When shopping, look for thick dried rice noodles sold as “stir fry” rice noodles, linguine cut, or flat rice noodles.

It’s a wildly popular Thai street food that has become an iconic dish in restaurants worldwide. The dish comes together tossed in a delectable sweet and tangy sauce. They are prepared with tender rice noodles, proteins like shrimp, chicken, pork, beef, firm tofu, and eggs, and fresh vegetables like beans and green onions. The word “pad” translates to “fried” therefore, Pad thai is a stir-fry of noodles. Of course, it’s easy to substitute chicken, pork, or beef. Scrambled eggs add protein, but I like to add shrimp to enhance the taste experience. The combination of tender wok-fired rice noodles coated in a delicious savory sauce makes for an incredible dish. I love to make a little extra and have leftovers for the next day. Southeast Asian cuisine is known for bold, exotic flavors, so learning to make this dish at home is an easy way to add variety to your weekly meal rotation. When our family dines at our local Thai restaurant, a chicken or shrimp pad thai is always something we order.

Fry the rice noodles and pad thai sauce.

The tofu works really well in this dish since they are like little sponges and soaks up all the amazing pad Thai sauce. This Pad Thai recipe uses chicken but you can easily change it to shrimp if you are a fan of seafood or eliminate all meat and seafood and use tofu instead. You can also make the pad Thai sauce ahead of time and store it in a jar in the fridge so you always have it on hand ready to make pad Thai. If you find the tamarind in a block, you will need to soak it in hot water and strain it in a sift to get the seeds and membranes out of it.

Tamarind is a fruit that grows in pods and the pulp is made into a paste and is essential in Thai cuisine! You can find tamarind in most grocery stores now and can get either the paste in a jar or a block of it. Many pad Thai recipes out there includes tomato sauce or ketchup but authentic pad Thai actually doesn’t require tomatoes at all! It is actually made with tamarind to give it that classic sour taste.

Cooking pad thai noodles