Pad Thai is a Thai noodle stir fry with a sweet-savoury-sour sauce scattered with crushed peanuts. It’s made with thin, flat rice noodles, and almost always has bean sprouts, garlic chives, scrambled egg, firm tofu and a protein – the most popular being chicken or prawns/shrimp.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Thai
Keyword Southeast Asian Cuisine, Thai
Ingredients
Pad Thai
8ouncesThai rice noodlesenough for 2 people
2Boneless chicken thighschopped into small pieces
1tablespoonsoy sauce
4green onionssliced, keep white separate from green
3 to 4clovesgarlicminced
1teaspoongrated ginger
1 to 2fresh red or green chiliesfinely sliced
1egg
2 to 3cupsbean sprouts
Handful fresh coriander/cilantro
1/3cuproasted peanutschopped
2 to 3tablespoonsvegetable oil
Lime wedges for serving
Pad Thai Sauce:
1 to 1½tablespoonstamarind pasteto taste (available at Asian/Indian food stores)
¼cupchicken stock
3tablespoonfish sauce
1tablespoonsoy sauce
½ to 1teaspoonchili sauce
pinchground white pepper
Instructions
Make Pad Thai Sauce
In a small bowl or cup, combine all 'Pad Thai Sauce' ingredients (note: if tamarind paste is very thick, only add 1 tablespoon; if thin/runny, add 1½ tablespoons). Taste-test the sauce, looking for a strong-tasting flavor that is sour-sweet at first and is finished with a salty /spicy aftertaste. Set aside.
Mis en Place Ingredients
Bring a large pot of water to boil, then switch off heat. Dunk in noodles and soak 3 to 4 minutes, or until noodles are limp but still firm and a little "crunchy". Tip: The noodles must remain undercooked at this stage, as they will be fried later. This is the key to chewy ' al dente' rice noodles. Drain and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Set aside.
Toss sliced chicken in 1 tablespoon soy sauce and set aside.
Cook
Warm a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil and swirl around, then add the white parts of the onion (reserve green parts for serving), plus garlic, galangal/ginger, and chili. Stir-fry 1 minute.
Add chicken and stir-fry until almost fully cooked.
Push ingredients aside, making room in the center of your wok/pan and crack in the egg. Stir-fry quickly to scramble (30 seconds to 1 minute).
Add the noodles and drizzle over 1/3 of the pad Thai sauce. Using two utensils and a gentle turning motion, stir-fry everything together. Keep heat between medium and high - you want it hot enough to cook the noodles, but not so hot that they'll burn. Add more sauce every 30 seconds to 1 minute as the pan/wok dries out. Continue stir-frying until sauce is gone and noodles begin to get sticky and 'glossy' and taste chewy ('al dente' (5 to 7 minutes).
Assemble
Turn off heat. Fold in bean sprouts and taste-test. If not flavorful or salty enough, add more fish sauce. If too salty or sweet, add a drizzle more tamarind or a good squeeze of lime. If not spicy enough, add more chili sauce or fresh-cut chilies.
Sprinkle over the green onion, nuts, and coriander, and garnish with lime wedges (to be squeezed over before eating). Thai chili sauce can be served on the side for those who like it extra spicy.
Notes
Tamarind paste is made from a sour, dark, sticky fruit that grows in a pod on a tamarind tree. While some cuisines use tamarind paste to make desserts and even candy, in Thai cooking it is used mostly in savory dishes. Classic pad thai sauce is made with tamarind, as are some Thai curries and seafood dishes. Tamarind paste is primarily sour and tangy.