Thai Fried Noodles with Nam Prik Pao

Thai Fried Noodles are every bit as easy as fried rice and make for an interesting change–and a great way to play with leftover turkey or chicken! Affiliate links were used in this post to link to items being discussed.

I was reading to Sammy’s class during library time last week, a book about Thanksgiving, when I paused in the middle of the story to whisper conspiratorially, “Does everyone here like turkey? Want to hear a secret? I HATE turkey!!!!”

Huge eyeballs everywhere. Total shock. I might as well have said I disliked grandmas and apple pie. But it is true. Why we reserve this most dry and tasteless of fowl for our most cherished food holiday I will never understand. But we do, and I accept it. Kind of. The point, however, is that I have ideas of dishes you can make with your leftover turkey–but the samples you see on these pages will never actually have turkey. Because I don’t make it. I decided a long time ago I was never making turkey. John is welcome to (he has declined). When I host my family for Thanksgiving, I make some form of roast beef (prime rib, etc) and my brother brings his deep fryer and he makes the turkey. And I insist all the fowl (haha could not resist) leftovers leave our house.

So just use your imagination, folks, because just like this dish would work just fine with rotisserie chicken, I am also quite certain leftover turkey would work beautifully as well.

So enough about my ongoing (and fruitless) war against turkey for Thanksgiving, and on to this dish. This dish was inspired by The World’s Best Asian Noodle Recipes: 125 Great Recipes from Top Chefs, which I picked up recently. It is a fascinating book, as it shares Asian and Asian-influenced noodle dishes from restaurants literally spanning North America, India and Asia (and maybe more, as I have not studied it super intensively yet). My dish did not come from any particular dish in the book, so much as a sense that I got after skimming the book that I was taking noodle dishes too seriously, and I ought to approach, at least some noodle dishes, the same way I approach fried rice. A little of this, a little of that, some good condiments and you have an Asian noodle dish. I started with my basic blueprint for Nam Prik Pao Fried Rice, and inserted fresh made angel hair, rinsed with cold water and tossed with a drizzle of dark sesame oil. I did not have broccoli, my normal vegetable of choice for Asian dishes, but I did have carrots and zucchini. We used fried eggs for our protein, but leftover roasted turkey absolutely would go perfectly.

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Thai Fried Noodles with Nam Prik Pao

Course: Entree

Cuisine: Asian, Thai

Author: TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

• 2-3 T vegetable oil
• 2 T minced garlic
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium zucchini, inside seeds scraped out and chopped
• 2 medium-large carrots, chopped
• 1 lb dried angel hair cooked to al dente, rinsed with cold water, and drizzled with 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• 1 T fish sauce, to taste
• 1 T dark soy sauce, to taste
• 2 T nam prik pao, to taste
• 4-8 fried eggs depending on how much you like fried eggs!
• additional nam prik pao for serving if desired

Instructions

1. Cook the noodles as described and set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a wok or nonstick skillet over high heat.

3. Add the garlic and cook, tossing, until golden brown and fragrant, about 1 minute.

4. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until starting to turn golden. Add the zucchini and carrots. Continue to toss, cooking until the onions are golden and the other vegetables softened.

5. Add the sesame tossed noodles and fry for about 2 minutes, stirring. Add the fish sauce, soy sauce and nam prik pao, starting with lesser amounts. Stir, working the sauces into the noodles. Taste for adjustments.

6. Dump the noodles into individual serving dishes and then add a little more oil to the pan. Quickly fry the eggs, preferably with a runny yolk so that its golden goodness can mingle with the nam prik pao. Serve on top of the noodles.