These noodles may seem simple, and they are. But one bite, and you will not be able to shovel them into your mouth fast enough. These spicy chilli garlic noodles take 10 minutes to make, but are full of salty and spicy flavours we all know and love. They're good on their own, but can be eaten with any of your favourite stir fry recipes! If you enjoy other quick asian-inspired meals, try my Korean chicken rice bowls, Indian Hakka noodles, or peanut noodles!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
These noodles are pantry friendly! You do not need fancy ingredients or special noodles to make this recipe. This is perfect for nights or lunches where you are low on ingredients or stumped on ideas.
It is a 4 ingredient meal! All you need are four simple ingredients! Some days you do not want to stress about collecting 20 ingredients for noodles. I get that. These noodles are simple, but packed with flavour.
They are easily customizable! While these noodles do not have vegetables or protein in them, with this base sauce, you can add any kind of vegetables, meats or proteins as you please. The options are endless!
Recipe Overview
Flavour: These noodles are the perfect balance of salty and spicy. Soy sauce gives these noodles a familiar saltiness, while the chilli sauce adds a kick in the background that is not too overpowering. If you have not cooked with oyster sauce, it is both salty and sweet, with a slight caramel flavour. These noodles are very well-rounded!
Ease: This sauce requires no fancy technique. While the pasta boils, the sauce ingredients go into a pan at the last minute, and heat through. This is a super easy dish to prepare, and it's a great way to get your feet wet in the kitchen if you are not yet super comfortable.
Time: 10 minutes! My suggestion to hurry along the cooking process is to pre-boil your water in a kettle before putting it in a pot on the stove. That way, the water is pre-boiled and practically ready for the pasta to cook.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Soy sauce: You will want to use regular dark soy sauce for this recipe. If you are gluten free, you can substitute with tamari, but always make sure that particular brand is gluten free. You can also substitute with coconut aminos, or reduced-sodium soy sauce if you are watching your sodium intake. I tend to go with the reduced-sodium variety.
Oyster sauce: Oyster sauce is a very common ingredient in Chinese cooking. If you don't have any on hand, or simply do not find that you have many uses for it, you have a few substitution options. You can substitute sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) which is very common in Indonesian cooking, or hoisin sauce which also has a similar sweet and salty flavour. If you don't have any of these on hand, you can simply add some extra soy sauce and add a tablespoon of brown sugar.
Garlic: Fresh garlic that is thinly sliced is ideal in this recipe. You can, however, use minced garlic or garlic paste if you have that on hand.
Spaghetti: This recipe uses spaghetti noodles, because they are so often found in many pantries. You can use angel hair, spaghettini, or even udon noodles if you have them on hand at home.
Chilli sauce: I used my favourite chilli sauce for this recipe. You can use sambal oelek, sriracha, or green chilli sauce. For an Indian-Chinese twist, my szechuan sauce is a great addition.The amount that you use of course can be adjusted depending on your spice tolerance and how spicy you want the dish to be. If you are looking to make this kid-friendly, you can omit the chilli sauce all together.
Instructions
- Boil the pasta: Boil your pasta in salted water until al dente. Al dente means that there should be a little bit of a bite to the pasta. It should not be crunchy though!
- Make the sauce: In a tablespoon of oil, brown the garlic in a large pan. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce and chilli sauce once the garlic is brown.
- Mix: Once the pasta is done, add directly to the pan, using tongs. This will allow for a decent amount of pasta water to also transfer to the pan. Pasta water will help the sauce stick to the pasta. If you drain the pasta, be sure to reserve a ¼ cup of pasta water first, and add it to the pasta when you are tossing it.
- Garnish: Garnish with green onion and some additional red pepper flakes, and enjoy!
Expert Tip
Brown the garlic on low heat! Garlic burns very fast. You will want to brown it on a very low heat. This will let the garlic get crisp and brown, but it will not become overwhelmingly bitter like burnt garlic becomes.
Recipe FAQs
Oyster sauce does have oyster extract in it, which does not make it vegetarian or vegan. You can find mushroom oyster sauce in your grocery store, which would make this recipe vegetarian / vegan.
These noodles will keep well in the refrigerator for 3-5 days, in an airtight container.
These noodles reheat well on the stove or in the microwave. If you find that the noodles have gotten too tight or dry, add a couple of tablespoons of chicken broth (or vegetable broth) to loosen up the noodles.
You can add any vegetables and proteins that you like. In addition, you can add some ginger to the garlic while cooking, for an extra zing of flavour!
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This recipe was originally published in May of 2021. It was updated in February of 2022 to amend some ingredient proportions, helping to make the best chilli garlic noodles every single time!
Spicy Chilli Garlic Noodles
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 oz Spaghetti
- 2 tablespoon Oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoon Soy sauce
- 6 cloves Garlic - thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoon Chilli sauce
- ¼ cup Pasta water
- 1 tablespoon Brown sugar
Instructions
- Boil the pasta: Boil your pasta in salted water until al dente - This should take approximately 7 minutes.
- Make the sauce: In a tablespoon of oil, brown the garlic in a large pan. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar and chilli sauce once the garlic is brown.
- Mix: Once the pasta is done, add directly to the pan, using tongs. Mix well. Add the pasta water, and continue to toss.
- Garnish: Garnish with green onion and some additional red pepper flakes, and enjoy!
✱Recipe Notes
- If you are sensitive to spice, or using an extra spicy chilli sauce, I recommend starting with 1 tablespoon of chilli sauce. You can always add more, but it is hard to take it out!
Superna says
This is better than takeout, amazing!