This is a Pad Thai recipe that truly stacks up to great Thai restaurants yet is totally doable for every home cook with just a trip to your every day grocery store. With the slippery noodles, signature sweet-savoury flavour, sprinkle of peanuts and tang from lime, this is a Thai food favourite for good reason!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Pad Thai recipe
Pad Thai is one of the world’s most beloved noodle dishes. Along with Thai Green Curry and Red Curry, this is the dish by which every Thai restaurant is measured. In fact, I was trying to find the “best” Thai restaurant in my area just last week and it brought me much amusement that Pad Thai was the baseline of a favourable or unfavourable rating for almost every review!
If you’ve been disappointed by basic Pad Thai recipes in the past, have faith – I promise this one delivers!
What is Pad Thai??
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.
Authentic Pad Thai
Authentic Pad Thai on the streets of Thailand has a distinct fishy/prawny “funk” (which sounds thoroughly unappetising but is actually completely addictive and the very essence of true Thai street food). If authentic is what you’re after, try this Prawn/Shrimp version I shared from Spice I Am Thai restaurant.
On the other end of the spectrum, a quick Google is all it takes to find a myriad of basic westernised versions which are typically made with not much more than something sour (vinegar, lime juice), soy sauce and sugar. These recipes will not taste like any Pad Thai you’ve had from a restaurant.
This recipe I’m sharing today lies in the middle between hardcore authentic version (which even I find borderline too fishy) and very basic westernised recipes that tend to lack the proper depth of flavour and are typically too sweet.
It truly stacks up to your favourite Thai takeout – except less oily (restaurants tend to use loads of oil) – but you will not need to hunt in the dark corners of an Asian store to find the ingredients.
What is Pad Thai Sauce made of?
Pad Thai Sauce is made with fish sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar and tamarind.
Tamarind is the ingredient that is the heart and soul of Pad Thai sauce, giving the sauce the sour flavour that Pad Thai is known for. It’s an ingredient used in South East Asian cooking, like this Malaysian Beef Rendang.
Authentic Pad Thai is made with Tamarind pulp which comes in a block (size of a soap bar) which is then soaked in hot water, then pressed through a sieve to make tamarind puree.
To make life easy, I use ready made tamarind puree which is sold at supermarkets here in Australia. 🙌🏻🙌🏻 Or Asian stores, obviously (and it’s cheaper).
Can’t find Tamarind Puree?
Believe it or not, a great substitute is ketchup. With a few tweaks to the recipe, you can achieve a similar, extremely good outcome!
The Noodles
Pad Thai is made with flat dried rice noodles which can be found in everyday supermarkets.
I recommend Chang’s “Thai style” rice noodles rather than the actual Thai brand rice noodles (Erawan Rice Sticks – red pack below) that are sold at supermarkets.
Chang’s are less prone to breaking and require just 5 minutes of soaking in hot water.
The Erawan Rice Sticks are far more prone to breaking when stir frying.
Other ingredients in Pad Thai
Here are two more ingredients that are very Pad Thai-centric: firm tofu and garlic chives.
You’ll find firm tofu at the supermarket too – go for the firmest plain tofu you can find (read the label, give the packet a squeeze to check). Don’t even think about trying this with soft tofu – it will just totally disintegrate!
Garlic chives are the big brother of normal chives. They taste like garlicky chives (I know, you’re shocked right? 😂) and are shaped like blades of grass. These are also sold at supermarkets here in Australia (with the other fresh herbs). Sub with extra garlic and green onions if you can’t find them.
How to make Pad Thai
Once you’ve gathered the ingredients, the making part is actually very straight forward!
As with all stir fries, make sure you have all the ingredients prepared and ready to toss into the wok or skillet because once you start cooking, things move fast!
I cannot believe how I’ve just written about Pad Thai without barely pausing for a breathe.
I’m going to stop here before I run out of space for the recipe. 😂
So – meet your new favourite Pad Thai recipe. The one you will make over and over again, any night of the week, just by popping into Woolies on the way home. WHOOOOT!!!!! – Nagi xx
Watch how to make it
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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Pad Thai
Ingredients
- 125 g / 4oz Chang’s Pad Thai dried rice sticks (Note 1)
Sauce:
- 1 1/2 tbsp tamarind puree , NOT concentrate (Note 2)
- 3 tbsp (packed) brown sugar
- 2 tbsp fish sauce (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce (Note 4)
Stir Fry:
- 2 – 3 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
- 1/2 onion , sliced (brown, yellow)
- 2 garlic cloves , finely chopped
- 150 g/5oz chicken breast (or thigh) , thinly sliced
- 2 eggs , lightly whisked
- 1 1/2 cups of beansprouts
- 1/2 cup firm tofu, cut into 3cm / 1 1/4″ batons (see photo)
- 1/4 cup garlic chives , cut into 3cm / 1 1/4″ pieces
- 1/4 cup finely chopped peanuts
For serving:
- Lime wedges (essential)
- Ground chilli or cayenne pepper (optional)
- More beansprouts
Instructions
- Place noodles in a large bowl, pour over plenty of boiling water. Soak for 5 minutes, then drain in a colander and quickly rinse under cold water. Don’t leave them sitting around for more than 5 – 10 minutes.
