Chicken Pad Thai. Delicious chewy rice noodles stir fried in a sweet, tangy, savory sauce with juicy chicken, eggs, tofu and fresh vegetables. Ready in 30 minutes!
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What is Chicken Pad Thai?
Chicken Pad Thai is a delicious popular dish made of rice noodles stir fried in a tangy, savory sauce with tender chicken, eggs, bean sprouts, garlic chives and aromatics. This iconic noodle dish comes from Thailand. You'll often find this Thai food served as a main dish at Thai restaurants. But you can easily make pad thai at home.
This easy chicken pad thai recipe really isn't as complicated as many think it is. Most of the time goes towards preparation of the ingredients. The easy part is tossing everything into the pan stir frying each ingredient and the hardest part is sharing these noodles!
Ingredients
You'll need the below chicken pad thai ingredients. Please scroll down to the below Recipe card for full measurements.
Note: Most Asian grocery stores will carry most of the Asian specific ingredients.
- Dried thin flat white rice noodles: these are about ¼-inch wide. We will only want to soak these in hot boiling water until limp but firm. Do not boil these.
- Boneless skinless chicken thighs: Or substitute with boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Firm or Medium firm tofu: Avoid using soft tofu.
- Eggs: or omit if you're intolerant to them
- Bean sprouts: We are using mung bean sprouts (the ones without the yellow bean attached to it). These give any noodle stir fry dish a crunch.
- Garlic chives: aka Asian chives or Chinese Chives. They offer a strong, pungent “garlicky” flavor unlike normal western chives. If you can't find this item, feel free to use green onions or spring onions.
- Shallot
- Garlic
- Neutral oil: any flavorless oil like avocado oil, peanut oil, grapeseed oil, vegetable oil or canola oil with a high smoke point. I would avoid using olive oil or coconut oil due to its heavier scent.
- Salt
- Water
Sauce ingredients
- Palm sugar: Asian grocers will carry this item. It offers a mild caramel flavor. Or you may substitute with brown sugar.
- Fish sauce
- Tamarind pulp: please see an image for the packaging below. This ingredient is crucial for an authentic pad thai. With this ingredient, we will make tamarind paste or tamarind concentrate.
- Hot boiling water: to soak the tamarind pulp so that it dissolves into a tangy sauce.
Garnish
- Lime wedges: optional garnish
- Crushed peanuts: to crunchy texture to the soft chewy noodles. Optional garnish.
How to make Chicken Pad Thai
- Season sliced chicken thighs with salt. Set aside.
- Finely chop palm sugar. Set aside.
- To make your tamarind concentrate: submerge tamarind pulp in ⅓ cup hot boiling water and soak for 3 minutes. Allow for it to cool and then with your hands, squeeze and massage the pulp as best you can, until it dissolves in the water. Strain as much as the tamarind paste through a fine sieve, discarding the seeds keeping the paste. This is your tamarind paste.
- In a large non-stick wok on low medium heat, add palm sugar. Allow this to caramelize for 2-3 minutes. Mix tamarind paste with caramelized palm sugar. Then mix in fish sauce. Remove sauce from wok and set aside in a small bowl.
- Soak your rice noodles in very hot boiling water until limp but firm (about 2-4 minutes). Strain immediately. Set aside.
- Over medium heat, add 2 teaspoon vegetable oil and your chicken. Fry chicken until cooked. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Add 2 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Fry shallots and garlic for 20-30 seconds. Add firm tofu and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Toss in rice noodles and sauce mixing everything together. Add ¼ cup of water and mix with noodles. Cook for 5-7 minutes and taste noodles to check if they are chewy and soft enough. If not, add another ¼ cup water and cook until noodles are to your liking.
- Mix in chicken and push everything to the side of the pan. Add remaining oil into the empty space of wok. Pour in eggs. Scramble them first and then mix in with noodles.
- Toss in bean sprouts and garlic chives for 20 seconds. Remove off heat.
- Optionally serve with limes and crushed peanuts. Enjoy!
Storage & Reheating
Pad Thai is best consumed same day. Rice noodles tend to lose their chewy texture after being refrigerated. But if you have leftovers, this dish will last up to 4 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge. To reheat, microwave for 2-3 minutes or reheat on the stovetop in a pan on medium heat until hot and add some water into the pan to help loosen the noodles.
Expert Tips
- Use your hands to dissolve the tamarind pulp in the water after the water has cooled down.
- Caramelize the palm sugar. This is key for that caramel sweet flavor. It'll only take minutes for the sugar to melt and caramelize into a darker brown color.
- Soak rice noodles in hot boiling water until limp and firm. Do not boil them.
