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.
Clay says
Loved it. Would halve the sugar next time. I subsitutued chard and kale for pepper and think it could work with varying veggies, and probably even twice the amount. Thanks for a simple yummy healthy recipe.
Nolan Lisowski says
Really loved it my Grandma from Thailand always used to make for me and this recipe almost tastes the same as hers
Jeffrey says
Good dish, great recipe. For the tamarind sauce it is hard to find at any regular grocery store but if you go to an Asian market it’s totally there. The idea of using 2 tablespoons of vinegar is good but what I choose to do is use one tablespoon of ketchup and one tablespoon of rice vinegar. Kinda gives the same result is using the Tamarind sauce.
Heather says
Great tip! Thank you
Greg V. says
I made it for my wife and she said it was the best Pad Thai she ever had.
Lauren Allen says
I’m so happy to hear it exceeded her expectations! Thanks for sharing Greg!
Geoff says
One of the best ever Pad Thais, thank you so much for sharing this, ever time I serve this the majority of guests say it is the best ever, the rest have never had it before and love it.
I am about to share it with last night’s guests.
Lauren Allen says
I really am so glad to hear that! Thanks for sharing!
Ali says
I love this recipe! It is delicious and so easy to prepare. My kids are 2 and 4 and they love it, too. Very family friendly.
Jenni says
I’ve tried SO many pad thai recipes that seem authentic and delicious. They have all flopped and been such a disappointment. This one was SO easy and exactly the flavor I was looking for. I added the peanut butter and used chicken. I’ll be trying shrimp and tofu next time!
Colleen says
Great recipe!! I only used 2 T sugar and 1 T tamarind/1 T rice vinegar. Also added a sprinkle of dried chili piquin peppers, spicy Thai chili paste-and sweet Thai chile sauce to finish it.
You can add more hot sauce individually at the table.
Great one dish meal…fresh ingredients…easy to prepare
Tracy says
DELICIOUS! I’m an asian girl who loves her asian food, and this was on point. I took advice from one of the reviews and did 1 tablespoon of ketchup and 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar (instead of 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar). The peanut butter just added so much flavor and I loved it! Thanks for this simple and delicious recipe!
Jenny says
Extremely poor college student and terrible cook here, I make this all the time because it’s so quick, easy, and delicious!! Thank you!!
Tanya says
This is a WONDERFUL recipe. We made it two nights in a row.