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.
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.
Sachi says
Hi, this looks amazing and I have a question. I like to cook with leftovers so that I don’t have to cook every night. Does this reheat well or is it best eaten the day of?
Matthew says
It is ok when you reheat it its definitely not bad!
April says
Wow ! Absolutely wonderful !!!!
I found this recipe, my family of 3 prepared this together. We enjoyed the easy prep/cook time. Ingredients all fresh, we absolutely enjoyed this Pad Thai! ACES, across the board !
Thank you for sharing this recipe !!!
We’ve cooked this 3 times in less than 3 weeks ❤️
Fans for life !!!
Lauren Allen says
Thanks so much for the great feedback! I hope you get to try my other Thai inspired recipes soon! https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/category/thai/
Korin says
Delicious!
Christina Giffin says
So so good! Did Julianne carrots j stead of red pepper and followed recipe as written. Definitely add the peanut butter. I made ours with shrimp as the protein and it was a huge hit in our house. Can’t wait to make again.
Madison Hebert says
Being in quarantine, I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of money on takeout Pad Thai since it’s such great comfort food. Finally decided to try a recipe and so glad I did this one on my first try. The taste was nearly identical to my favorite spots’s, I’m in love. I messed up pan frying the tofu but that’s my own bad. I used the rice vinegar substitute and found it to work perfectly fine but will try other variant one day! Definitely going to continue to use this recipe and recommend! <3
James Fahy says
I didn’t expect it to be so good. I switched the soy sauce and fish sauce amounts. Not having either tamarind paste or rice vinegar, I used Filipino white vinegar. The ready cooked rice noodles from Asda worked well. Saved to my home screen.
Cathy says
This recipe is a keeper! It was very delicious even with substitutes for some ingredients. Thank you! 😊