Beef drunken noodles (pad kee mao)
Wide rice noodles stir-fried with spicy beef, peppers and basil in a dark, savory sauce, a Thai takeout favorite for two.
- 35 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $4.33 a serving
- 730 calories
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 6 oz rice noodles
- ½ red bell pepper, sliced
- ½ yellow onion, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 serrano peppers, thinly sliced
- 1½ tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 8 oz 85/15 ground beef
- ½ cup fresh basil
From your pantry
- 5 tsp vegetable oil, divided
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp brown sugar
Each serving has about 730 calories, 29 g protein, 84 g carbs and 29 g fat, and costs about $4.33 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Cook the rice noodles as the package says until just tender, , with cold water, and with 1 teaspoon oil.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Dolly’s tip: Pull them while they still have a little chew. They soften more in the pan.Slice the pepper and onion, the garlic, and the chiles.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Thinly slice. Thinly slicing means cutting slices about an eighth of an inch thick, roughly two coins stacked. Thin slices cook in seconds and soften fast, which quick dishes need.
How you’ll know: A slice bends a little when you hold it by one edge, and slow, steady cuts beat fast ones.
Stir the soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce and brown sugar together in a small bowl.
Heat the rest of the oil in a large over high and stir the garlic and chiles 30 seconds, .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
High heat
Add the beef and cook 5 minutes, breaking it up, until no pink is left.
High heatTimer: 5 min
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Add the pepper and onion and 2 minutes, until .
Stir-fry. Stir-frying means cooking small pieces fast over high heat in a little oil, stirring almost constantly. It moves quickly, so have everything chopped and ready before the pan gets hot.
How you’ll know: It sizzles loudly the whole time, and the vegetables turn bright and tender-crisp in minutes.
Tender-crisp. Tender-crisp means vegetables cooked until just tender but still with a little snap. They keep their bright color and crunch instead of going soft and dull.
How you’ll know: A fork goes in with slight resistance, and the color is bright, not olive or gray.
High heatTimer: 2 min
Add the noodles and sauce and with tongs 2 minutes, until the noodles are glossy and dark.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
High heatTimer: 2 min
Dolly’s tip: If they start to stick, add a splash of water and keep tossing.in the basil until it , and serve right away.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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