These sweet, salty, and rich Garlic Noodles are an absolutely addictive dish that you’ll want to make again and again. Serve them as the bed for glazed meat, like my Sticky Soy Ginger Glazed Chicken, Honey Sriracha Tofu, or simple stir-fried vegetables. With a super short ingredient list of pantry staples, this delicious garlic noodles recipe will become a staple in your menu.
See this recipe used in my weekly meal prep.
Where Do I Find Oyster Sauce?
Oyster sauce can be found in the International aisle of most major grocery stores (look near hoisin sauce). If you can’t find it there, it’s worth it to seek out an Asian market, where oyster sauce is likely to be much less expensive than in chain grocery stores.
What Can I Use in Place of Oyster Sauce?
I personally feel that the salty rich flavor of the oyster sauce makes this dish what it is and I wouldn’t suggest substituting it. That being said, several readers have said they’ve used hoisin sauce, which is much sweeter, and have enjoyed the results. Substitute the oyster sauce in this garlic noodles recipe at your own risk.
What Else Can I Add to Garlic Noodles?
This is a great base recipe to which you can add all sorts of other ingredients! Garlic noodles are great as a side dish, but you can add protein and vegetables to make it a meal. Try adding some Teriyaki Chicken or Honey Sriracha Tofu on top, or check out my Garlic Noodles with Beef and Broccoli for some inspiration.
Looking for a spicy noodle recipe? Check out my Spicy Sriracha Noodles!
Quick & Easy Garlic Noodles
Servings 4Ingredients
- 8 oz angel hair pasta ($0.54)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.24)
- 1/2 bunch green onions ($0.35)
- 4 Tbsp butter ($0.50)
- 2 tsp soy sauce ($0.20)
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.05)
- 1 tsp sesame oil ($0.40)
- 2 Tbsp oyster sauce ($0.26)
Instructions
- Add the oyster sauce, brown sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil to a bowl and stir until combined.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the noodles according to the package directions (boil for 7-10 minutes). Drain the cooked noodles in a colander, then set aside.
- While the pasta cooks, mince the garlic and slice the green onions. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Once the butter is melted and bubbly, add the garlic and onions (save a few for garnish) and sauté until they are soft and fragrant (1-2 minutes).
- Remove the skillet from the heat. Add the drained pasta and oyster sauce mixture to the skillet, and stir well to coat the pasta. If your pasta is stiff or sticky making it hard to stir, sprinkle a small amount of hot water over the pasta to loosen it up. Garnish the pasta with any reserved sliced green onions, then serve.
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Nutrition
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How to Make Garlic Noodles – Step by Step Photos
Mix the easy noodle sauce before you begin. In a small bowl stir together 2 Tbsp oyster sauce, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 tsp soy sauce, and 1 tsp toasted sesame oil. Stir until combined.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and set aside. While the pasta is cooking, mince four cloves of garlic and slice about four green onions (1/2 bunch).
Heat 4 Tbsp of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Once melted, add the minced garlic and most of the sliced green onions (save a few for garnish). Sauté the garlic and green onions until soft and fragrant (1-2 minutes).
Remove the skillet from the heat, then add the cooked and drained pasta and the prepared sauce.
Toss the ingredients in the skillet until the pasta is evenly coated with sauce. Garnish the garlic noodles with the reserved green onions and serve.
This easy Garlic Noodles Recipe is totally addictive… BEWARE.
I tried this and it was delicious. I found it to be a little too buttery and sugary, though, and next time will try this will a little less of those items. Great recipe, thanks!
My second time making this! This time I had a chicken breast to use up, so I cut it up & cooked it in a bit of the butter with some ginger paste before adding the rest of the butter and going from there. Also, since my husband & I have had practically NO fiber since before Christmas (unless you count graham cracker crust), I threw in shredded carrots as a last step with the garnish, which were great! Barely any carrot flavor, just a little sweetness and a great contrast in texture. If I have them handy, I’ll add them whenever I make this. Yayyyyy. (Also made your eggplant pasta last night for dinner & are leftovers for lunch today! Thanks for keeping me fed!)
