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!
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
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!
10/10 – BEST pad Thai I’ve ever made at home and I’m sorry to say but it is SO much better than any restaurant pad Thai I’ve ever bought too. I highly recommend making it, you won’t regret it 😍
This is a regular recipe for us, at least once a month. It is as close to or better than, any Resto/take away Pad Thai we have ever had. We usually make a few tweaks on the fly…..
We double the recipe, bit less sugar, add half a squeezed lime to the sauce, a mixture of tomato and oyster sauce. Chop up all the Coriander stems and add to the pan with spring onions, also add some peanuts at this point too, to get a bit of that nutty/smokey street food flavour into it. Oh, and we add 250g of green prawn meat, just as the chicken is nearly cookrd through.
All other ingredients scaled up as per the recipe.
The ‘Go to’ Thai recipe.
Thanks Nagi, its awesome 👍
Regards,
Chris & Jen
First time I tried it and I have to say it was brilliant better than many restaurants I been to for along time. Cooked fresh can’t beat it.
I am surrounded by Asian grocery stores. Yet I cannot find Tamarind Puree. I can find plenty of Tamarind Concentrate. Can’t I just dilute that?
I’ve probably made this dish 20 times since I discovered it back in 2020. Tonight was the first time I used Erawan noodles, because it was all I could get my hands on….you were not kidding about them breaking apart!! In the end it looked like I had noodle bits rather than actual noodles, haha. Still tasted great as always!!
Thank you for this delicious recipe!! I made it without chicken/ tofu and still it turned out really good!!! Thank you Nori!!
I’ve made this recipe many times and it’s always incredible. As good or better than I can get at most restaurants in my area. I’ve made it for large groups and always get loads of compliments and it’s easy to make a large batch to feed a crowd.
Love this recipe never had Pad Thai before and now I am addicted to it – make at least once every 2 weeks – use prawns and vegetables but will make this chicken one and use Tamarind concentrate as it’s easier to find and love the flavour it brings – have made many of your recipes and they are always spot on 🙂
delicious and amazing, simple and unfussy recipe. love what you do!
Unfortunetly this did not come out well. Followed everything to the letter but the sauce was over powering. It didn’t come out like the pictures and was a very deep brown and all you could taste was the sauce. After looking further I found a recipe from a Thai lady who stressed to use tamarind from Thailand as Indian tamarind is a very heavy concentrate. The Thai version I got from Amazon was Dragonfly and it was like a heavy cream. Used 4 Tbs and 3 Tbs water and palm sugar as she suggested. Everything else was the same except I added some sweet preserved daikon mince.
Viola!! It came out perfect like my Thai friend used to make.
Such a great recipe! My family all loved it! Will be my go to from now.
This is my go-to recipe for Pad Thai. It has the perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty.
WOW! This recipe was absolutely fantastic!!! I was skeptical of how it would be but I was actually amazed at how much better it tasted than 80% of “Thai” restaurants I’ve visited. Well done! I’d submit a pic if it were possible. 😉
I loved it! I didn’t have all the ingredients for a proper pad thai, so i called it ” pad thai-ish” as i used vermicelli noodles and I didn’t have any bean sprouts. I tried the ketchup substitute and it was delicious. I will be making again… with the proper ingredients.
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Excellent! I liked it better than the “authentic” ones with dried shrimp powder. I used shrimp instead of chicken, but everything else as written.
Delicious! I’ve only had Pad Thai a few times in my life, but this recipe was so yummy! My partner also loved it. Will be adding it to the regular recipe list
I’ve never seen this sauce combo before for Pad Thai and was instantly intrigued as I love Tamarind. Added some extras (Lemon Grass, Kafir Lime, Broc Stems, Coriander, Peanut Butter and Snow Peas). I added 50% more sauce ingredients as I knew it was going to be special. End result was a full blown flavour explosion that the kids loved. Note left out Tofu & peanuts & used 1kg of chicken. For a family of four – I actually ran out for the first time in a long time.
Thanks Nagi..made this with green prawns and fresh pineapple….delicious!
I read a couple of negative reviews but I made this for dinner anyway … and it was a triumph! My son said “This is better than the Thai place up the road” 😂. My other son and my hubby gave it a big thumbs up too! I’m not big on tofu so added extra chicken instead; and yes, the lime wedge completes it! Thanks for ANOTHER excellent recipe Nagi! xx
Sorry but this was very disappointing. It was so bland and didn’t taste like Pad Thai at all. I find your recipes hit or miss, some are exceptional like the Green Chicken Curry some are shockingly bad. Would be nice to see this one improved
You must be kidding??? bland??? Trolling much???