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.

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.

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.

In This Recipe

Our authentic Pad Thai Sauce contains real tamarind, the Asian fruit that gives Pad Thai its unique flavor.

It contains all the essential amino acids, is an excellent source of manganese and calcium, and is a good source of selenium and phosphorus. It's also suitable for vegans and vegetarians. For additional fiber, vitamins, and minerals, enjoy pad thai with pad pak (stir-fried vegetables).

—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).

Dried shrimp is commonly used in Pad Thai needs to be rinsed and chopped. A great substitute is shrimp paste.

Why is restaurant Pad Thai orange? ›

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.

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, 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.

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.

While both these recipes are carb happy, Pad See Ew has fewer calories than Pad Thai. As it's also the less sweet of the two, Pad See Ew is considered slightly healthier.

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.

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.

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.

What is The Difference Between Pad See Ew & Pad Thai? Noodles – Pad Thai is often made with thin rice noodles whereas Pad See Ew will have a wider, flatter rice noodle. Sauce – Pad Thai is all about the tamarind whereas Pad See Ew takes its primary sauce flavor from soy sauce.