I may be in the minority here, and I have loved most of your recipes, but this one tasted strange to me. The addition of sugar really threw the taste off. Do you have any suggestions for negating the sugary taste AFTER it has already been added? I tried cutting down the sugar (to two teaspoons instead of two tablespoons), but that didn’t help either… then I realized that the second ingredient listed on my oyster sauce was SUGAR. I love garlic noodles so I will try this one more time – with no sugar at all. I did find through trial and error that adding lemon helped quite a bit in offsetting both the sugar and salt.
So this is my favorite recipe in the history of ever. It has been the begged for staple of my roommates and boyfriend. If I go a month without making it I am quickly (and not to subtly) made aware of my error. I prefer to make this with rice noodles when possible but linguine and any spaghetti have all turned out well. The sauce is worth its weight in gold and I never change the amounts. I do add tofu, mushrooms and bok choy
I’m posting on this super late, but this has become a staple in my family over the past three years. Absolutely delicious and easy to change up (for example, I love making the sauce but using it on rice instead of noodles). Garlic noodles never last long in my house.
I just made this and it’s delicious! I wouldn’t change a thing. I would, however, go back and double the recipe for the entire box of pasta. Mmm.
Yum. I just love your recipes and this was another worthy of saving in the recipe book.
Husband is allergic to shellfish, so I couldn’t do oyster sauce. I subbed black bean sauce with garlic for the oyster sauce and the garlic.
OMG. I am so happy to have a new recipe! I served this with grilled chicken breast (thin slice and seasoned with adobo seasoning), along with salad topped with grape tomatoes. YUM.
Thoughts about using rice noodles?
I think it would be okay. The sauce is so good that I think it could go over almost any type of noodle.
I use rice noodles for this recipe. Just be careful, as rice noodles can get soft really fast.
I’d like to add to my earlier comment that rice noodles soak up the sauce beautifully.
Some 99 Cents Only Stores in my part of the world carry oyster sauce. Obviously not high end, but very budget friendly!
Nice tip! Thanks for sharing!
Hi there, love your recipes, thank you for them :) I’m dying to try this recipe but my husband and I are vegetarian. Do you know of any vegetarian sauce options that would be a good substitute for the oyster sauce? I know I could just omit it but I’m sure I would lose some major flavor. Thoughts?
Yeah, you definitely don’t want to omit the oyster sauce because it is responsible for a LOT of the flavor and the sauce’s consistency. Oyster sauce is pretty unique, though, so I think your best bet might be to see if you can find a vegetarian version of Oyster sauce at a health food store. You *might* be able to do something similar with hoisin sauce, but hoisin is quite a bit sweeter than oyster sauce, so you’d want to reduce the brown sugar some. It would take some experimenting.
If you live near an Asian grocery store you can find vegetarian oyster sauce. Mine has at least 3 different brands of it. Its made from mushrooms.
Ummmm…oyster sauce isn’t vegetarian… It contains oysters…
Do I have this mislabeled as vegetarian somewhere? I hope not! If so, that was a mistake and I need to fix it ASAP. Thanks!
Oyster sauce *is* vegetarian. There are no oysters in there.
It is called that because of Oyster MUSHROOMS.
Oy vey. :/
Originally, oyster sauce was made from oysters, not oyster mushrooms. Because oysters are expensive, a lot of oyster sauces now don’t contain oysters, but some still contain animal products. Reference: Food Network, America’s Test Kitchen, Wikipedia, Kikkoman (see ingredient list).
Big fan of your recipes! I made this tonight as a quick dinner after work for the kids and me. My oldest is a huge Asian fan and is loving this dish! I added a bok choy I had in my fridge to the garlic and green onions. I love it because she loves it and it’s so easy and cheap! I equally love its flavor as well.
I am in love with this and so is my daughter. I made it with earth balance vegan butter for her allergies and cut up some chicken. We did cut down on the sugar a tiny bit and think we will continue to play with that, but this was so easy and she gobbled it up. Very toddler and pocket friendly. I am eating the rest today with some shrimp.
Awesome! My whole (picky) family loved these! I added some chopped chicken seasoned with pepper and ginger. So good! The fresh green onion and sesame seeds on top really took it up a notch!
Ginger sounds like a great addition!
This dish is so awesome. For years i have been looking for a sauce to try and recreate the Mongolian BBQ that I used to have in my hometown. Once I tried this recipe, a rush of tasty nostalgia came roaring back. I use udon noodles, add some meat and my family I love it. Thank you so much for this.