One of our all time favorite dish’s is Drunken Noodles. There is something about the sauce that appears sweet and slowly brings in a slight heat. And the way the sauce sticks to the noodles and zucchini noodles so well is unlike so many dishes. We decided that this dish was too good to pass up trying. At first we were intimidated as there is no comparison to our favorite local Thai restaurant but we are always up for a challenge in the kitchen.
As you may recognize from many of our recently recipes it has been tough to get many of the ingredients we would typically try to use for this dish. But luckily for us we have had great luck with the substitutions Honestly if we made Drunken Noodles in the traditional way it may not have turned out as well as this did. And even better news, all of these things are easy to get at the store or you may have them at home already! Aren’t those the best meals? The ones you don’t even need to leave home to make.
Just like our Chicken Pad Thai in this Drunken Noodles recipe, don’t forget to boil the chicken first. It is widely different how much doing this enhances the flavor of the dish. It really allows the sauce to take over once you drain out all of the chicken fat that cooks off.
Lightened Up
We decided that we would try to lighten this up a little. Instead of having all rice noodles we did half rice noodles and half zucchini noodles. Many people try to substitute noodles fully with zucchini. And that can definitely be delicious but we find that zucchini doesn’t hold the sauce as well as a noodle does. So half and half allows us to still have the yummy noodles while packing ourselves full of veggies at the same time!
From our kitchen to yours, cheers!
Drunken Noodles
Ingredients
- 1 pepper sliced thin
- ½ yellow onion sliced thin
- 1 cup grape tomatoes
- ¼ cup basil gently torn up
- 2 zucchinis spiralized
- 2 green onions chopped
- 1 lb chicken breasts or chicken thighs cubed
- 1 package rice noodles
Drunken Noodle Sauce
- 1 tbsp hoisin
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp tamarind paste
- 8 whole basil leaves
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sriracha
Instructions
- Bring two pots of a water to a boil. In one pot add rice noodles and cook as directed on the package. Typically 5 minutes and then remove, strain, and rinse under cold water
- In the other pot add the cubed chicken and boil 3-5 minutes. Strain from water and place aside. The chicken will finish cooking in the wok with the rest of the ingredients later.
- In a bowl add all of the Drunken Noodle Sauce ingredients, mix well and set aside
- Bring a large wok to heat over medium and add two tbsp of sesame oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the peppers, green onion, tomatoes, and yellow onions to the wok and mix well. Cook for about 3 minutes and add in the chicken and basil leaves.
- While the chicken is cooking with the veggies, add the Drunken Noodle Sauce and continue to cook 3-5 minutes. Slowly add in the zucchini noodles and mix.
- Cook about 2 minutes and gently toss in the rice noodles. Mix and serve!
