The BEST Garlic Noodles
January 29, 2023
Hawaiian Main Dishes Noodles Recipes Sides Wok
These incredibly flavorful Garlic Noodles are a super aromatic noodle dish that you can make in about 15 minutes! You can pair them with any protein or enjoy them by themselves! Not only are they extremely delicious, but they’re very inexpensive to make, only requiring a few ingredients.
I’m a HUGE garlic lover and I had the best garlic noodles when I went to Maui and tried this restaurant called Da Kitchen (if you’re ever in the area be sure to check them out!). It’s a classic Hawaiian plate lunch restaurant and all of their food was incredible, but their garlic noodles really stood out to me. It was so good we ended going multiple times during our trip! The noodles were chewy and aromatic, perfectly coated in a flavorful garlic butter with tons of fresh garlic.
Watch the Garlic Noodles Recipe Video Below!
Ever since I had those aromatic noodles, I wanted to recreate a version I could make and home and these turned out incredible! I hope you give them a try and enjoy!
Ingredients for Garlic Noodles
Making these garlic noodles are extremely simple. Here is what you’ll need to make them!
- Egg Noodles (I used fresh Pancit egg noodles but you can use your favorite fresh or dried long noodle for this recipe)
- Unsalted Butter
- Garlic
- Oyster Sauce
- Fish Sauce
- Light Soy Sauce
- MSG
- Sugar
- Parmesan Cheese
- Scallions
INGREDIENTS TIPS
NOODLES
For this dish, I love using fresh noodles, such as the pancit egg noodles pictured below, but you can you both fresh or dried noodles for this recipe. Use your favorite noodles or whatever you have on hand!
MSG
As always, this is optional 🙂
GARLIC
20 cloves of garlic might seem like a lot, and that’s because it is! This dish is extremely garlicky and flavorful, and with 16 oz of noodles, it was enough to really incorporate that garlic flavor throughout the dish.
BUTTER & CHEESE
There aren’t a lot of ingredients in this recipe, so if you can, try to use high quality butter and cheese to really elevate the dish. My personal choice when comes to butter is Kerrygold unsalted butter. When it comes to parmesan cheese, I love always having a block of Costco Parmigiano Reggiano in the fridge, ready to freshly grate.
Cooking Garlic Noodles: Recipe Instructions
Prep Your Ingredients
Once you’ve gathered all the ingredients for your garlic noodles – let’s start prepping! You’ll want to finely mince your garlic and set them all aside. Next, take your Oyster sauce, Fish sauce, light soy sauce msg, and sugar and whisk that in a small bowl until combined.
Chop your scallions, then in another small bowl, grate parmesan cheese and set those aside next to your pan for easy access. This recipe will come together quickly so it’s important to have all your ingredients easily accessible!
Melt Butter
Once your ingredients are prepped, heat a pan over medium to medium-low heat and melt butter until sizzling and you can hear it “singing”.
Sauté Garlic Until Fragrant
Once the butter is nicely melted, it’s time to add your garlic! Ensure that the heat is still on medium low. You don’t want to brown your garlic here, but we do want to extract all that flavor into the butter and soften the garlic, so a high heat isn’t necessary at this point. This should take about 2 minutes.
Cook Your Noodles
Meanwhile, cook your noodles until al dente or according to package directions. Keep in mind that the noodles will continue to cook in the pan, so I always like to undercook them by a minute or so to account for this. By the time the noodles are done in the pan, they should be perfectly al dente to my liking!
Combine Noodles with Garlic, Butter, and Sauce
Once the noodles are cooked and drained well, add them directly to the garlic and butter. Turn the heat to high, then add your premixed sauce and mix the noodles well to combine.
Finally, top with that freshly grated parmesan cheese and give that a final mix and toss to incorporate it all together.
Add freshly chopped scallions and give the noodles a final mix in the pan. Your garlic noodles are ready to enjoy! You can eat them as is or serve them with any protein for a main course!
