Southeast Asia

Shan Noodles (Shan Khauk Swe) Recipe: Myanmar's Dry Rice Noodles

Name: Shan Noodles (Shan Khauk Swe) Recipe: Myanmar's Dry Rice Noodles
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 95 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Burmese and Shan
Ingredients: 320g Dried wide rice noodles; 300g Ground pork; 500g Tomatoes; 120g Onion; 20g Garlic; 15g Ginger; 30ml Nam pla (fish sauce); 15ml Light soy sauce; 8g Sugar; 1g Turmeric; 2g Dried chili; 30ml Vegetable oil; 120g Pickled mustard greens; 100g Carrot; 30ml Rice vinegar; 8g Sugar; 1g Salt; 40g Peanuts; 10g White sesame seeds; 30g Green onion or cilantro; 1 (about 30ml) Lime or lemon; 600ml Chicken broth or water; 10g Ginger; 2g Salt

Shan khauk swe from Myanmar's eastern Shan State: rice noodles tossed with a tomato-meat sauce, layered with pickles, peanuts, and garlic oil. How to branch to a soup version, regional variation, substitutions, fixes, and a chickpea tofu topping, for 4 servings.

Published: October 25, 2026Total: 1 hr 35 minLevel: Intermediate

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 6

Soak the rice noodles and prepare the ingredients

35 min. No stove is used.

Soaking wide dried rice noodles in room-temperature water and preparing tomatoes and aromatics — Soak the rice noodles leaving a little core in the center, and cut everything before putting anything on the heat

Soak the dried rice noodles in room-temperature water for 30 to 45 minutes. Pull them out when a single strand bends between your fingers but still has a hard white core in the center. Do not make them completely soft; leave some for the final pass through hot water. Cut the onion into 2 mm slices, the tomatoes into 1 cm dice, chop the garlic and ginger, and slice the pickled mustard greens 5 mm wide. Put the cut tomatoes in a bowl and keep the juice that comes out.

STEP 22 / 6

Make the garlic oil and peanuts

8 min. Low heat.

Pale golden fried garlic, dry-toasted peanuts, and white sesame seeds separated in small dishes — Take the garlic out when pale, and stop the residual heat on the nuts and sesame once the aroma rises

Put 15ml vegetable oil and 8g thinly sliced garlic in a small pot, and after turning on the heat, warm over low heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Take the garlic out right away when its edges turn pale golden and the bubbles become fine. Even after it goes onto a plate, the color keeps progressing from residual heat, so if you wait until it is dark brown it will be bitter. In a separate frying pan, dry-toast 40g peanuts and 10g white sesame seeds over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, and when the aroma rises, turn off the heat and chop coarsely.

STEP 33 / 6

Prepare the sweet-sour carrots and the pickles

12 min. Done at room temperature.

Carrot matchsticks pickled in sweet-sour liquid, with pickled mustard greens beside them, as garnishes for Shan khauk swe — Keep the carrot thin and even, and squeeze the extra liquid from the pickled greens

Cut 100g carrot into 4 cm matchsticks and soak for 10 minutes in a room-temperature mixture of 30ml rice vinegar, 8g sugar, 1g salt, and 30ml water. Put it on the same plate as the 120g drained pickled mustard greens, and discard the pickling liquid. After 10 minutes it is ready to eat when the liquid has reached all the carrot and the surface is glossy and a little limp. If the pickled greens are too salty, rinse them in 100ml water for 2 minutes and squeeze well. If the matchsticks are thick they are hard to lift with the noodles, and too much pickling liquid dilutes the meat sauce.

STEP 44 / 6

Reduce the tomato-meat sauce

20 min. Medium to medium-low heat.

Tomato and ground pork sauce reduced in a frying pan with oil floating at the edge, the sauce for Shan khauk swe — Reduce the meat sauce until the tomato corners collapse and a little trail from the wooden spoon remains

Put 15ml vegetable oil in a deep frying pan and stir-fry 120g onion over medium heat for 4 minutes. When translucent and slightly colored at the edges, add 12g garlic, 15g ginger, 1g turmeric, and 2g dried chili and stir-fry for 1 minute until fragrant. Add 300g ground pork and stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes, breaking it up finely with a wooden spoon. When no red remains, add 500g tomatoes, 20ml nam pla, 15ml light soy sauce, and 8g sugar.

