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.

The color of the country style Pad Thai was more vibrant, the taste sourer and a little bit spicier than the regular one.

If it's only made of those ingredients, what then makes it so unique? A Pad Thai has tamarind, fish sauce, garlic, dried shrimp, palm sugar, and red chili pepper. These simple ingredients make Pad Thai a bowl of five tastes—salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami.

Pad Thai is stir-fry dish made with rice noodles, shrimp, chicken, or tofu, peanuts, a scrambled egg and bean sprouts. The ingredients are sautéed together in a wok and tossed in a delicious Pad Thai sauce.

The most traditional protein to use in pad Thai is shrimp, but pork, chicken, and beef are popular options as well. Eggs and tofu are usually incorporated as part of the basic stir-fry. Pad Thai is often not vegetarian even without meat, however, because of the fish sauce and/or dried shrimp used to make the sauce.

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.

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.

However, Americanized versions might swap tamarind for ketchup, making it sweeter and less complex. They may also add proteins like chicken or shrimp, which aren't traditional. The noodles in authentic Pad Thai tend to be softer, whereas Americanized versions often have a firmer texture.

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.

Is Pad Thai junk food? ›

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.

The name of this establishment refers to the five flavors (ha/ห้า=five, roat/รส=flavors) which are present in a good pad Thai: salty, sweet, sour, spicy, and savory.

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.

Pad Thai (Rice Noodles)

It's traditionally served as a noodle dish but you could also use rice noodles if you prefer. Halal Pad Thai consists of rice noodles stir fried in soy sauce with egg, garlic, green onions, and beansprouts. You can use chicken or beef for your proteins, or with vegetables.

In Thailand, shrimp paste goes by the name kapi (or gkapi). It's a purple-brown condiment made by mixing krill (tiny shrimp-like crustaceans) with salt and leaving them to ferment. The resulting mixture is then dried and ground into a dense and sticky paste that's the consistency of almond butter or coarse pâté.

Protein Tips

Traditionally Pad Thai is made with shrimp and tofu. You can substitute with a protein of your choice – chicken, beef, or even pork would taste great! Make sure to get the firmest tofu you can find. Anything softer will disintegrate during cooking.

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.

This dish is best prepared with rice noodles, stir-fried with eggs and tofu, seasoned with tamarind sauce and fish sauce, and topped with fresh bean sprouts, ground peanuts, chopped scallions, and limes.

If you fancy a chicken curry, order your pad thai with prawns and a stir-fry with beef. 4. Don't leave out vegetables. A papaya salad, some stir-fried broccoli or a veggie noodle dish to share will really lift your meal.