Also known as Pad Kee Mao, Drunken Noodles are a Thai dish served as a hangover cure. 

It wasn’t a hangover that forced me to make this recipe; it was a couple of ingredients in my refrigerator that really needed to be used. This was also my first time cooking this infamous dish. 

The main ingredient, fresh, wide rice noodles, is what I love most about this dish. When cooked properly (you’ll get a little char on the edges), the texture of the noodles will have a beautiful chew and perfectly soak up whatever sauce you bathe them in. So if you see them at your local Asian market, it’s worth buying them.

My second favorite ingredient is the chicken. I usually don’t care for meat proteins in dishes and prefer vegetables instead, but when meat is “velveted”, then I’m first in line! (If you’ve always wondered how the meat is so tender at Asian restaurants, this is why. I will go more into velveting later, but if you cook this dish, you will understand the process.)

Drunken Noodles is a recipe with many versions, as it is one of those dishes where you use whatever you have. I've changed some things for my version, but it is based on the recipe from The Woks of Life. 

Drunken Noodles History:

Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao) originated in Thailand. It has roots in Chinese immigrant cooking in the early 20th century, but didn’t become mainstream until around the 1970’s. 

There are many versions of how the recipe came into existence. The most popular being that it was a food created to be eaten to sober up after a night of imbibing local spirits. Some versions were so spicy that it was said to wake an inebriated person up. 

My favorite is the story of the wife who hated how her husband acted after drinking. She decided to teach him a lesson by making his favorite noodle dish and added as many spices as she could. 

Whichever the original tale was for the creation of this recipe, it must have worked because now this dish is a staple on every Thai menu!