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This amazing Pad Thai recipe is easy and comes together in under 30 minutes. It starts with fresh ingredients including rice noodles, chicken, shrimp, tofu, peanuts, scrambled eggs, and fresh vegetables all tossed together in a delicious homemade pad thai sauce.
Looking for more fun 30-Minute-Meals? Try my Creamy Pesto Tortellini, Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Ground Beef Bowls.
I haven't kept my love for Thai food a secret (here are some of my favorite Thai inspired recipes). My love comes from my mom's cooking, and enjoying favorite Thai restaurants near my hometown, like My Thai, owned by Dee Benson. Dee also made the best fresh spring rolls and gave us advice for making them. This recipe was created by me in an effort to use ingredients I could find easily, and recreate the taste I love.
For a more Authentic Pad Thai recipe that uses palm sugar and tamarind paste, check out Thai Cooking with Joy.
Why I love this recipe:
- 30 Minutes: From start to finish, perfect for a busy weeknight!
- Easy: A few simple steps and everything gets tossed together in the same pan!
- Flavorful: The fresh vegetables and homemade pad thai sauce really make this meal shine!
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 a 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.
A Note about 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.
How to Make Pad Thai:
Cook Noodles: Follow package instructions to cook noodles just until tender. Rinse under cold water.
Make Sauce: Stir together fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar (or tamarind paste), Sriracha, and peanut butter, if using. Set aside.
Sauté Protein: Heat 1½ tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp, chicken or tofu, garlic and bell pepper. Cook until meat is done.
Cook Eggs: 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.
Combine and Toss: Add noodles, sauce, bean sprouts and peanuts to the pan (reserving some peanuts for topping at the end). Toss everything to combine.
Serve: Top with green onions, extra peanuts, cilantro and lime wedges. Serve immediately!
Make Ahead and Storage Instructions:
To Make Ahead: Cut your protein, and chop veggies ahead of time. Stir together sauce ingredients and set aside.
To Store: Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.
Recipe Variations:
- Tamarind Paste: Substitute 2 Tablespoons Tamarind paste in place of the vinegar, for a more authentic sauce.
- Vegan or Vegetarian: Leave out the egg. Use tofu, and substitute the fish sauce for more soy sauce.
- Peanut Butter: In my recipe, I add a big scoop of peanut butter to the sauce because I think it gives the whole dish an added creaminess and boost of flavor.
More Thai Inspired Recipes:
- Panang Curry
- Yellow Curry
- Drunken Noodles
- Chicken Lettuce Wraps
- Peanut Chicken Pasta
- Green Curry Meatballs
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Pad Thai
Equipment
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, , or Tamarind Paste*
- 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.
- Make sauce by combining sauce ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
- Stir Fry:: Heat 1½ tablespoons of oil in a wok or large saucepan 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 wok (reserving some peanuts for topping at the end). Toss everything to combine.
- Garnish the top with green onions, extra peanuts, cilantro and lime wedges. Serve immediately!
- Store leftovers in the fridge and enjoy within 2-3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I originally shared this recipe August 2018. Updated April 2022.
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Best Pad Thai I’ve ever made at home, rivalling the best I’ve had out.
Of all pad Thai recipes I’ve tried, this is the best one
I found this recipe after eating Pad Thai on a business trip. It immediately became a family favorite. I make it almost weekly, using shrimp and baby scallops, red, yellow and orange peppers, crunchy peanut butter and extra roasted peanuts. It’s pretty quick and easy to make, and the best part is, leftovers are EXCELLENT!! Thank you!
The crunchy peanut butter! Love it!
I’ve tried several recipes for pad Thai and this is by far my favorite! The sauce was so delicious and this recipe was easy to make. I will definitely be making more of it!
Hands-down, the best Pad Thai I’ve ever had/made. I never order it from a restaurant anymore and just make this at home and everyone loves it!
Outstanding recipe…. I used fresh salmon I got from my local fish monger…. cooked it first, removed from pan, did everything else your. way, then plated the salmon last… So So SO good!!! Will be making this often with different proteins. Thank you very much. This recipe is a keeper.
