In boxing terms, drunken noodles are pound-for-pound contenders for “most flavor-packed dish.” With relatively few ingredients, the noodles explode and swirl with taste, and what’s notable is how instrumental each individual ingredient is to the overall dish.  Take one ingredient away, and you might not be able to pinpoint what’s missing, but you’d know something was off.

I’ve made many attempts at recreating the drunken noodles I’ve eaten in restaurants, and I think I’m getting pretty close. The foundation are the big three: fish sauce, Thai chiles and basil.  Then I’ve messed around with a few other ingredients, and ended up with this:

1/2 lb wide rice noodles
3/4 lb chicken, sliced
1 onion, cut into chunks
2 carrots, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Thai chiles, minced
1 bunch basil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp brown sugar
vegetable oil

(Where’s the alcohol?  Doesn’t have any.  The origin of the name is hazy; some people think they’re called drunken noodles because they’re a popular late-night drunk food in Thailand — the Thai equivalent of a 2 am Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast.)

Making the dish is a snap — first you want to cook the noodles and set them aside. Then prep the rest of the ingredients.

How many Thai chiles should you use?  I never know for sure. On occasion I’ve used three and it’s worked out just fine. Other times three chiles rendered the dish unbearably, galactically hot, and I ended up sweating more than Ted Stryker in the landing scene of Airplane! Two is safe.

Stir fry the chicken until it loses its pink color and set it aside, then stir fry the onions and carrots.   I like to cook the onions just until they start to caramelize and develop some brown coloring.

Add the garlic and chiles, give it a few stirs, then add the liquids and brown sugar.

When the sauce comes to a boil, add back the chicken, noodles, and basil.   A few big stirs to mix everything together and wilt the basil.

You don’t have to be drunk to realize, that’s good eating.