{"id":206242,"title":"Authentic Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles)","modified":"2026-11-14T19:37:06+01:00","plain":"Wide rice noodles stir-fried in a wok with chicken, garlic, chili and holy basil: Thai restaurant pad kee mao, made at home.\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s late, hunger is kicking in and you want something that wakes you up. Pad kee mao arrives piping hot from the wok: wide ribbons of rice noodle glistening with brown sauce, tender chicken, stalks of Chinese broccoli that are still crisp. The aroma of pounded garlic and chili hits your nose, and the basil adds the final fragrance to the plate. You often order it at a Thai restaurant without realizing it\u2019s just as quick to make at home.\n\n\n\nThe same wide noodles, without chili or basil: pad see ew\n\n\n\nWhat Is Pad Kee Mao?\n\n\n\nPad kee mao is a wide rice noodle stir-fry from Thai cuisine, made here with chicken, Chinese broccoli and carrot. A paste of garlic and bird\u2019s eye chili gives it its heat, and the basil gives it its fragrance. A dark sauce coats everything in a salty flavor rich in umami, which the sugar mellows without making the dish sweet. It shares its noodles with pad see ew, but is much spicier.\n\n\n\nIn Thai, pad means to stir-fry and kee mao means a drunkard, hence the nickname \u201cdrunken noodles.\u201d The dish contains no alcohol, though.\n\n\n\nBetween the Chinese Wok and Thai Chili\n\n\n\nWide rice noodles, soy sauces and wok cooking come from Chinese cuisines, which arrived in Thailand with Chinese merchants and immigrants. Pad kee mao adds what is distinctly Thai: bird\u2019s eye chili, garlic and basil. No date, city or inventor is attributed to it with any certainty.\n\n\n\nTwo stories circulate about its name. The first makes it the spicy dish you eat late at night with an ice-cold beer. The second says a drunk person improvised it with whatever was left in their kitchen. Neither proves that the dish cures a hangover.\n\n\n\nThe other great classic among Thai stir-fried noodles: pad thai\n\n\n\nIn Thailand, the name refers first and foremost to a very spicy stir-fry without noodles, served over rice. Home cooks also make it with spaghetti. The wide rice noodle version is the one served in Thai restaurants in Europe and the United States.\n\n\n\nThe Main Ingredients in Pad Kee Mao\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSen yai are wide fresh rice noodles, sold in the refrigerated section of Asian grocery stores, and their width holds on to the sauce. Dried ones work too: to cook dried rice noodles, follow the package directions. The chicken is thigh meat, which stays tender. Chinese broccoli (kai-lan) has stems that stay firm and slightly bitter leaves.\n\n\n\nThe sauce combines two soy sauces. Light soy sauce brings the salt: the word \u201clight\u201d refers to its color, not to a lower salt content. Dark soy sauce colors the noodles. Thick oyster sauce helps the sauce cling, and fish sauce boosts the seasoning.\n\n\n\nHoly basil also flavors Thai basil chicken stir-fry\n\n\n\nThe basil makes the dish. Peppery holy basil, kra pao, is the one used for pad kee mao in Thailand. Thai basil, horapa, purple-stemmed and anise-flavored, is easier to find in Europe and takes its place. The garlic and seeded bird\u2019s eye chilies are pounded together in a mortar into a paste that flavors the oil from the very start of cooking.\n\n\n\nTechnique Tips for Good Pad Kee Mao\n\n\n\nEverything moves fast, so have everything ready before you turn on the heat: chicken marinated, sauce mixed, noodles separated, garlic and chili paste pounded.\n\n\n\nThe chicken and vegetables are cooked separately, then go back in at the end. The chicken doesn\u2019t dry out and the vegetables stay crisp.\n\n\n\nOnce the sauce is in, leave the noodles undisturbed on the bottom of the wok for 30 seconds. They pick up a lightly charred, smoky flavor, a bit of wok hei, the \u201cbreath of the wok\u201d of Cantonese cooking. A home stovetop doesn\u2019t get as hot as a restaurant burner: don\u2019t overcrowd the wok, and cook in two batches if you double the recipe.\n\n\n\nFor dessert, stay in Thailand with mango sticky rice\n\n\n\nServe right away, while the noodles are still supple and the basil has only just hit the wok.\n\n\n\n\n\n\tAuthentic Pad Kee Mao\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tChicken Marinade225 g chicken thighs (boneless and skinless, cut into bite-size pieces)2 teaspoons light soy sauce0.5 teaspoon sugar1 tablespoon waterSauce2.5 tablespoons oyster sauce2 tablespoons light soy sauce2 tablespoons dark soy sauce1 tablespoon fish sauce1 tablespoon granulated sugar1 tablespoon waterStir-Fried Noodles450 g wide rice noodles (fresh (sen yai))2 tablespoons vegetable oil5 cloves garlic, (roughly chopped)2 Thai bird's eye chilies, (seeded and chopped)1 shallot, (thinly sliced)3 stalks Chinese broccoli ((kai-lan), cut into bite-size pieces)1 carrot, (peeled and thinly sliced into rounds)10 g holy basil leaves, (or Thai basil)\t\n\t\n\t\tChicken MarinadePut the chicken, light soy sauce, sugar, and water in a bowl.Stir to coat the chicken well.Let marinate for 15 minutes.SauceIn a small bowl, combine the oyster sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and water.Stir until the sugar has dissolved.Set aside.Stir-Fried NoodlesGently separate the fresh noodles.If they are hard to separate or a little dry, soak them in lukewarm water to soften them.If using dried noodles, cook them according to the package directions.Pound the garlic and chilies into a paste with a mortar and pestle, or blend them in a food processor.Heat half the oil in a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat.When the wok is hot, add the marinated chicken and spread it out in a single layer.Sear it for 1 minute on each side, until cooked through.Remove the chicken and set it aside.In the same wok, heat the rest of the oil over medium heat.When the wok is hot, add the garlic and chili paste and stir-fry for about 10 seconds, until fragrant.Add the shallot and stir-fry for 1 minute.Add the Chinese broccoli and carrot.Stir-fry them for about 1 minute, until slightly tender.Remove the vegetables and set them aside.Put the noodles and sauce in the wok.Toss gently until the noodles are well coated.Spread the noodles out in the wok and leave them undisturbed for 30 seconds so they get lightly charred on the bottom.Reduce the heat to low.Return the chicken and vegetables to the wok.Add the basil.Gently toss everything together, taking care not to break the noodles.Serve immediately.\t\n\t\n\t\tNoodles: fresh wide rice noodles can be found in the refrigerated section of Asian grocery stores. Buy them the day you plan to cook and gently separate them before cooking. If you can't find them, dried wide rice noodles work too.\nHoly basil (kra pao), with its peppery flavor, is the basil used in this dish in Thailand. Thai basil (horapa), with its purple stems and anise flavor, is easier to find in Asian grocery stores in Europe and can be used in its place.\nPounding the garlic and chili in a mortar releases more of their aromatic oils, which flavor the whole dish. Cooking the chicken separately lets you control how it cooks without drying it out. Letting the noodles char on the bottom of the wok gives them a caramelized, smoky flavor.\nOn a home stovetop, a wok doesn't get as hot as it does in a restaurant: don't overcrowd it, and cook in two batches if you double the recipe.\n\t\n\t\n\t\tPlat principalTha\u00eflandaise","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}