When it boils, lower to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 12 to 15 minutes. Turn off the heat when the corners of the tomato have collapsed, oil floats at the edge, and a trail from running the wooden spoon along the bottom remains for about 2 seconds. A good guide is a thickness at which a spoonful of the meat sauce sits on the surface of the noodles. Taste, and if the saltiness is short, add the remaining 10ml nam pla in 5ml portions.

STEP 55 / 6

Warm the ginger soup in its own bowl

10 min. Medium to low heat.

Warming a clear soup with ginger in a small pot, ready to pour into a separate bowl — Keep the soup in the separate bowl lightly seasoned so the ginger aroma comes up

Put 600ml chicken broth, 10g ginger, and 2g salt in a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, lower to low heat and warm for 7 to 8 minutes, turning off the heat when the ginger aroma rises and fine steam continues to rise from the surface. Even if you eat only the dry version, keeping back 200ml is useful for adjusting when the noodles clump. Do not make it too strong; keep it light enough to take up the meat sauce.

STEP 66 / 6

Boil the rice noodles and divide into dry and soup versions

10 min. Medium-high heat.

Dry Shan khauk swe with meat sauce, pickles, carrot, fried garlic, and peanuts layered over rice noodles — For the dry version, layer the toppings and mix with the noodles just before eating

Bring 2L water to a boil in a large pot, add the soaked rice noodles, and boil as indicated on the package, about 2 to 3 minutes. Lift them when the noodles are translucent, the hard center core has gone, and they still have a little spring when pinched. Only if the noodles are so long they won't fit in the bowl, cut them to about 5 cm before plating. Drain in a colander, don't soak them long in cold water, and divide into bowls one serving at a time.

For the dry version, top the noodles with about 140g of meat sauce per person, 1 tsp garlic oil, and 1/4 each of the pickles and carrot, and scatter peanuts, white sesame, and green onion or cilantro. For just the one serving you make with soup, pour 150ml ginger soup over the noodles and reduce the meat sauce to 80g. Add lime, and toss everything together just before eating.

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Ingredients

1 / 2

Rice noodles and tomato-meat sauce

Ingredient	Amount	Role and substitutes
Dried wide rice noodles	320g	80g per person. For fresh wide rice noodles, use about 800g
Ground pork	300g	Ground chicken gives a lighter flavor. For a plant-based version, use 200g firm tofu and 100g mushrooms
Tomatoes	500g	Fully ripe ones give a rounder sourness. If canned, use 400g including the juice
Onion	120g	Half an onion. Cut into 2 mm slices
Garlic	20g	Divided into 12g for the meat sauce and 8g for the garlic oil
Ginger	15g	Finely chopped. Lightens the meat aroma
Nam pla (fish sauce)	30ml	Add 20ml first, then add 10ml at the end after checking the saltiness
Light soy sauce	15ml	Adds savoriness without darkening the color too much
Sugar	8g	Rounds the sourness of the tomato
Turmeric	1g	Color and an earthy aroma. The meat sauce can be made without it
Dried chili	2g	Powdered or coarsely crushed. Heat can be added at the table
Vegetable oil	30ml	Divided into 15ml for the meat sauce and 15ml for the garlic oil

2 / 2

Pickles, toasty toppings, and a separate bowl of soup

Ingredient	Amount	Role and substitutes
Pickled mustard greens	120g	5 mm slices. If too salty, rinse in 100ml water for 2 minutes
Carrot	100g	Cut into 4 cm matchsticks. Adds a sweet crunch to the saltiness of the pickles
Rice vinegar	30ml	For a quick sweet-sour pickle of the carrot
Sugar	8g	For the carrot pickling liquid
Salt	1g	For the carrot pickling liquid
Peanuts	40g	Unsalted, unoiled. Coarsely chopped
White sesame seeds	10g	Dry-toast to bring out the aroma
Green onion or cilantro	30g	2 cm lengths. You can choose the strength of the aroma
Lime or lemon	1 (about 30ml)	For adjusting the sourness after plating
Chicken broth or water	600ml	For the separate bowl of soup. For dry only, reduce to 200ml
Ginger	10g	For the soup. Thinly sliced
Salt	2g	For the soup. Fish sauce may be added at the end instead

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In a bowl of dry Shan khauk swe, no soup is poured from the start. Wide rice noodles are layered with a tomato-simmered meat sauce, garlic oil, pickles, and peanuts, and with each toss the red sauce, the sourness, and the toasty aroma pass a little into the noodles. A clear soup is served in a separate bowl, or poured over later into the bowl of whoever wants it with broth.