- Mix Sauce in small bowl.
- Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large non stick pan (or well seasoned skillet) over high heat. Add garlic and onion, cook for 30 seconds.
- Add chicken and cook for 1 1/2 minutes until mostly cooked through.
- Push to one side of the pan, pour egg in on the other side. Scramble using the wooden spoon (add touch of extra oil if pan is too dry), then mix into chicken.
- Add bean sprouts, tofu, noodles then Sauce.
- Toss gently for about 1 1/2 minutes until Sauce is absorbed by the noodles.
- Add garlic chives and half the peanuts. Toss through quickly then remove from heat.
- Serve immediately, sprinkled with remaining peanuts and lime wedges on the side, with a sprinkle of chilli and a handful of extra beansprouts on the side if desired (this is the Thai way!). Squeeze over lime juice to taste before eating.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published May 2018. Updated January 2019 with a new video, new step photos. No change to recipe.
More Thai food favourites
Good Thai is sorely lacking in my neighbourhood – so it’s critical to have recipes for all my favourite Thai dishes!
Life of Dozer
Flashback to when I first published Pad Thai back in May 2018 when he tore his cruciate ligament and was confined to a small space during his recovery. He does an excellent sad face. 😢
Happy to report that 3 months later, he was back to his wild, crazy self!
Thanks for sharing this great tasting recipe! My family loved it and I will definitely be adding it to the rotation.
I made this today…it was incredible. My mom also really liked it. I really liked the sauce a lot…I did not use brown sugar..I bought solid can sugar..melted it down in a pan and incorporated it into the sauce…delicious.
The best pad thai recipe I’ve ever tried! Loved every part about, tasted just like in a restaurant.
could i use some precooked chicken in this? i have some roast chicken left over
Amazing recipe!
This is my second time using it and this time I used a little less sugar than called for, added sriracha for a little extra heat, and used julienned carrots cause we didn’t have bean sprouts.
Will definitely make again!
This is a fantastic recipe! I can only get the Erewan brand noodles at my local woolies, and I’ve found if you boil them for only 4 minutes they don’t disintegrate 😃 (saves the 40 minute soak!)
Forgot to add rating!
Ketchup version+half sugar amount+homemade vegan fish sauce+vegetarian oyster sauce+a BIG thank you to nagi=DELICIOUS pad Thai sauce!
This was an awesome recipe. Better than restaurant. I made my own tamarind paste which was worth it (and now I have a ton and will never run out again). Fish sauce was a little much but can just adjust to taste.
This recipe is a serious banger. My 8 year old loves pad Thai take out he said was just as good! I was missing couple things, peanut and tofu. Still turned out very well. For the sause I substituted half pomegranate molasses and half ketchup. Soy sauce for oyster sause and cilantro to garnish. Will be entered into our recipe rotation!
This recipe beats every Pad Thai I’ve ever had! I’d never order it out again!
I tried this today and I used similar noodles, following package directions and they did not cook through. The 2 Tbsp fish sauce was strong, however this is a mostly balanced flavor. Next time I will have to really check the noodles before adding to sautée and reduce the fish sauce to 1 tbsp maybe. Great recipe though!
Easy and tasted great. I used about half the amount of sugar and it was just right for me.
Forgot to add my rating
Best tasting Pad Thai recipe I’ve found and super quick to whip up which is a bonus. Made it with tofu and prawns, subbed chives for green onions as that’s what I had in the fridge, and used tamarind paste (1/3 of the suggested amount) – it was delish! Even the fussy teen loved it which is amazing. Perfect quantity for 3 for us too,
Which veggies could you add? Green beans?
So easy. I’ve made it with tamarind and the ketchup sauce if no tamarind available and both taste great.
Absolutely delicious! I doubled the recipe without an issue and I used the tamarind concentrate. Thank you for the note on the difference between the puree and concentrate! My husband said it was the best dish I have ever made! I also used shrimp instead of chicken. It was restaurant quality, thank you!
I made this recipe for the first time last night. My son shared a photo to some friends, one of whom has cooked in Asian restaurants for years. He commented that he couldn’t tell mine from take out
Reminded me of holiday in Koh Samui. Love your recipes. Think Dozzer does the sorrowful face to get sympathy, as all Labs do.
This pad thai was great, I’ve made it a few times now and it’s my go-to recipe for chicken pad thai. I use the tamarind puree substitute from Note 2 and it works really well. I like to double the recipe so that my husband and I have leftovers for a couple of days to take to work and such.
This is incredible, even my mother in law from Thailand loved it 😊 Fantastic recipe
Thank you x