Drunken noodles (pad kee mao ผัดขี้เมา) is one of our favorite Thai restaurant dishes. While you can enjoy it with beef, chicken, pork, shrimp or tofu, it is the slightly charred, perfectly textured salty-spicy-sweet rice noodles that make the dish. After trying to recreate this dish at home over the past 7 to 8 years, I recently discovered the absolute best brand of dried rice noodles for homemade pad kee mao!
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| Drunken noodles using two bundles of the Guangdong dried rice noodles, chicken thighs, broccoli, carrot and frozen holy basil leaves. |
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| Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao) with chicken from Red Orchid, our favorite Thai restaurant in the greater Pittsburgh area. |
Whereas General Tso's chicken may very well be the most popular Chinese-American restaurant dish, pad kee mao, or drunken noodles, surely ranks as one of the top two Thai dishes in America. While the dish has no alcohol used in its preparation, pad kee mao literally translates to stir-fry (ผัด, pad) of the drunkard (ขี้เมา, kee mao). Holy basil, chilies and a salty-sweet, umami-rich brown sauce comprise the main flavor elements of this delicious dish.
Whereas my son's favorite restaurant dish is General Tso's chicken, my daughter has always loved drunken noodles with beef. So it made sense that after posting recipes for our own versions of General Tso's chicken, tofu, and cauliflower, I would try my hand at perfecting home cooked pad kee mao.
Seven Years to Find the Perfect Noodle...
Over the years, I have tried recipes from several websites, and an array of dried rice noodles including Asian Best and Erawan Brand (with the three elephant heads). I quickly found that recapitulating the wonderful flavors of the sauce is easier than getting the proper, sumptiously supple mouthfeel for the noodles.
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| 2018 batch of pad kee mao made using Asian Best rice flakes and the Woks of Life recipe. |
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