Shan khauk swe (Shan noodles), written ရှမ်းခေါက်ဆွဲ in Burmese, is introduced as a noodle dish of Shan State and spread to tea shops and homes across Myanmar. Comparing published recipes, some use chicken, some pork, some add a fermented soybean seasoning, and some keep the soup separate; there is no single fixed formula.

What matters when you make it at home is not gathering every local ingredient but preparing separately the spring of the rice noodles, a meat sauce that keeps the sourness of the tomato, the saltiness of the pickles, and the aroma of fried garlic. For 4 servings, built on the dry version, it is set up so that you can also divide it from the same pot into a soup version.

From Shan State to the Tea Shop: Regional Variation Left on One Plate

A tea shop table with low wooden table, Shan khauk swe, a small bowl of soup, and Burmese tea — A Shan khauk swe table around dry noodles and a separate bowl of soup

What the name shows about place and spread

Shan is not a decoration of the dish name; it is a name tied to Shan State in eastern Myanmar and the Shan people who live there. In sources introducing local food, Shan khauk swe is treated as a food of Shan State and is also presented as a noodle dish known across Myanmar. That the shape of the noodles and the flavor of the meat sauce differ from shop to shop is because a dish that spread over a wide area changed to suit the ingredients on hand and the time of day it is eaten.

Recipes recorded as home cooking of Shan State describe eating it at lunch, dinner, or as a light snack. Made with a tomato-meat sauce tossed in small amounts, it suits both a meal and a tea-shop bite. When you don't want noodles alone to feel heavy, adding pickles and nuts works well.

A tea shop is not only a place to eat noodles

Myanmar's tea shops are described as everyday places where people gather over sweet milk tea and snacks, and where conversation and even business discussions happen. Shan khauk swe is not a dish only to be slurped alone in a hurry; there is room to add pickles, fried garlic, and chili from separate plates to taste and eat while talking with the person next to you.

To bring that way of eating to a Japanese table, do not toss the noodles fully with a strong flavor from the start. If you put meat sauce on each serving and set pickles and peanuts on a separate plate, each person can adjust heat and sourness. Treating it as a dish that branches according to the tastes of those eating from the same pot, rather than one whose flavor the cook fixes, makes the meaning of "dry" easier to see.

Tomato is not the only right answer

Some home recipes are built around tomato, garlic, fish sauce, and peanuts. Others add a fermented soybean seasoning for a deeper bean aroma. The former uses ingredients easy to gather outside Myanmar; the latter keeps the pleasure of hunting for a local fermented seasoning. Rather than deciding one is authentic and the other wrong, it is closer to reality to think of the flavor axis as moving by region and shop.

In this formula the tomato is reduced to adjust the moisture of the meat sauce. Even without a fermented soybean seasoning, the saltiness of fish sauce and pickles can give the noodles their outline. If you do get hold of it, add from 1 tsp to the meat sauce and stop at the point where the tomato's sourness does not disappear.

Divide the flavor of Shan khauk swe into three first

The meat sauce is "the sourness of tomato and the savoriness of meat," the garnish is "the saltiness and sourness of pickles," and the finish is "the toastiness of garlic oil and nuts." Tasting the three separately before combining them avoids the failure of putting in too much fish sauce and making the whole thing too strong.

Ingredients: Prepare the Tomato Sauce and Garnishes Separately

Ingredients for Shan khauk swe on a wooden board: wide rice noodles, tomatoes, ground pork, fish sauce, pickles, peanuts, and garlic — Ingredients gathered in two groups, the tomato-meat sauce and the toasty garnishes

Serves 4. Dried rice noodles are rehydrated differently by product, so follow the package. The 30 to 45 minutes below is a guide for soaking wide dried rice noodles in room-temperature water. If using fresh wide rice noodles, use about 800g and skip the soaking in step 1.

Nam pla is not Myanmar's fish sauce itself but a substitute that is easy to get elsewhere. Salt level and fermented aroma differ by product, so check the ingredient list on the label. If you will use fish sauce in several Southeast Asian dishes, you can try 30ml at a time; if you will make this dish only once, you can still build the flavor by starting with 15ml nam pla and 15ml light soy sauce.

Method

The star is not the meat sauce but how well it clings to the noodles. If the tomato is left watery, the noodles absorb the liquid and turn heavy. On the other hand, if it is reduced too far, there is no room to take up the saltiness of the pickles and fish sauce, so stop when a faint trail from the wooden spoon remains.

