This amazing Pad Thai recipe is easy and approachable and can be made in under 30 minutes. It starts with fresh ingredients including rice noodles, chicken, shrimp, tofu, cilantro, bean sprouts, peanuts and scrambled eggs tossed in a delicious homemade pad Thai sauce that is so good it tastes like it came from your favorite Thai restaurant.
For a Pad Thai recipe that uses palm sugar and tamarind paste, check out Thai Cooking with Joy.
I’ve not kept my love for Thai food a secret here (here are some of my favorite Thai recipes), but I really can’t believe it’s taken me so long to share a homemade pad thai recipe. Just see the recipe card for proof of how easy it is to make from home!
What is Pad Thai?
Pad Thai is stir-fry dish made with rice noodles, shrimp, chicken, or tofu, peanuts, a scrambled egg and bean sprouts. The ingredients are sautéed together in a wok and tossed in a delicious pad thai sauce. It’s common street food in Thailand and one of the most popular menu items at Thai restaurants around the country.
To make vegan or vegetarian pad thai, leave out the egg and substitute the fish sauce for more soy sauce.
How to make Pad Thai Sauce:
Traditional pad thai sauce includes fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and tamarind paste. Tamarind paste is not easily found at a regular grocery stores so I substituted rice vinegar. If you would like to use tamarind paste, substitute about 2 Tablespoons in place of the rice vinegar in this recipe. I also added a big scoop of peanut butter to my sauce, because I think it gives the whole dish an added creaminess and boost of flavor that I love.
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Pad Thai
Video
Ingredients
- 8 ounces flat rice noodles
- 3 Tablespoons oil
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 8 ounces uncooked shrimp, chicken, or extra-firm tofu , cut into small pieces
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup fresh bean sprouts
- 1 red bell pepper , thinly sliced
- 3 green onions , chopped
- 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
- 2 limes
- 1/2 cup Fresh cilantro , chopped
For the Pad Thai sauce:
- 3 Tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 Tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
- 5 Tablespoons light brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar * see note
- 1 Tablespoon Sriracha hot sauce , or more, to taste
- 2 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter , optional
Instructions
- Cook noodles according to package instructions, just until tender. Rinse under cold water.
- Mix the sauce ingredients together. Set aside.
- Heat 1½ tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan or wok over medium-high heat.
- Add the shrimp, chicken or tofu, garlic and bell pepper. The shrimp will cook quickly, about 1-2 minutes on each side, or until pink. If using chicken, cook until just cooked through, about 3-4 minutes, flipping only once.
- Push everything to the side of the pan. Add a little more oil and add the beaten eggs. Scramble the eggs, breaking them into small pieces with a spatula as they cook.
- Add noodles, sauce, bean sprouts and peanuts to the pan (reserving some peanuts for topping at the end). Toss everything to combine.
- Top with green onions, extra peanuts, cilantro and lime wedges. Serve immediately!
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE this recipe and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
M Davis says
Good, but WAY too sweet. Used half the amount of sauce, and added some spice to it to try to cut out the sweetness. Good recipe, will use again but make some adjustments.
Ruth says
My first time following the recipe and I enjoyed it very much my husband did too
Zora Silden says
Wonderful recipe, family loves it every time, better than take-out.
Eric says
Delicious! Very much like what you get at a Thai restaurant. I will probably cut back a little on the brown sugar and next time. It is a lot easier to make if you prepare and measure all of your ingredients first.
Monica says
This review is for the sauce only (I have my own combination of vegetables for the dish).
The sauce was fantastic! I’ve tried several different recipes but most didn’t have the Pad Thai flavor. This is as close to take out as I’ve found. The only change I made was to use 4 tbs of brown sugar (not packed) instead of 5. We will absolutely be making this again!
Jody says
I made this recipe tonight for my husband and myself. After reading the comments I made some adjustments to the sauce by doubling almost all of the ingredients except for the brown sugar and sriracha. It was good that way for us, as I really don’t like overly sweet Pad Thai, but I think next time I will go further and actually make 2 1/2 times the sauce recipe except for those ingredients. I also added some match stick carrots in with the mixture before adding the noodles. Thank you for the great recipe.
Olive says
Great recipe! I used about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, because the siracha evened out the sweetness. I substituted zucchini from my garden done as matchstick, since I didn’t have any peppers. Didn’t have any scallions so cut chives from the garden. Worked out really well!
CBT says
Used 1/2 the brown sugar. Terrific. Better than the Thai place down the street. Did 6oz of noodles with the same amount of sauce and was sufficient.