut of pork or chicken breast, the meat will come out a bit chewier than other types of protein.
Vegetables and alternatives
I used Chinese broccoli and baby corn in this dish for color and texture. If you can’t find it, spinach, broccolini, and even baby bok choy are all wonderful replacements that will give you plenty of nutrition, too. If you use Chinese broccoli or broccolini, thinly slice the stems at an angle (see the picture below). For broccolini, you can further slice the florets into 2 to 3 smaller pieces. This way, the stems will be cooked quickly and evenly without blanching first. The baby corn can be replaced with water chestnuts or bamboo shoots, which add a nice crunchy texture.
Mise en place
When you’re ready to cook, your table should have:
Drunken noodles cooking process
And should you be in a celebratory mood and knock back a number of cocktails, if you have leftover drunken noodles in your fridge, you’re going to be incredibly happy to come home to them!
More delicious Thai recipes
Thai Style Crab Fried Rice Thai Beef Salad Thai Basil Chicken (Pad Krapow Gai) Thai-Style Salmon Curry Thai Sweet Chili Chicken Thai Fish Cakes (Tod Mun Pla)
