Garlic Chili Noodles
by These super scrumptious Garlic Chili Noodles can be yours in only 15 minutes! Chewy rice noodles tossed in rich, velvety homemade garlic chili sauce oil creates a meal so slurp-worthy, you’ll want to put these spicy noodles on repeat!
Why this will be your go-to noodles!
Have you heard of chili oil noodles? TikTok made them famous, but the garlicky savory sauce and massive flavor punch are what keeps everyone coming back for more. Here are a few more reasons you will love this spicy Asian noodles dish.
- Decadent, garlicky sauce: This is the best part! Sweet and spicy sauce with a hint of heat is so luxurious your taste buds will be in heaven.
- Ready in 15 minutes: With only 8 ingredients, you can whip together chili crisp noodles in a jiffy.
- ADDICTING!: I’m sorry for screaming, but my recipe for chilli garlic noodles will have you begging for more.
Ingredients
You only need a few ingredients to whip up this spicy noodle recipe. For the super tastiest Sichuan noodles, be sure to use the best quality ingredients you can find.
- Rice noodles: Use rice noodles to keep the dish gluten-free. Traditionally, this dish uses wide Chinese noodles, also known as squiggly noodles, to hold the sauce best.
- Garlic Chili Sauce: Homemade garlicky sauce makes this dish next-level.
- Additional: Butter, garlic, (chickpea) miso paste (or nut butter), coconut aminos, salt, scallions, and cilantro
Ingredient Substitutions
Szechuan noodles are so easy to experiment with; if you want to switch the flavors up or find yourself missing an ingredient, no worries! I have a few ideas you can try out below.
- No miso paste or nut butter allergy? Try my paleo gochujang (Korean chili paste) instead.
- Is chickpea miso hard to find? You can use regular white or red miso in its place and still have excellent spicy noodles.
- No rice noodles? That’s OK! You can use your favorite noodle variety.
- Do you want extra heat? If you like your Chinese noodles spicy, add an extra drizzle of oil to make a spicy chili oil pasta.
How to make spicy noodles
You may have heard of half baked harvest noodles or Tiffy cooks garlic noodles, but I promise you my easy spicy noodles recipe will knock your socks off! My quick and easy step-by-step instructions will have you serving up perfect garlic spicy noodles every time.
Start by boiling the water to cook the noodles according to the package instructions.
- Saute garlic: In a large skillet, melt butter and saute garlic until fragrant.
- Make the sauce: Add chili garlic sauce, miso paste (or nut butter), and coconut aminos. Stir to combine and simmer until thickened.
- Toss noodles with the sauce: Drain cooked noodles (reserve ¼ cup noodle water) and toss the hot noodles with the sauce. Add the reserved liquid and toss the noodles over medium heat until combined.
- Garnish and serve: Place garlic rice noodles in a serving dish, and add green onions and sesame seeds. Drizzle with additional oil and toss to coat. Garnish with cilantro.
Garlic Chili Sauce
While you can certainly use a store-bought sauce, spicy chili garlic noodles are even better when using my homemade chili garlic sauce. The sauce is savory and super aromatic; a little bit of smoke and a hint of heat will have you obsessed! I highly recommend you keep a jar in your fridge. It’s a must-have for Asian food lovers!
What type of noodles to use
Traditional chili noodles are made from Dao Xiao Mian (刀削面), a specialty wide wheat noodles (ribbon noodles) that translates to Knife cut noodles. They are shaped using a sharp knife and cutting long noodles from blocks of dough directly into boiling pots of water.
I like to keep things gluten-free, so I prefer wide rice noodles to mix with my recipes with garlic chili sauce, the variety I use from Lotus foods has a fantastic chewy texture that holds lots of garlicky sauce.
Variations
Spicy garlic noodles are fun to experiment with; you can try my suggestions below and end up with a new dish each night.
- Up the spice level: For an amazing noodle & spice recipe idea, try adding some Szechuan chili flakes, red pepper flakes, or sriracha sauce for some super spicey noodles.
- Add veggies: Noodles go great with veggie dishes! Add some hot oil noodles to my favorite bok choy stir-fry or Chinese garlic green beans. Mix it with Chinese broccoli stir-fry for a fabulous weeknight dinner.
- Add protein: Round out your meal with some satisfying protein of choice and fantastic umami flavor. I love adding red spicy noodles to frozen salmon in air fryer or air fryer bang bang shrimp.