This is the best Pad Thia I have ever had, it’s restaurant quality. I followed the recipe as is, except I used 1 lb of ground chicken so it would soak up the flavors. I will definitely make this again, my family loved it.
This was so yummy! I was nervous about the fish sauce because it smells so vile! But after the sauce was added and cooked a little the peanut taste came out and we all loved it. Will make it again for sure. We love Thai food!
If you think fish sauce smells “vile” then why are you even trying to cook Thai food /:
My sister-in-law is from Thailand, and we cook it often. Fish sauce does indeed smell vile from the bottle, but fish sauce, tamarind, and lemongrass are signatures of Thai food when cooked. Jbuller3 gave this recipe 5 stars. Don’t be rude and get your own food channel. BTW What part of Thailand are you from?
Easy and delicious – the green onions, peanuts and lime all come together for a yummy Thai supper!!
People read recipes like this and walk away misinformed instead of having actually learned something about other cuisines. (And they leave well set-up to disappoint people who are actually expecting what you’re inviting them over for dinner to eat.) It’s fine but a pretty far departure from the primary ingredients that define pad thai (even when you account for the fact that there’s no one standard recipe for it, or that we don’t all have access to all the following ingredients; substitutions are sometimes necessary but I wish recipes acknowledged it).
– Tamarind is a must, there’s just no way around that. The flavor is key, not just the acidity which you could kinda get from the vinegar. If you don’t have access to southeast Asian grocers, you can likely find tamarind pods at places that carry Mexican and Central American foods. It’s really not hard at all to boil and strain the pulp. Like, at all.
– I like peanut butter too but it turns this into a completely different dish. Pad thai (or anything w rice noodles that isn’t soup) is dry and light, not thick and wet. Get the peanut flavor you’re looking for by using peanut oil and also add more crushed peanuts
– Bits: you need bits!!! Bits are key!!! Sweet preserved radish (can substitute daikon and yes you can find that at Whole Foods), dried shrimp (try to get it at an Asian grocer but otherwise use bits of large shrimp, or omit), small bits of firm tofu, shallots, and garlic are musts!!!!
– brown sugar is a totally different, darker, sweeter taste than palm sugar, try to get palm sugar
– garlic chives, NOT GREEN ONION!!! I know a lot of American restaurants use green onion and it sucks, it’s way too sharp a flavor. Garlic chives are so necessary
– plz don’t use soy sauce or sriracha in pad thai, again it’s totally a different dish when you do that. Soy overpowers and messes up the flavor. Sriracha adds too much wetness, just use chili flakes if you want it spicy
I implore you to check out this blog: https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/
Had a busy day today and did not feel like cooking at all. I just wanted to order take out and call it a day. But then I remembered this recipe, how simple it is, and how much my family loves it. Better and cheaper than take out!
This was so good. The flavors were all there and it made my picky family happy. The best part? I felt like boss serving up an impressive-looking dish.. which was wonderfully easy to make!
This pad thai sauce is amazing! I added sauteed shallots and garlic to it. I’ve tried them all and this one is #1 in my book. Thank you for sharing.
This was actually worth all the hype, i made with chicken and it was really yum, (i didn’t use any of the spicy stuff either)
I love Pad Thai and was so excited to find this recipe. It is fantastic – just like take out. I made it with tofu. Huge hit in my household.
This is an amazing recipe! It is so versatile. I read a lot of reviews before I made it and adjusted accordingly.
Make the sauce carefully, you can taste along the way. I was careful about the fish sauce (some said too salty) and the sugar (some said to sweet). I started with half of what was called for and adjusted to my taste. Everyone has different tastes. Yes, I added the peanut butter and a bit more.
What I like about this recipe is that you don’t have to hurry at wok. Prep everything before. I julienned carrots (and then par-boiled them), zucchini and yellow peppers. I practically julienned my chicken. It was all ready to go. As was the sauce.
I made my noodles and then straight away added my sauce. Don’t use all the noodles. Use a portion of noodles and the sauce and add more noodles if necessary.
You can then wok your ingredients and add them to the noodles. I paper toweled them before I added them to the noodle mix. The one thing I hate about restaurant Pad Thai is that it can be too oily.
I will make this recipe again and again. Thank you!