Thai glass noodles (Pad Woon Sen)

These Thai Glass Noodles Pad Woon Sen are a flavour packed homestyle recipe to make weeknight dinners exciting again!! Quick 8 minute cook, chewy glass noodles are tossed with seasoned chicken and greens in a punchy Thai sauce.

When you buy the wrong noodles

This Thai noodle stir fry is what I made last week when I was looking for something tasty and quick to make with glass noodles (bean thread noodles) which I accidentally bought instead of rice vermicelli. Honestly, it feels like a mistake that’s designed to happen. They look exactly the same – white, very thin noodles – and the tiny words bean thread is not exactly screaming at you from the packet!! See??

But actually, they are different. Similar neutral flavour but glass noodles are transparent (hence the name), slippery, chewy and made of mung bean starch. Rice vermicelli are white, not slippery, break more easily and made of (you guessed it) rice!

Having said that though, you can usually use them interchangeably – including in today’s recipe. Phew!

Today’s recipe – Thai Glass Noodles

Ranting done – today’s recipe. It’s a homestyle Thai dish I found on the Hot Thai Kitchen website, so not likely to be on the menu of your local Thai takeout. Pad means stir fried and Woon Sen are the glass noodles, hence the name.

There’s no definitive recipe – every one I’ve seen uses a different sauce and add -ins – but the common factor is the use of glass noodles, scrambled egg, a sauce that leans towards savoury with a hint of sweet, and that it’s a quick recipe.

You’ll also be really happy to know you can use either glass noodles or rice vermicelli. So it doesn’t matter if you accidentally buy the wrong one!!! 🎉

Ingredients in Thai Glass Noodles

Here’s what you need to make these Thai Glass Noodles. I think you’ll be happily surprise how few ingredients you need! 🙂

1. the glass noodles

The proper name is “bean thread noodles” which is the name on the label, but I don’t know anyone who calls it that! I always hear it referred to as glass noodles, and sometimes cellophane noodles, because they are transparent once hydrated.

Find it with the dried noodles in the Asian section of grocery stores. A 200g packet here in Australia costs $1.85.

And PS, in case you missed it above, you can absolutely use rice vermicelli noodles instead.

2. the add ins

Pad Woon Sen is supposed to be a quick recipe, so I’ve really leaned into that. Just one vegetable that’s easy to chop (any long leafy Asian greens), slicing rather than dicing onions.

• Chinese broccoli (gai lan) or other Asian greens like choi sum or bok boy. Long leafy Asian greens are my go-to for adding plenty of veg into a dish with minimal preparation. Just cut stems and leaves into 5cm/2″ pieces,halving thicker stems so they all cook evenly. Much less mess than chopping broccoli with tiny floret bits flying everywhere!

• Onion – Just half, sliced. Adds aromatic flavour into the stir fry.

• Garlic – Usually for stir fries I insist on finely mincing with a knife but for this one you can use a garlic crusher if you prefer. There’s enough “stuff” in the pan to avoid the garlic from burning.

• Chicken thighs – My first choice cut of chicken for stir fries because the pieces stay juicy. If using breast, I pretty much always velvet it to keep it tender because breast is soooo lean – directions here (scale chicken weight up to 350g/12oz by clicking on Servings and sliding the scale).

• Maggi seasoning – See Sauce ingredient below for chatter about this. You’d be hard pressed to find a Thai household without Maggi seasoning!!

3. SAUCE FOR THAI GLASS NOODLES

The sauce uses Thai cooking heavyweights for maximum flavour with minimal ingredients – Maggi seasoning! Oyster sauce! Fish sauce!

• Maggi Seasoning (photo below) – A quiet little secret weapon in Thai kitchens. It looks like soy sauce but delivers a bigger savoury punch, that “can’t quite put my finger on it” umami depth. It doesn’t contain MSG, but instead uses Flavour Enhancer 635. While additives like this sometimes get a bad rap, even the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) considers MSG safe at normal levels, and it even occurs naturally in foods like tomato, cheese and miso.

  As for Flavour Enhancer 635, the USFDA assesses its components – disodium inosinate (E631) and disodium guanylate (E627) – both approved for safe use in foods.

  Find Maggi Seasoning in the Asian sauces aisle at large grocery stores or Asian stores (about $5 at Coles, and it lasts for years). Use it in Banh Mi, Garlic Noodles, or swap in up to 1 tablespoon for soy sauce in Thai stir fries for an extra flavour boost (don’t overdo it or it will dominate).

  Substitute: light soy sauce, all-purpose soy sauce, or tamari (for gluten free).

• Oyster sauce – This packs a ton of umami, adds some sweetness and acts as a thickener. You can use vegetarian oyster sauce, it’s pretty widely available these days at grocery stores.

