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.

You've probably had pad thai in your local restaurant, but what you had may not be anything like the authentic version. First, it should not have ketchup or any tomato product in it. Second, it should not be syrupy sweet. And finally, it shouldn't be just a heavy, soggy clump of noodles with bits of green onions.

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.

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.

So it's very common to see Thai people eat noodle soups with chopsticks and a spoon but stir-fried noodles such as pad see ew and pad thai are more commonly eaten with a spoon and fork. Some Thai people of Chinese descent do prefer chopsticks for all kinds of noodles though.

Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles both have a moderate calorie count, making them a good choice at a restaurant. On top of that, they're packed with veggies and protein. Pad Thai has roughly 357 calories in one cup. Drunk Noodles contain about 323 calories per cup.

The sauce is what gives Pad Thai its iconic flavor. Again, it varies a little depending on the recipe used. But the basic sauce involves: Tamarind.

—Tamarind: This sour, sweet, and tangy fruit is the most important ingredient for achieving that true pad Thai flavor. For this version, we opted for tamarind puree, but tamarind paste will work too (make sure it's a product of Thailand rather than India).

Soak the dried rice noodles in cool or lukewarm water for 30 minutes, or until they're limp but still firm to the touch; later cooking in the wok will soften them more. Drain the noodles thoroughly in a colander and set aside while preparing the other ingredients.

These are: salty, sweet, spicy, sour, and creamy. For the dish to taste authentic, all five flavors need to be in a perfect balance. Cooking Thai food isn't easy, and if the flavors don't complement one another, something will taste off.

What is Southern style Pad Thai? ›

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.

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.

Worcestershire sauce

Made of anchovies, molasses, tamarind, vinegar, cloves, onion, and other seasonings, it's a delicious alternative to fish sauce. Since both sauces are made using anchovies and fermented for up to 18 months, they have a similar umami flavor.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons cold water until smooth to make a slurry (see note). Whisk the slurry into the tamarind sauce and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, whisking continuously, for 2 minutes. As the cornstarch cooks, it will thicken up the sauce.

To make this dish even more special, we like to garnish it with carrot ribbons, cilantro, chili garlic sauce, and peanut sauce. This makes an excellent, satisfying meal on its own, but if you're looking for extra veggies, it would pair nicely with Papaya Salad, Thai Spring Rolls, or Thai Carrot Salad.

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.

Most people in Thailand enjoy eating meat, even though large numbers of people refrain from eating beef and other kinds of red meat due to their religious beliefs. In fact, many types of meat such as pork, chicken, fish, and seafood are the staple for Thai cuisine that people eat every day.

Pad Thai Adaptations

But the backbone of the dish remains the same – rice noodle, eggs, tofu and dried shrimps. As for the all-important sauce, it consists of a balanced nuance of three tastes: saltiness from either fish sauce or soy sauce, sweetness from palm sugar, and sourness from tamarind juice.