Don't boil rice noodles longer than the package says

Rice noodles keep softening from residual heat after you lift them from the water. If you boil them completely soft, they break easily when tossed with the meat sauce. Lift them just after the core disappears, and plate the dry version right after draining.

Plating Separates Dry and Soup Versions

Dry red rice noodles and a separate bowl of clear ginger soup, Shan khauk swe — Divide dry and soup versions from the same meat sauce, with pickles and nuts as common garnishes

A bowl of the dry version does not need the meat sauce alone to color all the noodles red. Leaving some white noodle showing, enough that each bite picks up the sourness of the tomato, the saltiness of the pickles, and the aroma of the garlic oil, is an easy strength to eat. If it sits more than 5 minutes after tossing, the noodles absorb the meat sauce and turn heavy, so don't toss all 4 servings at once; combine in each person's bowl.

When turning it into a soup version, simply adding soup makes the flavor thin. Combine 150ml of soup and 80g of meat sauce for one serving of noodles, and put the pickles and nuts on last. If you simmer the pickles in the soup from the beginning, the sourness rounds out and the saltiness you notice on top of the noodles disappears. If you finish the meat sauce for the dry version a little stronger, the axis of flavor remains whichever way you divide it.

Adding Shan Beans: The Warm Texture of Chickpea Tofu

Soft yellow chickpea tofu spooned onto Shan khauk swe on a plate — A Shan variation: chickpea flour dough served warm alongside the noodles

Shan chickpea tofu is made differently from the Japanese tofu in which soy milk is set with nigari. Heating and stirring chickpea flour with water gives a yellow dough that keeps the aroma of the beans. Placing a small amount of the tofu, described in detail in the separate dish tohu thoke (in Japanese), warm on top of Shan khauk swe adds a soft bean texture to the spring of the rice noodles. This is not an essential topping in the main recipe; it is an addition for a tea-shop-style small plate or a day when you are serving several Shan dishes together.

If making just the amount to add, mix 40g chickpea flour, 240ml water, and 1g salt in a pot, warm over medium heat, and then stir over low heat for 6 to 8 minutes. When a trail from the wooden spoon along the bottom remains for 2 seconds and the scooped dough falls in a thick ribbon, place about 2 tbsp on each serving of dry noodles. If you cool and set it, you can cut it into pieces, but when combining with the noodles, the warm, soft state mixes better with the meat sauce.

If you buy chickpea flour, check that the only ingredient is chickpeas. If you do not plan to use it in tohu thoke, fried tofu, or batter, there is no need to buy it just for the main recipe. Potato starch alone will not give the bean aroma, and gives a different texture from tofu placed on rice noodles, so omitting it is an easier decision than substituting.

How to Recover When Something Goes Wrong

A counter showing tomato meat sauce at different moisture levels, broken rice noodles, and garlic taken out before burning — The moisture, the firmness of the noodles, and the color of the garlic let you pin down the cause of a failure

The meat sauce is watery

If you cook it covered, the moisture of the tomato stays and runs when spooned over the noodles. Uncover over medium-low heat and reduce in 3-minute steps. Stop when a trail from the wooden spoon remains for 2 seconds and the sauce falling from the spoon forms a thin ribbon. If it has already been mixed with the noodles, instead of reducing more sauce, add pickles and nuts separately to absorb the moisture.

The fish sauce is too strong

Adding only water blurs the flavor. Chop 30g tomato and add it, simmering over medium-low heat for 2 minutes, or add the hot water meant for the soup 1 tbsp at a time to spread the saltiness. If you add too much sugar the sourness of the tomato disappears, so start with up to 2g. Next time put only 20ml nam pla in the meat sauce and keep the last 10ml back for tasting.

The rice noodles break or clump

For noodles that soaked too long, use the shortest time on the package for boiling, and divide into bowls as soon as you lift them into the colander. If you mix four servings of the dry version at once, the saltiness of the meat sauce draws out water and makes them clump, so plate one serving at a time. For noodles that have cooled and clumped, return them to a separate pot of hot water for just 10 seconds to loosen, and toss in a little additional meat sauce.

The garlic is bitter

Garlic fried until dark brown passes bitterness to the oil. Do not use bitter oil in the meat sauce; make it again with 15ml fresh oil and 8g garlic. It is safe to take it out when pale golden and finish it with the residual heat of the plate.

