Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles)

Spicy Thai stir-fried noodles with vegetables and aromatic Thai basil

Ingredients

Ingredients

Noodles:

• 14 oz (package) of very wide dried rice noodles (wide as you can get)

Cooking:

• 4 tbs oil
• 6 large cloves garlic, minced
• 4 thai chilis, deseeded and very finely chopped
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2-3 cups bok choy
• 1-2 carrots, peeled all the way into slivers
• 4 handfuls green onion, white section only chopped (put aside a little of the green for garnish at the end)
• 4 tsp fish sauce
• 2 cups thai basil roughly chopped (critical!! ingredient)

Sauce:

• 6 tbsp oyster sauce
• 6 tbsp soy sauce (can split into half dark and half light soy sauce if you have it)
• 4 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water

Instructions

1. Cook noodles according to package directions. Set aside
2. Stir together all of sauce ingredients in small bowl and set aside
3. With oil heated, cook the chilis and garlic for a minute. (Note: it can be easier to just put chilis and garlic in small food processor to make sure they are chopped small). Do not burn the garlic!
4. Add rest of vegetables and cook until tender. Add fish sauce near the end and cook another 30 seconds
5. Add sauce, noodles and stir to combine well and make sure sauce coats everything
6. Remove from heat and stir in the basil until it is wilted
7. Serve immediately

Notes

1. This is a veggie version. For meat, nix the carrots and bok choy and add a pound of chicken, beef or shrimp. Simply cook that with the garlic/chili until cooked and then add the veggies. Add the fish sauce when cooking the meat in this case. Chop the beef or chicken small or into small strips
2. Extra fish sauce does not hurt this dish
3. Adjust # of chilis to adjust heat. At the end if it is not hot enough, add sriracha at the table to increase heat (it does not take much)