Pad Thai, phat Thai or phad Thai is a stir-fried rice noodle dish commonly served as a street food and actually in each Thai restaurant all around Thailand. It is made with soaked dried rice noodles, which are stir-fried with eggs and chopped firm tofu. It can be combined with chicken, pork, beef, and/or shrimps or just with tofu for vegetarians.
Equipment needed
- Knife
- Tea spoon (tsp)
- Cutting board
- Bowl
- Wok or pan
- 2nd pan
- Cooking spoon
- Sieve
Ingredients with chicken
- 250 g of thin Thai-style rice noodles
- 120 g chicken breast (optional other meat), sliced
- 10 g dried shrimps (recommendable but optional)
- 3-4 tsp palm oil (vegetable oil)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 6 tsp fish or soy sauce
- 1-2 cups fresh bean sprouts
- 1-2 eggs
- 2 steams of spring onions (green), sliced
- 1 cup fresh coriander
- 1/3 cup crushed or roughly chopped peanuts (or other nuts, such as cashews)
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 100 g tofu
- Black pepper and optional a pinch of salt
SAUCE:
- ¼ cup tamarind paste (Asian shop)
- ¼ cup warm water
- 1-2 tsp brown sugar (more or less to taste)
Topping
- Lime
- Small hand of peanuts or cashews
- Chili sauce (Nam Prik Pao if available)
Preparation
- Place noodles in a large bowl; pour hot water over to cover. Let the noodles soak until tender but not mushy, 5-10 minutes. Note: you will be frying the noodles later, so you don’t want to over-soften them now. Noodles are ready to be drained when they are soft enough to be eaten, but are still firm and a little “crunchy”. Drain and set aside.
While the noodles soak prepare the other ingredients: - Cut the tofu into really small cubes and put aside
- Make the Pad Thai Sauce by combining the tamarind paste and the water and boil it shortly. Mix with sugar. Then sieve the sauce to receive a clear tamarind sauce. Set aside. Note: add more sugar if needed to balance out the sourness of the tamarind – this balance is what makes Pad Thai taste so amazing!
- Cut chicken into slices, put it in a bowl and pour over the tamarind marinade. Stir well and set aside.
- Warm up a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 3-4 tsp oil plus garlic and minced chili, if using. Stir-fry until fragrant (30 seconds).
- Add the marinated chicken and keep on stir-frying. As soon as the wok/pan becomes dry, add a little chicken stock, 2-3 tsp at a time, to keep the chicken frying nicely. Continue stir-frying in this way until the chicken is cooked (5-8 minutes).
- Heat the second pan, add a little bit of oil and fry the tofu cubes until they are slightly golden-brown and put aside.
- Add the noodles. Use two spatulas, wooden spoons, or other utensils, and immediately stir-fry the noodles. Use a gentle “lift and turn” method (like tossing a salad) to prevent noodles from breaking. Stir-fry in this way 1-2 minutes. If you find your wok/frying pan too dry, push noodles aside and add a little more oil to the bottom (but no more broth, or the noodles will become soggy).
- Break the eggs above and mix it in the fried-noodles.
- Add the bean sprouts, spring onions, dried shrimps and pepper and stir all together for 1 more minute. Add golden-brown tofu cubes. Noodles are done to perfection when they are no longer “hard” or crunchy, but chewy-sticky wonderful!
- Taste-test for seasoning, adding more fish or soy sauce until desired flavor is reached (we usually add at least 1-2 more tsp fish sauce). Toss well to incorporate.
- Lift noodles onto a serving plate. Top with generous amounts of fresh coriander and crushed/chopped nuts. Add fresh lime wedges (lime is great squeezed overtop), and if desired, serve with Nam Prik Pao Chili Sauce on the side.
Enjoy your very tasty Pad Thai!
