Pad Kee Mao (Spicy Ground Chicken and Rice Noodles) Recipe
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A tangle of rice noodles wraps up juicy ground chicken, tender pieces of egg, and sweet bell peppers. Add an Asian-inspired sauce and fiery jalapeños, and you have a quick, easy take on a popular Thai dish that’s great for a weeknight dinner.
What to buy: Wide rice noodles, oyster sauce, and fish sauce can be found at Asian markets and in the Asian foods section of the supermarket.
Thai basil is a variety of basil that has purple stems and releases a slightly peppery flavor when cooked. It can be found in Asian markets. If you can’t find it, go ahead and substitute regular basil.
This recipe was featured as part of both our Easy Weeknight Dinners photo gallery and our Chile Pepper Recipes photo gallery.
- 1 (14-ounce) package wide rice noodles
- 1/4 cup oyster sauce
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 2 limes)
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 medium shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 3 medium garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 2 medium red or green bell peppers, thinly sliced
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 medium jalapeño peppers, thinly sliced
- 1 cup loosely packed Thai basil leaves
- Place noodles in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak for about 15 minutes, until loose and pliable but not soft; drain and set aside. Meanwhile, combine oyster sauce, fish sauce, and lime juice in a medium nonreactive bowl, mix well, and set aside.
- Heat oil in a large (12-inch) frying pan over medium-high heat. Once heated, add shallots and garlic and cook for 2 minutes or until softened but not brown. Add ground chicken and break into small pieces. Cook until chicken is white and almost cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add bell peppers and stir-fry just until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.
- Push chicken mixture to one side of the pan and add eggs to the center. Scramble with a spatula until eggs are set and don’t run, about 1 minute. Push eggs to the side and add reserved sauce mixture. Once the sauce is boiling, add the drained noodles and toss to coat. Remove from heat, add jalapeños and basil, and toss to combine; serve immediately.
Beverage pairing: Hacker-Pschorr Weisse, Germany. This dish is known as “drunken noodles,” though it’s not clear if that means it’s a good snack to have while drinking or good hangover food. Maybe both. In either case, it’s often fairly spicy, so you don’t want to drink anything too alcoholic with it, which is why a zesty, citrusy wheat beer from Germany is a good choice to soothe the lovely burn.
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I do NOT like Asian food. I made this tonight for my husband, tasted it, and I am quite impressed! The ingredients were easy to find at Shoppers or Giant.
I cook SE Asian food a lot, and reading this I thought the amounts of fish sauce, oyster sauce and lime juice seemed high. I'd try 2 T each of oyster sauce and fish sauce, with a squeeze of lime at the end... you don't want to boil the lime juice. Also, the purple basil is Asian basil; Thai basil has smaller green leaves and a pronounced anise flavor. Last, if you can find fresh wide rice noodles, they are great in this dish, but don't soak them first. If they've hardened from time or refrigeration, you can soften them in the microwave. But if you do use dried rice noodles, I suggest soaking them longer (30 min) in just warm water, not boiling.
we made this tonight and instead of ground chicken used ground pork. it turned out great, except for I think the pork is too fatty so it felt really greasy, and the fish sauce was overbearing. my fiance is philipino and they use fish sauce "patis" in a lot of recipes, but the amount is just a teaspoon or tablespoon at most. all in all we will make this again, just not as much patis, and probably try it with ground chicken or turkey instead. :) awesome basil, bell pepper, and yes we used dried wide egg noodles. I am eager to order this in a thai place as I have never had it, and enjoyed this one!
Soygirl2, thank you very much for the suggestion! I found some vegetarian mushroom sauce online and ordered a bottle. Thanks so much!!
bethd92692 - Vegetarian versions of oyster sauce exist which use mushroom extract instead. It's not ideal, but closer to the real thing than hoisin.
Does anybody have a suggestion for a substitution for the oyster sauce? My husband is very allergic to shellfish so I don't use oyster sauce in my Chinese recipes. I was thinking of hoisin sauce thinned with some chicken stock...
mmm I have been cooking a lot of Thai recently. I've been especially obsessed with laab which also uses spicy ground chicken, beef, or pork. Love the combination here. If you want to check out some spicy thai salads to go with: http://tinyurl.com/npkpek
This looks super yummy, thank you. One thing I am wondering though....and indeed always have wondered regarding recipes I find on this site...is it possible in the future to think about including nutritional analyses?
i love this dish! though i make it with sliced chicken thighs. This adds a bit more flavor and does not make the chicken so dry. i also like to add a pinch of brown sugar and clintro.
Some like to add bean sprouts to it.. but i don't. It takes the flavor away for me. I am not a big fan of bean sprouts.
Original Pad Khee Mao does not add egg and shallot. Thai basil ('Bai Horapha') is the second choice, the authentic use 'Holy Basil' ('Bai Kaprao') the more you add the more aroma....
If you love carrot, baby corn and long bean, you can add. Their flavor will balance the dish and healthy recipe. Lime is the option, Thai fish sauce -- do not add in one time you can add more if you need...
i'm looking for a thai and chinese meal to cook at school for my cooking assignment. I have to cook a sauce with meat and rice or potatoes.
Any thoughts on how to make this vegetarian-friendly?
Nice introduction to Thai cooking (that does not come from a pouch of pre-mix curries). I only had frozen chicken breast, so I cubed it after cooking, I do not trust ground chicken for some reason. I think it would work well with shrimp. I found the noodles grabbed most of the liquid, I would add a bit more the next time. Nice flavors! It should be a regular in our house.
i'm a kee mao fanatic. i've never seen kee mao with eggs. you're thinking of see yu noodles.
whatever you do, you need a good wok char on those noodles for that great caramelized tastiness.
fresh rice noodles make the dish, though. it is just not the same with the dried noodles.
and she uses ground beef instead of chicken, I didn't see the meat before. OK thats it! Happy eating!
oh these noodles are for a hangover.
Hi! My mom makes these and they are the s***. I know her recipe isn't the exact Pad Kee Mao recipe, as there is no "exact" one, but it sure is tasty! She doesn't use egg, oyster sauce, bell peppers. She does put bean sprouts tho, and those yummy hot serrano peppers instead of the jalepeno. Also, 1/4 of a cup of fish sauce is a lot. You gotta be careful with that stuff because it is potent! This dish is very simple, but it is so YUMMY!