- Brown the chicken in the same pan you caramelized the palm sugar in. This offers extra flavour and helps brown your chicken.
- Add water to help cook rice noodles faster to your consistency.
FAQ
How can I make this spicy?
Add some chili sauce or red pepper flakes into your sauce to taste before mixing into your noodles.
Other Thai recipes you may like!
If you enjoyed this easy pad thai recipe, you may like these other recipes:
- Shrimp Pad Thai
- Thai Garlic Shrimp
- Thai Spicy Basil Fried Rice
- Egg Pad See Ew
- Thai Glass Noodle Stir Fry
📖 Recipe
Quick & Easy Chicken Pad Thai
Ingredients
- 115 grams dried thin flat rice noodles
- 180 grams skinless boneless chicken thighs sliced thinly
- 115 grams tofu medium firm, cubed
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- ½ cup garlic chives chopped into 2 inch length
- ½ shallot roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves roughly minced
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil or any neutral oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt to season chicken
- ¼ cup water or as needed
Sauce:
- 3 tablespoon palm sugar (or sub with brown sugar)
- 1.5 tablespoon fish sauce
Tamarind Paste:
- 70 grams tamarind pulp
- ⅓ cup hot boiling water
Garnish
- 1 lime sliced into wedges
- ¼ cup roasted peanuts crushed for garnish
Instructions
- Season sliced chicken thighs with salt. Set aside.
- Finely chop palm sugar. Set aside.
- To make your tamarind concentrate: submerge tamarind pulp in ⅓ cup hot boiling water and soak for 3 minutes. Allow for it to cool and then with your hands, squeeze and massage the pulp as best you can, until it dissolves in the water. Strain as much as the tamarind paste through a fine sieve, discarding the seeds keeping the paste. This is your tamarind paste.
- In a large non-stick wok on low medium heat, add palm sugar. Allow this to caramelize for 2-3 minutes. Mix tamarind paste with caramelized palm sugar. Then mix in fish sauce. Remove sauce from wok and set aside in a small bowl.
- Soak your rice noodles in very hot boiling water until limp but firm (about 2-4 minutes). Strain immediately. Set aside.
- Over medium heat, add 2 teaspoon vegetable oil and your chicken. Fry chicken until cooked. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Add 2 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Fry shallots and garlic for 20-30 seconds. Add firm tofu and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Toss in rice noodles and sauce mixing everything together. Add ¼ cup of water and mix with noodles. Cook for 5-7 minutes and taste noodles to check if they are chewy and soft enough. If not, add another ¼ cup water and cook until noodles are to your liking.
- Mix in chicken and push everything to the side. Add remaining oil into the empty space of wok. Pour in eggs. Scramble them first and then mix in with noodles.
- Toss in bean sprouts and garlic chives for 20 seconds. Remove off heat.
- Optionally serve with limes and crushed peanuts. Enjoy!
Judith
Can't wait to makes this. What would I be able to use to make it spicy?
Christie Lai
Hi Judith, you can easily make this spicy by adding store-bought hot chili sauce, sambal oelek, chili oil or 1 tsp of red pepper flakes into the sauce. Enjoy!
Midori
Can I purchase seedless tamarind paste from a jar? If so, how much would I use? Thanks so much!
Christie Lai
Sure that can work too! I would say substitute for around 65 grams. Enjoy!
Sam Foster
I just made this, this recipe is really good. Much better than what you typically find at restaurants. Do you happen to know if you can make a bigger batch of tamarind paste and store it in the fridge? If so, how long does it last?
Christie Lai
Thanks for making my recipe, Sam! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂 Yes, you can make a bigger batch of the paste. After cooking the paste, allow it to cool and store it in a very pasteurized mason jar and it'll last up to 2 months in the fridge but always use a clean spoon when removing some. You can also freeze the paste into ice cubes and it'll last up to 6 months.
Heather
This is my first time making Thai. I have 2 questions, the ingredients call for tofu, sliced... but instructions mention fried tofu balls? And also ingredients say 2 whisked eggs, but instructions don't say when you add them in. Thanks for your help!
christieathome
Hi Heather! Sorry let me revise the recipe to include that! I had made some changes and must have forgotten to insert that back in.
Heidi | The Frugal Girls
Your Pad Thai looks absolutely fabulous. It just draws you in and makes you want to take a giant bite! 💕💕
christieathome
Thanks so much Heidi!
Letscurry
This pad Thai will be a crowd pleaser in my house as it calls for using tamarind. I love how you have combined this with rice Vermicelli. It's a new idea.
Katerina
This looks and sounds delicious!! I will definitely try to make it! Thanks for sharing xx
christieathome
Thanks so much Katerina and I hope you enjoy it!