• Fish sauce – Used in Thai cooking like soy sauce is used in Chinese cooking, as the primary source of salt. While it smells a bit (ok, very!) funky straight out of the bottle, once it’s cooked it is completely transformed, adding depth of flavour and complexity into any dish without a fishy flavour.

• Oil – Any neutral flavoured oil like canola, vegetable or peanut oil. This adds a bit of much needed oil into the springy glass noodles which can otherwise be a little dry.

• Sugar – Just one teaspoon, so these noodles have the right balance of savoury-to-sweet.

• White pepper – The more common pepper used in Asian cooking, but you can just use black pepper if you want, not a big deal.

LABEL NOTE: The description on the label under the name “Maggi Original Seasoning” changes. The current bottle I have says “for an authentic Asian flavour”. The one above has nothing. A reader found two – one says “Adds umami” and the other says “Improves the taste”. These are all the same sauce!

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How to make Thai Glass Noodles

As with most stir fries, this moves fast once you start cooking (8 minutes!), so have everything chopped and ready to toss into the pan.

1. Prepare glass noodles per the packet direction. It should say to just soak in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes then drained. Give them a quick rinse under tap water to wash of excess starch – this will stop them sticking together.

2. Sauce – Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. Note: It mightn’t seem like enough sauce for the volume of noodles, but please trust the process! That sauce is simple but mighty. 🙂

3. Season chicken – Slice the chicken then toss in the MAGGI seasoning (or soy sauce).

4. Cook – Use a large non-stick skillet 30cm / 12″ wide*. Heat the oil on high heat until hot. Cook the onion for 20 seconds first, then cook the chicken for 2 minutes until just about cooked through.

* We need a big pan to avoid the vegetables and chicken become watery, instead of sizzling. If you don’t have a pan this big, you’ll need to cook the vegetables and chicken separately from the noodles and sauce, then bring it all together at the end. I’ve included directions in the recipe notes.

5. Garlic and stems – Then add the garlic and Chinese broccoli stems, and stir for 30 seconds. By this stage the chicken will be done.

6. Scramble eggs on side (classic Thai) – Push everything to one side and add a small drizzle of oil into the cleared space. Pour the eggs in and gently stir to scramble. When the egg is mostly but not completely cooked, mix it into the chicken.

   💡This technique of scrambling egg on one side of the pan is a typical Thai cooking technique that is used in most Thai stir fries that include egg, rather than cooking it separately, taking it out then adding it back in later. Who has the time!? 😅

7. Leaves, noodles and sauce – Add the Chinese broccoli leaves, top with the noodles then pour the sauce all over.

8. Toss – Use two spatulas to loosen and toss the noodles until the sauce stains the noodles, and the vegetables and chicken is somewhat mixed through (it’s kinda hard as the noodles get all tangled and that’s ok, the most important thing is to get the sauce flavour all through the noodles). Then serve!

This is a big family-size noodle stir fry which is why I use a large 30cm/12″ pan so everything can cook in one go. Woks get too crowded for more than 2 or 3 servings, which is why many recipes use the dreaded “cook meat, take out, cook veg, take out, cook eggs, take out” method.

I use the Pyrolux Ignite 30cm Chefs Pan which is non-stick, induction compatible, oven-proof and comes with a lid. It’s deep enough to handle family-size stir fries and fried rice without everything turning watery, and can be used for cooking a wide variety of things, from stove-to-oven stews to pan fried fritters, searing rissoles to flipping fluffy pancakes.

And no, I am not getting paid to endorse that pan! I’ve been using it for years. 🙂 In fact, I was rather amused to see references to RecipeTin Eats in the Amazon reviews for that pan!! – Nagi x

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Watch how to make it

Remembering Dozer

Last week, we crossed a huge milestone at our food bank RecipeTin Meals – 500,000 homemade meals made and donated! That’s a LOT of hungry tummies filled, so it was such a proud moment for all of us.

I’ll always consider RTM part of Dozer’s legacy because he was such a big part of this website and both my cookbooks which is what funds RTM. He was there from the very beginning – at my feet the day I hit publish on my very first recipe, the grind and grit learning how to take decent food photos, then videos, and all the late nights working on my cookbooks.

I will never, ever forget his loyalty through those hard months to meet the tight cookbook deadlines. He would stay beside me all night, refusing to go to bed until I did. Helping, in his way. Like this:

And now Dozer will live on in every meal we make at RTM.

I made a little video that I shared on social media showing our progress from when we first started in a small kitchen during COVID, and the little tribute to Dozer that I thought you might like to see. Here it is!

I’m so proud of my team. And I know Dozer is up in the Big Sky Kitchen, celebrating too. – N x ❤️