- Switch up the noodles: Try a spicy egg noodles recipe or udon noodles with chili oil. You can substitute any type of noodle you prefer and still have a mouth-watering meal.
Serving suggestions
Szechuan noodles with sesame chili oil are so versatile you can eat them all on their own or pair them with other recipes to create a whole meal. I have some tasty combinations listed below.
- Serve as a side dish: Garlic chili noodles make a great accompaniment to black pepper chicken and moo shu chicken or try them with moo goo gai pan.
- Make it a main dish: Add a salad like spiral cucumber salad or my Chinese cucumber salad, or for a tasty treat, serve the noodles with air fried oyster mushrooms.
Common FAQs
No. My garlic chili sauce has the perfect amount of heat mixed with a subtle smokey garlic flavor.
Wide wheat noodles hold the most sauce, but any noodles will work. With this recipe of chili garlic noodles, you can try ramen noodles, udon, or Chinese egg noodles.
Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
Yes but the noodles taste the best when they are warm. You can reheat them by adding a bit of water and microwaving it for a minute.
Related recipes
Noodles are the ultimate comfort food, and their versatility and quick prep make them perfect for busy weeknights. I’ve listed some of my favorite noodle recipes below for you to try.
Umami Tips
- Any noodle variety will work; feel free to use your favorite noodles.
- Chili garlic sauce: you can use any store-bought version you prefer, but I highly recommend you have a jar of my homemade version in the fridge for dinner in a hurry!
- Do not skip the butter; the creamy richness it lends to the dish is delicious!
- Perfect everyday dish, super tasty, versatile, and comes together in a flash.
Garlic chili noodles recipe
Ingredients
- 8 oz rice noodles
- 2 tbsp butter, unsalted
- 0.8 oz garlic, finely minced, about 5 cloves
- Pinch coarse sea salt
- 3 tbsp chili garlic sauce, plus more for serving
- 1 tbsp chickpea miso paste, or almond butter, peanut butter
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos
- 2 bulb scallions, diced
- Sprinkle toasted white sesame seeds
- Small handful Cilantro, finely chopped, optional
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to boil and lightly salt the water. Boil the noodles following the package instructions and cook until al dente.
- In the meantime, in a large saute pan melt the butter over medium heat then add the garlic with a small pinch of salt. Stir until fragrant and softened but not burnt, about 15 seconds.
- Add the chili garlic sauce, miso paste or nut butter, and coconut aminos. Use a wooden spoon to stir and simmer the sauce until it’s well combined and thickened, about 1 minute. Turn off the heat until the noodles are done cooking.
- As soon as the noodles are al dente, reserve ¼ cup of noodle cooking liquid. Add the noodles straight to the pan with the sauce. Turn heat up to medium-high, pour in the reserved noodle liquid, and toss to combine the noodles with the sauce until the sauce is thick and glossy.
- Transfer the noodles onto a large serving plate. Add the scallions and sesame seeds, and garnish with cilantro, if using. Drizzle with a few more teaspoons of chili garlic sauce. Toss the noodles and serve.
Video
Notes
- Fast tip: I highly recommend you make a jar of my Garlic chili sauce first so that this noodle dish can come together fast unless you opt for using a store-bought version of your choice.
- Any noodle variety will work; feel free to use your favorite noodles.
- Chili garlic sauce: you can use any store-bought version you prefer, but I highly recommend you have a jar of my homemade version in the fridge for dinner in a hurry!
- Do not skip the butter; the creamy richness it lends to the dish is delicious!
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. You can reheat them by adding a bit of water and microwaving it for a minute.
Nutrition
Made a dish and love it? Please remember to rate the recipe and leave a comment in the comment section below! It helps my blog grow organically so I can continue sharing free and awesome content with you. Thank you!
These were so good! Directions were easy to follow. I did cheat and purchased a premade chili garlic sauce but loved the dish none the less. Used a miso paste when I made it. I will be making this again. I paired it with the honey walnut shrimp recipe for dinner.
So delicious, light and flavorful and super quick if you have the added bonus of already cooked (leftover) noodles and chili oil. I will definitely make this again.
Made this tonight with my daughter, it was fun and easy to make together. We absolutely love noodles together! I’m gluten free and really love a recipe we both enjoy! It was pretty spicy which we both loved, I used store bought garlic chili sauce but I’m definitely making your recipe for that next!
