Rice Noodles

These Rice Noodles are made with colorful vegetables and vegan chicken, and are bursting with flavor. A great stir fry, budget-friendly and better than any take-out. Made in one wok or skillet, my easy Rice Noodles recipe comes together in under 20 minutes.

You know I’m a big fan of stir fry noodles recipes.

Count me in whenever someone makes delicious Drunken Noodles, a big portion of Pan Fried Noodles, or Singapore Noodles. 

What stands out in my recipe for easy Rice Noodles is that you don’t have to make a Stir Fry Sauce in advance. Even though this sauce is one of my favorites, we make everything from scratch.

Reasons to make these Rice Noodles

Here are my top 5 reason for why I think this is the best Rice Noodles recipe you will ever make:

1. It comes together real fast. No complicated steps or fancy ingredients. Perfect as a quick weeknight dinner, or even for meal prep.
2. Plain and simple: these noodles taste better than any takeout.
3. You get a really beautiful and colorful dish. Feed your eyes!
4. Cheap and filling. It has all the great flavors, components and is cheap.
5. It works in a wok or skillet.

What you need for this Rice Noodles recipe

Before you can jump into the kitchen, let’s talk about what ingredients you need to have at hand. So, let’s look at basic ingredients, vegetables, and spices.

Basic ingredients

First of all, you obviously need some rice noodles. Use what ever you have on hand. Simply soak them quickly according to package directions in hot water, as you can see also see in my picture.

If you use sesame oil or vegetable oil, is a matter of taste. In my gusto sesame oil in stir fry tastes delicious, adding a slight nutty flavor. But you also can use whatever you have on hand like peanut, canola, sunflower or olive oil.

Cornstarch is used with vegan chicken bites. It helps making them crispier when frying. You might know this trick from my Potato Cheese Balls or the Sweet and Sour Cauliflower. The only difference is we use a little less starch for the chicken bites.

Vegetables for Stir Fry

In my opinion the beauty of a stir fry is what you can play around with what you decide to put in it. However, there are some basic choices for vegetables that always work: 

Mushrooms are part of the umami flavor for the rice noodles along with tamari in the sauce.

Broccoli adds a lot of freshness and crunch, not to forget about the radiant green color!

Final entry in this list is bell pepper. I prefer the red ones for their sweet and mild flavor.

Spices and Seasonings

Grated ginger makes all your vegetables pop as it adds a warm and peppery flavor that is truly unmatched. I use it in combination with garlic which I also grated. 

Brown sugar is used in the tamari-based sauce to complement the savory flavors with sweetness.

Adding sriracha creates some extra heat and vegetable broth balances this in the sauce.

How to make Rice Noodles

Getting ready

Soak your rice noodles in hot water as the package directions prescribe. This typically takes about 3 or 4 minutes.

In a bowl, mix chicken bites with cornstarch and 1 Tbs of your vegetable oil, reserve rest for frying. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, then set aside.

As you can see I mixed the sauce ingredients: vegetable broth, sriracha, brown sugar and tamari, give it a good stir and that’s it.

Frying the Rice Noodles

In a wok or skillet, heat remaining 3 Tbs of the vegetable oil.

When hot, add chicken bites and fry them for 2 minutes. They should start becoming slightly brown on the outside. Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon to leave the oil in the wok.

Next add the broccoli, sliced mushrooms, and bell pepper stripes. Season with grated ginger and garlic and fry everything for 3 minutes. Add drained rice noodles, the sauce, and add chicken bites back.

Mix well and cook for 2 minutes longer, and serve.

Tips and tricks

If you are looking at making these Rice Noodles for a large crowd, it’s straightforward to simply double or triple the size.

You can sprinkle some scallions or sesame seeds on top just before serving for even more flavor.

If you don’t like sriracha, you can easily replace it by tomato ketchup

You can of course chop your garlic and ginger instead of grating. Nothing comes close to the flavors of freshly grated which is so wonderful for the texture in every bite, instead of big chunks.

Go ahead and try these Rice Noodles.

Tag me with your remakes on Instagram or Facebook.

Enjoy, Florian.