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!
Hands down, the best at-home Pad Thai recipe I’ve ever tried. It really does taste restaurant quality!
Love this recipe, added extra limes to it and my GF really horny.
What can I add to make this extra spicy? We love medium heat but I feel like Take out gives us mild?
We tried this last night. Omg I can’t believe how great the flavour was and that I didn’t need a little jar of pad Thai sauce…. Just hunt for tamarind at local supermarket (so excited when I found it) and stuff I keep in the pantry. We have some heart, kidney, IBS, diabetic health issues at home so I used carrot and peppers instead of onions (and added onions to non-ibs plates at the end), monkfruit instead of sugar and cabbage noodles instead of the real deal. So amazing to have the “I ate restaurant flavours Thai food last night” experience without the morning BGLs spike. Don’t get me wrong…. I’m still eating stir fry at our local little Thai restaurant, but this was a meal I used to miss ordering.
Hi! I am wondering if I can use Tamarind sauce. Is that the same as puree? TIA!
Pad Thai is my daughter’s favorite dish. That includes not only Asian, but all cuisines. She likes it served with peanut sauce, so I decided to make it for her along with your Thai Chicken Satay and Pineapple Fried Rice. All three dishes turned out absolutely fantastic!!! My daughter said the Pad Thai I made was better than she could get at any restaurant in town. My kitchen looked like the Cat in the Hat and Things 1 and 2 cooked dinner, but it was so, so WORTH IT! I love you and your website and Dozer. Thank you a million times for all the work you put in for us all. You are a gem and I am so glad I found you. Thank you again. 🙏
Ditto!!!! This was DE-LI-CIOUS!. I too am so glad I happened onto Nagi’s amazing blog. And Dozer’s of course!
This is hands down my favorite pad Thai recipe. It’s super simple and comes out perfectly every time. It’s going in my regular meal rotation!
Everything was great except for the massive amount of brown sugar. I don’t think I have ever had pad Thai this sweet. Next time I make it, I will be halving the amount of brown sugar.
I made this using tamarind concentrate (1/3) the amount like the recipe noted. Does anyone know if this would change the taste from using the tamarind paste recommended? It turned out pretty good but something tasted a little off to me. This is the only thing I did differently.
I am not a confident cook and so rarely do I feel like something I made is as good eating out~but this turned out amazing and as good, if not better, than some take out pad thais I have tried! I loved it so much I made it again just a couple of nights later to see if I had imagined it and it really is that good & the notes make it easy to make. I purchased the cookbook and can’t wait to try more recipes and build up that cooking confidence.
Make this every second Monday for our meat free dinner! Love this amazing recipe so much it’s impossible to describe how much!!! Best week night tasty Pad Thai ever made. Thank you Nagi, you’re a legend 👍👍
Loved it! Pad thai is my husband’s favorite dish and we’ve made 6 or 8 versions at home. He said this is the closest we’ve ever come to restaurant style. Successs!
My kids ate it! Including the tofu.
Appreciated the tips and tricks,l. Next time I’ll make the note traditional version, because I did want it funkier, but it’s everything Nagi promised.
Quick, cheap and filling.
We’ve in an area affected by Cyclone Jasper so have lost power and internet but are fine! Lucky I had Nagi’s recipe book on hand and we made this on our gas BBQ under shelter. It turned out great! We didn’t have peanuts on hand so used macadamia instead which was nice.
This was amazing! Better than you get at restaurants. Made exactly to recipe other than omitting the tofu as I didn’t have any. Can’t wait to make it again.
making it again tonight, to use up tofu and beanshoots. Will be adding a little bit of chicken.your recipes are easy to follow and very tasty.
One of our family favourites now. We double the recipe to make sure there’s leftovers for the lunch boxes.
I loved this so much tonight! Super easy and honestly I doubt I’ll ever buy it take away again! The sauce was super quick to assemble. Love the tofu in it and the lime to top it off is perfection!
Best and easiest pad Thai recipe ever. Few enough ingredients that I can always keep them on hand, ready to whip up quickly after work. Has been a weekly favourite at our house!
Thanks Nagi!
So easy to make and immediately into the weekly rotation. If we go too long without having it, my partner starts requesting it!