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Thai Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Basil
This is our version of kway teow pad kee mao, or “drunkard’s stir-fried noodles,” a street-food favorite and a standard offering in Thai restaurants in the U.S. We use a trio of heavy-hitting, umami-rich staples—oyster sauce, fish sauce and soy sauce—to deliver big flavor, fast. Briny-sweet shrimp take the place of the more common chicken. Fresh basil, added at the end so it retains its brightness, is a defining ingredient. If you can find Thai basil, its peppery, spicy notes perfectly balance the other high-impact ingredients in the dish, but sweeter, milder Mediterranean basil is a fine stand-in. Flat, wide fresh rice noodles give pad kee mao character, but can be hard to find, so we use dried rice stick noodles. Look for ones about ½ inch wide as they come closer to the width of fresh noodles, but even ¼-inch rice sticks work. A 12- to 14-inch wok offers the space to easily toss the ingredients, but a 12-inch skillet is fine, too.
4
Servings
Don’t stir the shrimp more than once after adding them to the pan. Letting them cook undisturbed gives them a chance to caramelize, which adds richer, deeper color as well as flavor to the stir-fry.
45 minutes
Ingredients
-
10
ounces ½-inch-wide rice stick noodles (see headnote)
-
12
ounces large (26/30 per pound) shrimp, peeled and deveined
Directions
-
01Place the noodles in a large bowl and add hot tap water to cover. Let stand, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes; the noodles will become pliable but not fully tender. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with 2 teaspoons of the oyster sauce and 1 teaspoon of the fish sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 2 tablespoons each oyster sauce and fish sauce, the sugar, soy sauce and ¼ cup water.
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