Pad Thai

Pad Thai is like a warm blanket. It’s a comfort food of our age, with those chewy noodles, crunchy peanuts, the sweet and tangy sauce, and plenty of chives, bean sprouts, and chicken to make it a full meal. 

To develop this recipe, I carefully pored over many videos of street food vendors in the process of making this signature dish, to catch every detail and addition. This recipe has all the ingredients and information you need to make Pad Thai at home.

A Complex, Full-flavored Pad Thai (Hold the Ketchup!)

I had a friend who traveled to Thailand and spent months eating Pad Thai on the streets of Bangkok. When she returned, she declared she could never go back to the bright red, too-sweet stuff often served up stateside. 

We’ve done our best to emulate the perfect blend of salty, sweet, pickly, shrimpy goodness that goes into a good authentic pad Thai, made with crowd-pleasing chicken. If you prefer Shrimp Pad Thai, head to my dad’s recipe!  

Key Ingredients for the Best Pad Thai:

There are a few vital ingredients for making an excellent—not just good—pad Thai: 

• Tamarind: Mainstream Pad Thai in the U.S. is often a super sweet, red-hued concoction involving lots of ketchup. Traditionally, the tangy sweetness of pad Thai comes from sugar and tamarind paste. In some of our other posts, we use tamarind concentrate from a jar, and some of you readers pointed out that there’s nothing like the pulp, and we couldn’t agree more! We tested this recipe with both the tamarind concentrate from a jar, and our own tamarind concentrate using tamarind pulp, and the difference in flavor was significant! Both will work, but definitely get the tamarind pulp if you can find it.
• Thai Soy Sauces: Thai soy sauces are different from Japanese or Chinese soy sauces, and there are different kinds! Thai sweet soy sauce, for instance, is much thicker and sweeter than say, a Chinese dark soy sauce. It really rounds out the flavors in the sauce base. Over the years, we’ve really come to respect the many nuances of regional soy sauces (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc.). While it seems like they might all taste the same, they definitely do not! How about adding “soy sauce snob,” alongside the craft beer experts and hot sauce aficionados?  

• Ground Dried Shrimp: Hear me out. Even though this isn’t a Shrimp Pad Thai with big whole shrimp, that shrimpy seafood flavor is a true hallmark of a good Pad Thai. Like anchovies, they really meld with all the other flavors in the dish. No overt fishiness here! Just depth of flavor. (We used the dried shrimp on the left in the photo below.)

• Fish Sauce: When you have that seafood edge coming from both the dried shrimp and fish sauce, that’s when you start to get lightyears ahead of anything you could find in a takeout container. We’ve really come to like Red Boat fish sauce if you can find it! 

• Garlic Chives: Also known as Chinese Chives, garlic chives are wider and flatter than the regular chives you’re probably familiar with. They have a subtle sweet garlic flavor, essential to any plate of good Pad Thai. 

Long story short: if you’re wondering about substitutions, try your best to stick to the recipe! This is one where it’s tough to cut out anything, especially if you want to achieve the full scope of flavors. Trust us. You won’t regret following this recipe as written. 

That said, we understand that many of you have limited access to ingredients. Here are some substitutions you could consider: 

• If you can’t find the Thai thin, black, and sweet soy sauces, use Chinese light/dark soy sauce, and add an extra ½ teaspoon of sugar.
• If you can’t find Thai preserved salted radish (we couldn’t when we went grocery shopping for this recipe!), you can substitute Chinese zha cai, preserved Chinese mustard stems (榨菜). The recipe calls for a relatively small amount, so if you can’t find either of those, you can omit it.
• If you truly hate the idea of using dried shrimp, you can experiment with adding 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce instead. That said, like an anchovy in a pasta sauce, the shrimp melds into the dish and adds a great umami flavor.
• Instead of Chinese chives, you can substitute regular scallions, but use half the amount called for. That said, they grow like grass, so plant your gardens or pots accordingly! (Learn more about how to grow garlic chives in your garden!)

When this dish is done, it will feel like you’ve indulged in your favorite Thai takeout—but YOU made it!

Pad Thai Recipe Instructions

First, make the sauce. Take the tamarind pulp (a block about 1 x 2 in (2.5 x 5 cm) and mix it with ½ cup boiling water (you can add a little more if needed to dissolve the paste).

Break up the pulp in the hot water, and then press the mixture through a fine-meshed strainer. Discard the solids.

To the liquid tamarind concentrate you just made, add the sugar, fish sauce, Thai black soy sauce, Thai sweet soy sauce (if using), and white pepper. Set aside. 

Soak the pad Thai noodles in hot water for about 20 minutes, and drain in a colander. If the noodles are in really long strands, you will want to cut them into 10- to 12-inch lengths to make stir-frying easier. 

(Or you will end up with a huge noodle ball when cooking. Nobody wants a huge noodle ball.)

Marinate the sliced chicken by combining it with 1 teaspoon each of Thai thin soy sauce, cornstarch, and water. Set aside. 

Next, prepare the dried shrimp, mincing them down into a coarse powder (we used a food processor).

Prepare the garlic, shallots/red onion, Thai preserved salted radish or preserved Chinese mustard stems (zha cai), eggs, mung bean sprouts, garlic chives, and peanuts. You want to have everything ready to go before you turn on the stove. 

Now you’re ready to cook! Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in your wok over high heat until just smoking. Add the chicken, and sear until golden and just cooked through.

Remove from the wok and set aside. 

Add another 3 tablespoons of oil to the wok. Over medium heat, add the shrimp powder.

Fry until fragrant and crisp, 2 minutes.

Add the garlic, and cook for 30 seconds.

Add the shallots and zha cai. Stir-fry for another 30 seconds. 

Turn the heat up to high, and add the noodles and sauce. Stir-fry to combine, lifting the noodles with your wok spatula to spread them out and break them up.

Make a space on the side of the wok, pushing the noodles to one side. Drizzle 1 more tablespoon of oil in the open space, and pour in the beaten eggs.

Use your spatula to fold them gently, scrambling them without breaking up the egg too much. When the eggs are about 70% done, stir-fry to distribute them into the noodles.

Next, add the bean sprouts and the chives.

Stir-fry to combine, letting the chives wilt. Add the chicken back in.

Stir-fry to combine until everything is incorporated.

Plate, top with the crushed peanuts, and serve!

Note that we staged this recipe with chopsticks, but in Thailand, it’s common to eat Pad Thai with a fork and a spoon! So if your chopstick skills aren’t the best, don’t worry. Do as the Thais do, and grab a fork!