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.
Suzanne Jewell says
So delicious and my husband loved it!
Amanda B says
This has become my go-to dinner recipe when I’m feeling lazy or don’t have something else planned. I have made it probably 8 times in the past 2.5/3 weeks (would’ve made it more but my husband apparently needs more variety than I do).
Danielle says
Made this after a day of hiking and not only was it super easy and quick, but SO DELICIOUS! I was low on items in stock and feeling lazy so I replaced the pepper with mushroom and the bean sprouts with iceberg lettuce and it was AMAZING! It will be added to the list and I’ll be sure to have all of the right ingredients for the times to come! Thank you for the new staple recipe.
Danielle says
My apologies, did not mean to post this as a reply to someone else! Even though I do agree on how many more times I will be making this 🙂
John Nguyen says
This was easy and very tasty recipe! I made this for me and my girl and she was amazed how good it was! Obviously I had some help 😉
Jes says
This recipe was amazing and super yummy! I used shirataki konjac noodles (no carbs) and used BASIL instead of cilantro, OH SO GOOD…Highly recommend if you want that restaurant taste! Didn’t have bell peppers or bean sprouts but had asparagus so I used that. Added extra garlic and it was delish! Whole family LOVED IT.
Belle Pimentel says
What did you substitute for the sugar to be low carb?
Iris says
DELICIOUS SLIPPERY NOODLES
Misplaced my rice vinegar somewhere – but subbed for 3 tbsp lime juice .
Hubby And I LOVED it – it’s added to my favourites !
Marti Darling says
My son-in-law and I made this dish last night. We doubled the recipe without noticing you have that feature. We had to substitute mushrooms for bean sprouts and I didn’t have roasted peanuts! It has been a long time since I made Pad Thai. HOLY MOLY!! It was so good the entire dinner conversation was, “mmmm, Mmmm. Oh mmmmmm.” We all want to make it again and soon! Wow, thank you very much for posting this easy, tasty recipe.
Darlene says
The sauce was way too sweet – next time I will probably cut it down to 2 or 3 TBSP sugar. Other than that, it was nice to use simple ingredients to make this dish!
Toni says
I had bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs I had to use up. I just roasted them with salt and pepper, took the chicken off the bones, and shredded the meat to be used in this recipe. I followed the rest of the recipe, minus the peanuts because I did not have any at the time. THIS WAS DELICIOUS. My husband actually thought I ordered delivery from a high-end restaurant. He was then shocked to discover I didn’t use a bottled sauce from the grocery store. He asked that we add this recipe to our rotation. I agree, it was great! Thanks so much!
Rosemarie says
Came out amazing! Delicious
Deborah H says
I made this last night and it was scrumptious! Even my hubby thought it was fantastic so I will definitely be making this again! The only change I made was I reduced the amount of sugar by half.