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

FAQs

What makes Pad Thai taste so good? ›

Tamarind is the ingredient that is the heart and soul of Pad Thai sauce, giving the sauce the sour flavour that Pad Thai is known for. It's an ingredient used in South East Asian cooking, like this Malaysian Beef Rendang.

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.

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.

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.

The Key to Thai Flavors: Balance

These are: salty, sweet, spicy, sour, and creamy.

And here are the ingredients that you will need to make the delicious pad Thai sauce: Tamarind concentrate: This is the starring ingredient in pad Thai that gives the sauce its signature tangy, sweet, and fruity flavor.

Traditional pad thai sauce includes fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and tamarind paste. Tamarind paste is not easily found at a regular grocery stores so I substituted rice vinegar. If you would like to use tamarind paste, substitute about 2 Tablespoons in place of the rice vinegar in this recipe.

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.

In most dishes, a 1:1 substitute of lemon juice will work just fine. Depending on the recipe you could also try grapefruit juice or orange juice, bearing in mind that these are sweeter than lime.

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.

Is Pad Thai junk food? ›

Best: Pad Thai

This dish is a menu staple of Thai restaurants. It's made from rice noodles sauteed with spices, peanuts, egg, and bean sprouts. Get it with shrimp, chicken, or tofu for lean protein, and extra veggies for fiber and vitamins. Just watch your portion: Pad thai clocks in at 300 to 400 calories a cup.

Pad thai is made with rice noodles, which are stir fried with eggs and chopped firm tofu, flavored with tamarind juice, fish sauce, dried shrimp, garlic, shallots, and sometimes red chili pepper and palm sugar, and served with lime wedges and often crushed roasted peanuts.

A typical pad thai in Thailand contained only noodles, egg, garlic, bean sprouts, ground peanuts, chives, and a protein – the typical mix ins found in American pad thais such as baby corn, carrots, green beans, squash, and zucchini were nowhere to be found.

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! Of course, every Pad Thai can be different. Some use fish, some use chicken, and some use tofu.

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.”

Traditional pad thai sauce includes fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and tamarind paste.

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. Sourness: Tamarind paste contributes a tangy and slightly sour taste to Pad Thai.

Some noodle stalls in Thailand use a sweetened black soy sauce in combination with sugar, and ground dried chillies made with darkly roasted whole dried chillies, producing pad thai with a very different color and flavor balance than what Americans have become accustomed to.

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.