Thai drunken noodles with beef includes wok-fired rice noodles tossed with tender slices of beef, vibrant Thai basil, garlic, chili, and crisp vegetables — all coated in a rich, savory sauce with just the right kick. Spicy, saucy, and full of bold flavor, these drunken noodles bring serious heat and serious comfort. No booze involved — just flavor that hits hard.
Drunken noodles are one of my very favorite Thai dishes. The chewy rice noodles coated in sweet/salty sauce are SO addicting and you can make this dish with beef, chicken, shrimp, or tofu if you want to go vegetarian. You want to use the super wide rice noodles for this dish, because they are a big part of why its so appealing.
The sauce for this dish is a combination of a few store bought sauces. You really need them all to make this dish all it can be, so here are links to purchase them if you don’t have an Asian market close by. You need fish sauce, oyster sauce, and sweet dark soy. You also need regular soy sauce from the grocery store. If you can’t find bird’s eye chilies, you can sub a red jalapeno or regular jalapeno.
I love Asian food so much and cook it often. Check out my wide selection of super tasty Asian recipes here.
Thai Drunken Noodles with Beef
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1/4 cup oyster sauce
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup sweet soy sauce
- 2 tsp brown sugar
For the stir fry:
- 2 birds eye chilies stemmed and seeded, sub jalapeno if you can't find
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 large shallots minced (use 4 if small)
- 1 lb wide dried rice noodles
- 1 1/2 lbs flank steak
- 1 onion sliced
- 1 red pepper sliced
- 1 tomato cut into wedges
- 1 cup thai basil sub regular basil if needed
Instructions
- Chop the bird's eye or jalapeno finely along with the garlic and shallots. Combine the sauce ingredients and mix well.
- Heat a wok over high heat with a bit of oil. Add the onion and pepper and cook just briefly to get some color on them then move to a plate.
- Thinly slice the steak (freezing for 20 minutes first helps with this). You don't need to season the steak as this sauce is plenty salty. Keep wok smoking hot and sear small batches of steak just until seared. They can still be somewhat rare as you will toss them in again at the end and you don't want to overcook the steak.
- Cook the rice noodles according to the package. Drain well. Reheat wok over medium heat with another tbsp oil and add the garlic, shallot and pepper you chopped. Stir fry for a minute then add in the noodles. Add about half the sauce and toss the noodles in it. Now add back in the beef and the onion and pepper. Cook and toss until the noodles and beef are coated, adding more sauce if there isn't enough to cover. Taste the noodles and beef to be sure they are well seasoned and if not, add more sauce.
- Serve in bowls topped with the basil.