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Chicken Pad Thai

A reasonably authentic take on Pad Thai, the Thai stir fry classic! The recipe below serves one (hungry) diner. Simply multiply with the number of diners, but never cook more than one or two servings at a time.
Course Main
Cuisine Thai
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 1
Author Johan Johansen

Ingredients

For Pad Thai Sauce (enough for at least six servings):

  • 1/3 cup tamarind pulp
  • 1/3 cup palm sugar
  • 1/3 cup fish sauce
  • 1 teaspoon Thai dried shrimp/chili paste

For Pad Thai stir fry:

  • 100 grams rice noodles
  • 50 grams extra firm tofu in uniform slices
  • 50 grams chicken breast in uniform slices
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • 1 medium shallot finely diced
  • 1 garlic clove finely diced
  • 1 tablespoon preserved radish/turnip finely diced
  • 2 handfuls bean sprouts
  • 3 sprigs garlic chives cut into one-centimeter pieces
  • 1/2 handful roasted, salted peanuts roughly chopped
  • dried chili to taste
  • granulated sugar to taste
  • 2 lime wedges

Instructions

To make Pad Thai Sauce:

  1. In a small sauce pan, combine tamarind and sugar and melt together over medium heat. Do not let it boil and burn. Add a little water if things get too thick.
  2. Once sugar is dissolved, add fish sauce and bring to a light simmer, stirring regularly. You might want to cover your nose.
  3. Add shrimp/chili paste and stir to combine.
  4. Taste your sauce, it should be immediately salty, bitter/sweet and sour with a hint of heat. A little overwhelming in its pure form, but with a nice depth and pungency to it.
  5. You can adjust the flavor profile by adding more fish sauce for saltiness, tamarind for sour/bitter notes or palm sugar for depth and sweetness.
  6. When you're happy set aside.

To prepare the noodles:

  1. Put rice noodles in a bowl or other heat proof vessel.
  2. Cover noodles with hot or boiling water and let stand for 10 minutes until soft and pliable.

To make Pad Thai

  1. Heat a cast iron pan or wok over high heat for a few minutes to get it nice and hot.
  2. Add a generous splash of vegetable oil to the pan/wok, then add shallots and garlic, fry for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
  3. Add tofu and chicken, fry for about a minute, still stirring frequently until nicely browned.
  4. Add a couple of tablespoons of Pad Thai sauce and stir to coat, fry for another minute or so.
  5. Dump in noodles (drained, please), and another two tablespoons of sauce, stir everything well together.
  6. Push your noodle/protein mix off to one side of the pan or wok and pour the lightly beaten egg into the pan. Scramble egg for a few seconds, then start tossing with the other ingredients, moving quickly so the egg mixture coats the noodles well and thoroughly.
  7. Toss in about half the garlic chives and half the bean sprouts, stir thoroughly to mix and quickly transfer contents of pan/wok to a serving plate.
  8. Serve immediately with remaining garlic chives, bean sprouts, dried chili, sugar, peanuts and lime wedges.
  9. You can either garnish as you see fit or serve all garnishes on the side, the latter is the traditional way.

Recipe Notes

The sauce portion of this recipe is non-proportional with the rest of the recipe and will possibly make more sauce than you need. Pad Thai sauce, I'm reasonably sure, will keep damn near forever if refrigerated or frozen.