Chicken Pad See Ew

Thai stir-fried noodles

Pad See Ew is one of those dishes you could easily make every week.

It’s quick, flavorful, and doesn’t require a long list of hard-to-find ingredients. Yet one bite and you can immediately tell it comes from Thai cuisine. It’s savory, slightly sweet, and has that subtle smoky flavor from the wok. It has a few things in common with Pad Thai, but without all the extra prep work. For us, it’s the perfect weeknight meal that still feels a little special.

What exactly is Pad See Ew?

The name literally means “stir-fried soy sauce noodles,” which describes it pretty well. In Thailand, it’s often made with wide rice noodles, Chinese broccoli (gaj lan), and egg. Traditional recipes typically use about 4 stems of Chinese broccoli. The ends are trimmed, the leaves are separated from the stems, and both parts are used in the dish. Since the stems take a little longer to cook, they’re usually stir-fried first before the leaves are added.

But as with many street food dishes, you use what you have on hand. We use regular broccoli in this recipe, which works just as well. And if you have wide rice noodles, that’s great. If not, regular noodles or egg noodles work perfectly well too.

The sauce makes all the difference

The real magic of Chicken Pad See Ew is in the sauce. It’s what gives the dish its signature Thai flavor. We combine 2 generous tablespoons kecap manis with 1 tablespoon fish sauce, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. The result is a rich, savory sauce with a subtle sweetness. The sauce is added at the very end, allowing everything to caramelize nicely in the wok.

Kecap manis

An important ingredient in Pad See Ew is kecap manis. This is a thick, sweet Indonesian soy sauce with a distinctive flavor that’s widely used in Asian cooking. Its syrupy texture and rich flavor come from palm sugar and spices like star anise and cloves. It adds sweetness, depth, and a touch of warmth to this dish. If you can’t find kecap manis, you can use a sweet soy sauce instead. Just make sure to choose a thick, syrupy variety, as thinner versions won’t provide the same flavor and texture.

If you don’t have either on hand, you can easily make a substitute at home. In this recipe, we use 2 tablespoons kecap manis. You can replace it with a mix of 1 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoons molasses, and 1 tablespoons brown sugar. You can make this ahead of time if you want the sauce to thicken slightly, but that’s not required.

A quick stir-fry and dinner is ready

We start by cooking strips of chicken until they’re nicely golden brown. Then we add the cooked noodles and broccoli, followed by the sauce. Next, we push everything to one side of the wok and crack one or two eggs into the pan. Stir until the eggs are set, then toss everything together for another minute. The key is to keep things hot and moving quickly. And once it’s ready, serve it right away.

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