So yummy and so easy! My entire family loved it. Thank you!
Thanks, Jenn!
Yummy ! Yummy! Only had rice ramen noodles and it worked. I want to eat the whole pan
5 stars all the way!
Aww thanks. You are so cute!
Wow these noodles really are so easy to make and I loved them so much I made them again for breakfast the next day. No meat necessary. They are so full of flavor. This is my go-to noodle recipe when I’m craving some saucy, umami-packed, noods!
Thank you! We love these chili garlic noodles very much, too!
Such a simple yet delicious meal. This will definitely be in our weekly rotation. Thank you!
Thank you! So happy to hear!
Your recipes are always so so good and healthy !
Will make this this week !!! But have to stay GF and low carb …
Thank you, Mimi! Definitely. It’s easily adaptable. Although the noodles I use are gluten-free, they aren’t low-carb noodles. Feel free to use any low-carb noodles you like. Hope you enjoy it!
These noodles are absolutely delicious! The home mad chili sauce is the best I’ve ever had. Amazing flavor! I’ll eat these noodles as a quick lunch during the week. It’s easy to add a protein too. I think ground pork would be a good addition.
Ground pork sounds so yummy! I love it!
Incredibly easy and so delicious!
Thank you!
Made this with Dao xiao mian noodles. I doubled the recipe for 4 people as it was our only dish? I felt it was a perfect amount. Everyone raved about it as we were eating, I loved it too. I had made the chili garlic sauce a few days ago and found that the dish comes together so quickly yet tastes like you spent hours creating it.
I definitely will make this on a regular basis. Thank you for this recipe.
Thank you, Sandra. Love the dao xiao mian choice – exactly how my mom and grandmother would make! And so happy to hear the whole family enjoyed the meal. 🙂
This recipe was so easy to make and turned out very tasty, flavorful and delicious. I only used 1 tsp of the garlic chili sauce which gave it some spice but not too much heat. I also added small shrimp for the protein. I used crunchy peanut butter in place of the chickpeas paste.
That’s totally fantastic! I love your choice. The added shrimp element in your version reminded of a bit of Taiwanese shacha sauce…which is coming up next on my blog! 😀
Wow. I love how flavourful it is with garlic. Love these noodles. It was instant love
Yay! Thanks, Nancy
What other GF noodles do you recommend for this recipe? For some reason, the pad Thai noodles were extremely ‘gummy’ and chewy. However, the flavors were amazing!
We like the Lotus food rice noodles for their chewy texture. You can use any types of gf noodles you like. For example: chickpea made spaghetti noodels or thin angel hair noodles should also work! :))
When I made this for the first time, my family members kept saying how wonderful the smell was. Then we made the noodle dish to go along with it. So so good. All her recipes are fabulous especially for some one with celiac!!
Oh wow! Thank you so so much, Debbie. I’m so glad you gave the recipe a try. This is my husband’s favorite Chinese noodle dish, too! Thank you for sharing with us here. I appreciate it so much!
I made the noodles as soon as I saw this recipe out. I also used rice noodles. It was great! So delicious. Will be making it again.
Awesome. So happy to hear!
Hi Chihyu, will this work with Konjac noodles? I know you have other recipes that use them but you don’t mention them in this post along with the other noodles you talk about. It looks SO GOOD I want to make it for my husband but he is a type 1 diabetic so very low carb.
ps-I keep trying to post this question over on your coconut wrap egg roll post but it doesn’t show up. I know those cannot be frozen but can they be made ahead, cooked and then refrigerated after being cooked to eat the next day or two? Thank you!
Hi Holly, you can use any types of noodles you like. It works best if the noodles have some starch. Be that ad it may, you can also use cucumber noodles or zucchini noodles. 🙂
Garlic sauce recipe link in the recipe isn’t working. 🙂
Thanks for letting me know. It’s updated now. https://iheartumami.com/garlic-chili-sauce/
Have you tried doing with spaghetti squash? I know it’s probably nowhere close to real noodles but if you’re whole30 or just trying to reduce carbs… maybe? Any other veggie noodle you would try? Thanks!
I would not use spaghetti squash noodles. You can use cucumber noodles, or zucchini noodles. For low carb, I provided a few more options within my blog post. Please take a look as well. Thank you.