I never tried making pan-fried rice noodles until I came across the recipe in Andrea Nguyen’s The Pho Cookbook (she calls them “panfried pho noodles”). It’s a fairly large cake of pan-fried rice noodles with a crispy exterior. In her recipe, she tosses the rice noodles with a scant amount of sugar and cornstarch to get the noodles to brown more easily. I omitted the sugar and cornstarch because I thought the noodles browned reasonably well without them. I served these noodles with gochujang and fried eggs, and my husband wouldn’t stop talking about how tasty the entire dish was. If you have another favorite hot sauce, such as sriracha, feel free to use that instead!
COOKING NOTES FOR PAN-FRIED RICE NOODLES
Using fresh rice noodles: Although I haven’t tried this yet, I suspect that this recipe tastes even better when you use fresh rice noodles (i.e., ones that are already fully cooked). There is a soft chewiness to fresh rice noodles that is not easy to replicate by cooking dried rice noodles. Ever wondered why pad see-ew or pad thai in a restaurant tastes different when you attempt to make it at home? Using fresh rice noodles may be part of the answer. You can find fresh rice noodles at Asian supermarkets, though they are usually stored in the most random places. Sometimes, I see them by the refrigerated tofu or dumpling wrappers. I also see them by the cash registers. The noodles are usually laid over a piece of styrofoam and the entire package is tightly wrapped in plastic. Just take the noodles out of the package and cut them into strips. You’ll need about 10 ounces of fresh noodles to make 1 cake. Just throw them straight into the pan to cook.
LOOKING FOR MORE NOODLE DISHES?
Coconut Curry Stir-Fry Rice Noodles with Glazed TofuEasy Green Curry Noodles (Vegan)Hot & Sour Coconut Noodle SoupYou can also visit my complete noodles archives here.
