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

FAQs

What makes Pad Thai taste good? ›

The dish is mixed with a tamarind sauce and served with lime. The flavors of this dish are centered around a sweet-savory fusion. Salty, nutty, and with that slightly sweet sauce, it's a treat for tastebuds!

Often made with shrimp (or prawns), chicken or tofu, pad thai also contains scrambled eggs and bean sprouts, and is typically garnished with crushed peanuts, cilantro and a squeeze of lime. The ingredients in the sauce are what give the dish its distinctive flavor, but they vary greatly from recipe to recipe.

Very similar to pad thai, right? The only two differences here are the noodles and using cashews instead of peanuts. Left to right, top to bottom: Garlic chives, beansprouts, mee krob noodles, pressed tofu, lime, shrimp, roasted cashews, egg.

The crisp vegetables, savory noodles, and tangy sauce come together for its distinct taste. The eggs add a dash of protein. You'll get a helping of many foods, all in one dish. If you're looking for a delicious new meal to make for dinner soon, you'll love our spicy pad thai recipe.

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.

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.

It can definitely be a part of a balanced, well-rounded diet. While pad thai includes many nutritious ingredients, its sodium content is considerably high.

It is usually a mixture of fish sauce (condiment made of fish), oyster sauce (made from oyster extract), brown sugar and tamarind (tree seed), but can also include shrimp, garlic, shallots or red chili pepper. Some establishments or chefs may use soy sauce, which is traditionally made by fermenting soybeans and wheat.

The best side dishes to serve with pad thai are spring rolls, green papaya salad, fried rice, satay skewers, Thai coconut soup, cucumber salad, mango sticky rice, crispy tofu and steamed dumplings.

Pad Thai, a Thai dish of stir-fried rice noodles and other ingredients, is one of the culinary heritages of Thailand. In the southern region of Thailand, Pad Thai has different characteristics from other areas because coconut milk and curry paste are used to produce a thick sauce prior to cooking.

Why is Pad Thai so healthy? ›

Heart Health: Vegetables, tofu, and nuts used in Pad Thai are enriched with healthy fats, fiber, and different vitamins and minerals. Thus, it can considered a heart-healthy option.

Why is Pad Thai so popular? David Thompson says this dish hits all the flavour notes – sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami. He says, “A good Pad Thai should be made with prawns and deep-fried shallots and when made well, it is damn delicious.”

Tamarind concentrate: This is the starring ingredient in pad Thai that gives the sauce its signature tangy, sweet, and fruity flavor. Granted, some American Thai restaurants have switched to using ketchup in its place, which gives the dish a notably different and less-tangy flavor.

The vinegar-sugar mix works well in dishes like pad thai chicken. If your recipe calls for 1 tablespoon tamarind paste, substitute with 1 tablespoon vinegar mixed with 1 tablespoon brown sugar. If using fresh lime juice, substitute 2 tablespoons lime juice for every 1 tablespoon tamarind paste.

However, the flavours of fish sauce, tamarind, and lime are distinctly Thai, and shrimp were typically used over other meats such as pork, as pork was considered a Chinese meat. So just like the ingredients, it's the combination that makes the dish truly special.

Thai cuisine achieves this remarkable fusion by incorporating a diverse range of ingredients. From aromatic herbs like basil, cilantro, and lemongrass to spices like ginger, turmeric, and galangal, every bite is a tantalizing mix of bold and balanced flavors.

Sweetness: Pad Thai often has a subtle sweetness, which comes from ingredients like tamarind paste or palm sugar. This sweetness helps balance the dish and complements the other flavors.

Authentic Pad Thai does tend to be on the fishy side – mostly from the addition of fish sauce and shrimp paste. Shrimp paste is rather pungent, but it does mellow a little as you cook it.