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.
Kim says
Amazing, even the second day!
Margaret says
Amazing recipe! if you don’t like spicy, lower the siracha sauce amount.
Allison says
Very delicious! I only used 2 tbsp of fish sauce. This was the best pad Thai I’ve had outside of NYC!
Jackie N says
Made this and delish! But I put 2 tablespoons of brown sugar tops, and actually added vegetable broth to stretch the sauce and probably a dash or two more of fish sauce and soy sauce. And you definitely need the peanut butter to make it taste like Pad Thai!
Mike says
I didn’t use all of the ingredients listed, but I made the sauce to the letter. Absolutely delicious! Next time I’ll experiment with tamarind, but for now it’s nice to know I can make this version of the sauce anytime. Thanks!
Deb says
Awesome recipe. I used 3 cups of fresh bean sprouts (so rest of package wouldn’t go to waste), tamarind paste, and more sriracha. Have added to my KEEP recipes, as anticipate using it over and over again. Thanks!
Amanda says
Nope would not make again :(. For one person it didn’t have enough taste and the other it off putting, by both of us disliked it
Ken says
That’s it for take out fab 5 out 5 easily adjustable
Joel says
Amazing pad Thai. Feels like I’m back in Thailand.
dcneil says
My husband and I have been on the hunt for a really good pad thai recipe that we can incorporate into our monthly meal plan. We can officially say, we have found it! We would highly recommend this recipe to anyone. The amount of sauce is just perfect, and the flavor is amazing! We only added 1/4 of the amount of sriracha that was listed (to make sure it was kid friendly) – and that ended up being just perfect. The only thing we would do differently next time is to cut back the amount of bell peppers in it, to maybe 1/2 or 3/4 of a pepper.
Lauren says
Bro, who puts in “1/2” of a bell pepper? Seriously though, if you’re going to do that, skip the fresh produce entirely and get a bag of the frozen, prechopped.