RECIPE TIPS
SUCCESS IS IN THE PREP!
For a recipe that comes together extremely quickly, the key to pulling this recipe off successfully is having your ingredients prepped and in bowls right next to your wok or pan!
ADJUST THE PROTEIN TO YOUR LIKING!
While I made these Garlic Noodles vegetarian, you can add any protein like shrimp, chicken, or steak for a heartier meal!
If you liked these Garlic Noodles, check out some of my other popular noodles recipes!
- Beef and Broccoli Noodles
- Scallion Oil Noodles
- Sesame Garlic Oil Noodles
- Garlic Shrimp Noodles
- Shanghai Pork Noodles
Garlic Noodles
Ingredients
- 16 oz Noodles I used Pancit egg noodles
- 4 tbsp Unsalted Butter
- 20 cloves Garlic minced
- 2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
- 2 tbsp Fish Sauce
- 1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
- 1/4 tsp MSG
- 1/2 tbsp Sugar
- 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese freshly grated
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine Oyster sauce, Fish sauce, light soy sauce, msg, and sugar. Mix to combine and sugar is dissolved and set aside.
- Cook noodles 1 minute under package directions and drain well and set aside.
- In a large pan over medium low heat, melt butter, then add minced garlic and sauté for 2 minutes until fragrant but not browned.
- Turn the heat up to high, then add cooked noodles and sauce. Mix well until the noodles are combined with the butter, garlic, and sauce and continue cooking for another 1-2 minutes and the noodles are fragrant.
- Turn the heat to low, then add parmesan cheese and freshly chopped scallions. Mix well to combine and serve immediately!
Delicious!!
Loved!!!! The flavor was incredible, but super salty. The butter was flavorful but oily. After making the recipe I experimented w trying a low sodium alternative. Ended up doing it again by doing a broth sauté on the garlic and adding a tablespoon of Almond butter (gives it creaminess). Still too salty. Next time will do a water sauté w the garlic. Add in the almond butter tablespoon. And will halve the fish sauce (super high in sodium!). But ultimately incredible ingredients for a great dish!!!
This was so good thank you CJ!! I am a grad student and sometimes need to satisfy my cravings in a fast and easy way, this hit the spot. Will be adding into rotation. I added stir fry veggies and it was a great meal
Thanks so much for the kind words, Natalie! I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I would love for you to do vegetarian/vegan recipes too!!! Or at least give substitutions… Love your recipes and have modified some for vegetarian!
It was a success in my household. I substituted the fish sauce with squid sauce I find it less salty and I also used low sodium soy sauce and a garlic butter I previously made instead of 20 garlic gloves.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Yoshi!
I make your garlic noodles often- Delicious!!
What a fabulous recipe – pure comfort food in 10 minutes. I ate mine with honey garlic chicken and am now assured I am safe from vampires for the next week!
I did make a few tweaks to the recipe, after some found it too salty. Soy sauce and fish sauce are both great for that hit of umami but with both being salty and the oyster sauce being salty, I omitted the soy altogether and just used 2 teaspoons of fish sauce, plus I added a squeeze of a quarter of a very juicy lemon with a little extra sugar to get the liquid proportion right. Tasted the sauce before adding and it was the perfect hit of salty, sweet and savoury for me.
Final hint for anyone stuck like me with no scallions available – I used the green end of a leek!
Thank you so much CJ – keep the recipes coming
Thank you so much Ruth!
Yum, I made these this morning, they are yummy. Thank you for the recipes and inspiration to cook again.
Thank YOU Melissa! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I had some delicata squash that I roasted in the oven with Dashi (bonito flakes) and then I used rice noodles because it was all I had. It was so delicious ~ REALLY DELICIOUS. Just insanely good and I so wish I made it sooner. WOW, would this have been an amazing dish to put in the rotation while raising my kids!!!
Thanks so much Tracey! Please consider giving the recipe 5 stars – it really helps the blog!