Name: Easy Authentic Pad Thai
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Easy Authentic Pad Thai

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×Jump to RecipePrint Recipefrom votesThis easy authentic Pad Thai recipe is incredibly quick to prepare and has a perfect balance of sweet, salty and sour flavors. Ready from start to finish in 30 minutes or less!Table of ContentsPad Thai is a popular stir-fried noodle dish from Southeast Asia that originates from Thailand. The term "Pad" refers to the stir frying method and means 'fried', while "Thai" simply means Thai!This delicious Thai dish is made of stir-fried rice noodles, eggs tossed in a perfectly balanced sweet, sour and savory sauce.Although it may seem like an intimidating recipe because of all the complex flavors, this authentic Thai dish is quite easy to make and works best if you make it in small batches.The key is getting the noodles just right to keep that chewy noodle texture with the delicious sweet, sour and salty flavors is by using a flavorful pad thai sauce and making sure you have the right ratio of noodles to sauce while you are stir-frying it.Despite what we see in Thai restaurants in North America, in Thailand, authentic pad thai is never red, and never uses ketchup, it uses tamarind paste instead to give this noodle dish its unique sourness.To make this pad thai recipe, you'll need a few key ingredients.Pad thai is known for its chewy rice noodles but there are many different kinds of rice noodle out there, so how do you know if you're using the right kind?When you're shopping for rice noodles for pad thai, you'll may notice that everything is called labelled as 'vermicelli' but they will all look different, which makes buying these rice noodles quite confusing.To simplify it, here are two main things I always check for to ensure you are buying the correct rice noodles (vermicelli) for pad thai.Make sure you read the ingredient list of the noodles it should only contain rice. There should be no wheat or any other starches in it.This one is the tricky part, the width of the noodle.Once you found the section with the rice noodles, you'll notice that there are many different sizes.Pad thai sauce consist of 3 flavors: salty, sweet and sour. To get the most delicious pad thai, you want to try to balance out the 3 flavors.That being said, some will like it more sour and tangy (I highly recommend adding a wedge of lime on the side to allow people to tweak this) and some will like it more sweet or salty.When it comes to giving pad thai that sour balance, there are a few ways to approach it. The authentic ingredient (and most delicious way) to give pad thai its tang is to use tamarind paste. It gives the noodle dish its sourness but also a bit of extra flavor as well.There are 2 main types of tamarind paste on the market: tamarind pulp (which you need to soak in hot water, to remove the seed pods and skin, and tamarind concentrate.When you are buying tamarind concentrate, you want to make sure it is made in Thailand because the one made in India is lot more stronger and concentrated and not good for Pad Thai.If you can't find the jars of tamarind concentrate, you can make your own tamarind concentrate by soaking and mashing the tamarind pulp (which is a thick block of tamarind paste) in hot water and discarding the seed pods afterwards.To learn more about how to prepare the tamarind pulp, you can reference my tamarind guide here, which goes into a lot more detail.Alternatively, if you can't find tamarind concentrate, you can also use lime juice and will give you a similar fruity sourness like the tamarind concentrate.Pad thai never uses ketchup and traditionally doesn't have a red color as well. The spice from the ketchup throws off the pad thai flavor, so I don't recommend it for making pad thai.To get the salty flavors, you will need to use fish sauce. I highly recommend not using soy sauce as a substitute because it can be a hit or miss and it has a strong soy flavor.Alternatively, you can also added finely chopped dried shrimp or salted pickles for more salt as well.For the sweet, I like to use what I have in the kitchen which is cane sugar, but you definitely can use white sugar or light brown sugar as well.If you want to keep this recipe authentic, you can also use palm sugar but keep in mind that palm sugar is not as sweet, so you may need to add more. The closest substitute I have found to palm sugar is light brown sugar.If you buy palm sugar in discs or blocks, you will need to break it up by either microwaving at 20 second intervals until it is soft enough to use, or pounding it with a mortar and pestle.To master pad thai, you must begin with the dish's foundation: the rice noodles. Noodles are the backbone of this dish and must be cooked perfectly to achieve the right texture and taste.Start by soaking the noodles in hot water for 15-18 minutes. This will soften them up and make them pliable, perfect for stir-frying later on. Once the noodles are soft, drain them and set them aside.To test if the noodles are at the right consistency, do a finger wrap test. Wrap a noodle around your finger, if it breaks - you need to soak it longer, if it wraps easily it's good to go.To make the sauce, start by combining all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Start with the tamarind paste, fish sauce, and palm sugar. Mix them well to create a smooth and even consistency, then add water to thin out the sauce.If you like your pad thai to be spicy, you can add a tablespoon of sriracha.If you prefer a more sour dish, use less sugar or add squirt more lime juice right before you eat it. The beauty of this recipe is that it provides you with the flexibility to make adjustments according to your taste buds.First, peel the