Pad Thai Recipe (with Chicken or Shrimp) - Cooking Classy (2024)

FAQs

What meat is Pad Thai best with? ›

Pad Thai is a Thai noodle stir fry with a sweet-savoury-sour sauce scattered with crushed peanuts. It's made with thin, flat rice noodles, and almost always has bean sprouts, garlic chives, scrambled egg, firm tofu and a protein – the most popular being chicken or prawns/shrimp.

If it's only made of those ingredients, what then makes it so unique? A Pad Thai has tamarind, fish sauce, garlic, dried shrimp, palm sugar, and red chili pepper. These simple ingredients make Pad Thai a bowl of five tastes—salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami.

They are used to add flavor, texture, and richness to the dish. Pad Thai is a stir-fried noodle dish that typically includes eggs, which are scrambled into the noodles. The eggs help bind the other ingredients and provide a subtle eggy flavor that is characteristic of the dish.

Fish sauce is arguably the most important seasoning in Southeast Asian cuisine, and this is definitely true of Thai cuisine. You've probably had it without even knowing it; in your pad thai, or in that orange dipping sauce nuoc cham from your Vietnamese takeout.

The most traditional protein to use in pad Thai is shrimp, but pork, chicken, and beef are popular options as well. Eggs and tofu are usually incorporated as part of the basic stir-fry. Pad Thai is often not vegetarian even without meat, however, because of the fish sauce and/or dried shrimp used to make the sauce.

Pad thai is a nutrient-dense dish offering many nutrients and health benefits, primarily from: Flat rice noodles: They are rich in carbs, which serve as an energy source to fuel our bodies, and selenium, an essential mineral that supports the immune system.

The name of this establishment refers to the five flavors (ha/ห้า=five, roat/รส=flavors) which are present in a good pad Thai: salty, sweet, sour, spicy, and savory.

A More Authentic Pad Thai

Pad Thais can be both sour and sweet, depending on the region they're made in and who is making the dish! Generally, in Thailand, pad thai will include ingredients like dried shrimp and fish sauce which lends tangy umami to the overall dish.

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.

Although the ingredients in pad Thai are generally pretty healthy, the calories can still add up fast. Just one cup of a typical pad Thai has about 400 calories and 17 grams of fat, as well as loads of sodium. To balance it out, I always order mine with an extra serving of steamed vegetables to mix in.”

What is a substitute for tamarind in Pad Thai? ›

TAMARIND SUBSTITUTION

Although ketchup is a common replacement for tamarind paste, we prefer this tasty mixture: 1/4 cup (50 mL) tomato paste, 2 tbsp (30 mL) rice vinegar or freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice, 2 tbsp (30 mL) Worcestershire, 2 garlic cloves, minced, 1 tbsp (15 mL) brown sugar and 1 tbsp (15 mL) water.

When it's sold in restaurants outside Thailand, the noodles are sometimes bright orange – that's because sauces or spices, like paprika, have been used instead of tamarind. Authentic Pad Thai is a light reddish-brown colour.

Hoisin sauce is a thick, fragrant sauce commonly used in Cantonese cuisine as a glaze for meat, an addition to stir fry, or as dipping sauce. It is dark-coloured, sweet and salty. Although regional variants exist, hoisin sauce usually includes soybeans, fennel, red chili peppers, and garlic.

Hoisin sauce

It has a slightly sweet flavor, so it is often compared to American-style barbecue sauce. Because hoisin sauce has an umami flavor, it may serve as a substitute for fish sauce. To substitute fish sauce with hoisin sauce, mix hoisin sauce with soy sauce at a 1:1 ratio.

Meats used in Thai cuisine are usually pork and chicken, and also duck, beef, and water buffalo. Goat, lamb, and mutton are rarely eaten except by Muslim Thais in Southern Thailand.

And pad thai is generally served with toppings like peanuts, fresh vegetables, bean sprouts, and cilantro. Pad Thai is one of those undefinable dishes that people can interpret in a thousand different ways. And while the ingredients can vary between other recipes, the dish always includes rice noodles and eggs.

Pad thai has since become one of Thailand's national dishes. Today, some food vendors add pork or chicken (although the original recipe did not contain meat because of the government's perception that pork was a Chinese meat).

Both have similar cooking styles in that you can stir-fry or toss the noodles in a wok. Lo Mein requires a sesame oil base whereas the other requires a tamarind sauce that the noodles will be stirred in.