Six Ways to Change It While Keeping Regional Variation

A comparison of small plates: dry, soup, chicken, pork, and chickpea tofu versions of Shan khauk swe — From the same rice noodles, change the meat, the soup, the beans, and the heat to suit the table

With the tomato-meat sauce and rice noodles as the core, Shan khauk swe can be changed to suit the time of eating and the ingredients available. Rather than changing several places at once, try just one of the following, and you will see what moved the flavor.

Lighten it with chicken: Switch to 300g ground chicken. It gives off more liquid than pork, so reduce 2 to 3 minutes longer after adding the tomato and make the meat sauce a little firmer.
Make the soup version the star: Divide into 80g of meat sauce and 150ml of ginger soup per serving. Do not simmer the pickles; put them on last to keep their sourness.
Add the aroma of fermented soybeans: If you can find a fermented soybean seasoning, add 1 tsp to the meat sauce. The saltiness comes forward first, so start with 20ml nam pla and stop at an amount that leaves the sourness of the tomato.
Add chickpea tofu: Make warm tofu with the 40g formula above and put only 2 tbsp on each serving of noodles. The sweetness of the beans increases, so squeezing a little extra lime keeps the meat sauce from blurring.
Divide the heat at the table: Do not put all the dried chili in the meat sauce; set coarsely crushed chili in a small dish. It is easy to separate the bowls of children or people sensitive to heat, and people who want only aroma can mix a little into oil.
Change the pickles: If the pickled mustard greens are too strong, rinse the greens briefly in water. Switching to a milder pickled leafy green softens the saltiness and the sourness is made up with lime.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Is Shan khauk swe a dry dish?

A form in which the noodles are dressed with meat sauce is easy to make, but there are also versions that serve soup alongside or put the noodles in soup. This formula finishes the meat sauce on the stronger side so that it can be divided into 4 servings of dry noodles, or 1 to 2 servings with soup.

Q2. I can't find wide rice noodles.

Flat rice vermicelli, sen yai, or wide pho noodles can be used. If you use thin rice vermicelli, the meat sauce concentrates on the surface and the texture softens quickly, so shorten the boiling time on the package and put on less meat sauce. Switching to wheat noodles makes a different noodle dish, but it keeps the dry format.

Q3. Can I make it without nam pla?

Yes. Replace the 30ml nam pla with 20ml light soy sauce and 1g salt. The fermented fish aroma disappears, but the three things, pickles, tomato, and garlic oil, remain. If you must avoid soy, adjust with salt and mushroom stock, and check the ingredients of the pickles and soup you use.

Q4. Is chickpea tofu necessary?

No. Chickpea tofu is an extra for days when you want to line up several Shan dishes. The stars are the rice noodles and tomato-meat sauce, so increasing the pickles and peanuts without buying the flour makes the texture of the noodles in this dish clearer.

Q5. Can I make it ahead?

Cool the meat sauce and soup, divide into clean containers, refrigerate, and reheat before using by the next day. Keep the rice noodles, pickles, nuts, and garlic oil separate and combine just before eating. If you refrigerate it already tossed, the noodles absorb the sauce and break easily. Because pork is used, do not leave it long at room temperature, and finish the portions you set aside early.

Tohu thoke: chickpea tofu salad (in Japanese): Covers in detail the state of the dough when chickpea flour is stirred in a pot and its sour dressing.
Ohn no khauk swe: coconut milk noodles: A contrast for comparing a rich soup noodle with dry Shan khauk swe.
Mohinga: rice noodle soup in fish broth: A Burmese soup noodle eaten at breakfast, showing a different pairing of rice noodles and soup.
Lahpet thoke: fermented tea leaf salad (in Japanese): For anyone interested in tea-shop small plates and the culture of dividing fermented foods at the table.

Sources

Khin's Kitchen, “Shan Noodles”: https://khinskitchen.com/shan-noodles/ (accessed and checked 19 August 2026)
SBS Food, “Shan noodles (Khaut sew)”: https://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/shan-noodles-khaut-sew/5af2taag6 (accessed and checked 19 August 2026)
Food Myanmar, “Street Food”: https://foodmyanmar.com/en/guides/street-food (accessed and checked 19 August 2026)
Doc Society, “Community Cookbook”: https://docsociety.org/static/core/pdf/Cookbook_final.pdf (accessed and checked 19 August 2026)