garlic and chop it into small pieces. Then, peel the shallots and slice them thinly. Set them both aside for later.Cut the green onions and garlic chives (if you are using any), into 2 inch pieces. Cut the white parts of the green onion in half lengthwise as well.In a large bowl add cold water and the bean sprouts and rinse it until the water runs clear. Remove any soggy brown bean sprouts and discard them.Heat a non-stick pan or wok over medium-high heat and add oil. Once the pan is hot, add proteins like chicken, shrimp, or tofu in and stir-fry them until the protein is cooked through. Remove it from the pan and set it aside.Add a bit more oil into the pan. Once the pan is hot, add in the shallots and stir fry it until they are soft, then add in the minced garlic and stir them together for a few seconds.Add the noodles into the pan and drizzle a bit of oil over it and flip it around.Pour the pad thai sauce over the noodles, making sure to coat each strand evenly. Continue to stir-fry the noodles for a few minutes until they absorb the sauce. If the noodles are too dry, add a few more tablespoons of water.Now it's time to add the eggs to the pan.Move the noodles to one side of the pan. Add a bit more oil to the pan, and crack the eggs into the pan on the other side. Break the yolks and gently move them around and let the eggs cook until set, then scramble them into the noodles.Turn off the heat, and add the bean sprouts and scallions/garlic chives to the pan. Toss them with the noodles and scrambled eggs, allowing the residual heat to soften them slightly.Place it on a serving dish and sprinkle some toasted peanuts on top and serve it with a wedge of lime!I like to serve this on its own as a meal or have it with a sour Thai soup like Tom Yum or Tom Kha Gai. If I'm serving this to a group of people I also like pairing it up with my most asked for dish, Grilled Thai Coconut Chicken Skewers or Thai Chicken Satay with a side of Peanut Satay Sauce.You can keep in an air tight container, or on a plate covered in plastic wrap for 1-2 days in the refrigerator.To warm it up, microwave it in 20 second intervals and occasionally loosening the noodles and flipping it with a utensil to avoid hot spots, until it is warm.Once it is hot, I like to also mix in an additional ¼ cup of fresh bean sprouts to refresh the dish and squirt fresh lime juice on it again.What is the difference between Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles? Pad thai is known for it's sweet, sour and salty balance of flavors with thinner rice noodles which is stir-fried with scrambled eggs and bean sprouts. Drunken noodles (Pad Kee Mao) is spicy and uses thicker width noodles which are stir fried in a more savory sauce tossed with a lot of aromatic Thai basil. Can I make Pad Thai ahead of time? Pad thai tastes best when freshly made but you can prepare all your ingredients ahead of time (making the sauce, soaking the noodles, and preparing the aromatics) and store everything in the refrigerator, so that when you are ready to make it, it would only take about 5 minutes to put together.More Thai Recipes &gt;&gt;If you made this&nbsp;pad thai recipe, I want to see! Follow&nbsp;Pups with Chopsticks on Instagram, snap a photo, and tag and hashtag it with @pupswithchopsticks and #pupswithchopsticks. I love to know what you are making!Stay connected and follow along on&nbsp;Facebook,&nbsp;Pinterest, and&nbsp;Instagram&nbsp;for all of my latest recipes!PrintPinEmailRatefrom votes*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*Disclaimer: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. While I appreciate the support – please try to buy your items locally if possible to support your local shops (chances are they are cheaper locally as well!)Hello!!! I this recipe looks DELICIOUS! And thank you for the clear instructions and visuals. My son has a shrimp allergy; seems ok with other white fish. Salmon may be iffy as well. What fish are used in fish sauce??? I’m going to top the pad Thai with your chicken skewers recipe vs the shrimp, but just wondered if I’m ok to use the fish sauce. He seems ok with oyster sauce. If I can’t use fish sauce, what do you suggest I use in its place?! Thank you!!!!Replyis it an essentional to use tofo in pad thai?ReplyA very delicious Dish, ingredients are handy to reach from my kitchen. So, I decided to make by your recipe. To my surprise, it turned out really amazingly good, given by my family members to me a 2-thumb up . I would say this compliment should be yours, Joyce.Thank you.ReplyThanks for the recipe. I never have buy this dish at at restaurants or for take out again. Taste better then some take aways ❤️❤️❤️❤️. Amazing easy to follow recipeReplyThis looks so amazing! Thank you for all the detailed photos of every step! So helpful. 😊ReplyHi I’m Joyce Lee and Welcome to Pups with Chopsticks! Good eats and cooking is my passion! Join me in my kitchen as I create, test and share traditional and Asian fusion recipes with step-by-step tutorials. Read More…Join my free email list and receive and update whenever there's a new post!

×Jump to RecipePrint Recipefrom votesThis easy authentic Pad Thai recipe is incredibly quick to prepare and has a perfect balance of sweet, salty and sour flavors. Ready from start to finish in 30 minutes or less!Table of ContentsPad Thai is a popular stir-fried noodle dish from Southeast Asia that originates from Thailand. The term "Pad" refers to the stir frying method and means 'fried', while "Thai" simply means Thai!This delicious Thai dish is made of stir-fried rice noodles, eggs tossed in a perfectly balanced sweet, sour and savory sauce.Although it may seem like an intimidating...

Easy Authentic Pad Thai

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