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Pad Thai- we dual again

So some of you may know that me and pad thai have this love hate relationship... love to eat it out... hate to make it at home... since I can't EVER get it to taste right. After many many recipes I think I've found the winner. It comes from a woman in my pottery class from last summer. She brought this dish to the final class for potluck. I asked her for the recipe, she gave me her email... I then lost her email. I was BUMMED!!! It wasn't until last month when I was packing up all my belongings that I found the torn off piece of paper with her email. SCORE!!!! I emailed her immediately... and she wrote me back... love her

So now I bring it to you dear readers, since I love you, and always have to share :) OH only change I did was I used shrimp instead of chicken... since I had it on hand... and didn't have any chicken.


Easy Chicken Pad Thai
recipe by my awesome pottery class friend

Ingredients: Serves 2

Marinade for Chicken: 1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tb soy sauce
1 to 11/2 cups raw chicken breast

8 oz thai rice noodles
4 cloves garlic mince
3 cups fresh bean sprouts
3 green onions, sliced
1 cup fresh cilantro
1/3 cup crushed or roughly chopped peanuts
1/4 chicken stock
1/8 tsp white pepper

Pad Thai sauce:
3/4 Tb tamarind paste dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
2 1/2 Tb fish sauce
1-3 tsp chili sauce (more if you like it spicy)
3 Tb brown sugar

Oil for stir frying
Lime wedges for serving


Bring a large pot of water to boil, then remove from heat and add rice noodles. Allow the noodles to soak while you prepare other ingredients. You will be frying these noodles later so they need to be softened but still a little crunchy. Drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.

Make Pad Thai sauce and set aside.

Slice chicken in strips and pour marinade over chicken. Set aside.

Heat wok. Add oil and garlic and stir fry until browned. Add chicken and marinade and stir fry. As chicken fries, add chicken stock as needed until chicken is cooked. Add noodles to wok and pour Pad Thai sauce over all. Toss noodles like a salad and keep stir frying for about 1-2 minutes. Add bean sprouts and sprinkle pepper. Cook another minute or two until noodles are chewy-sticky.

Taste test and add more fish sauce as you like tossing well.

Serve noodles topped with cilantro, green onions, and chopped nuts. Add fresh lime wedges-squeeze some lime over top all as desired.

19 chews:

Jo said...

Mmmm my mouth is watering...

I, too, struggle with achieving that authentic flavour. I haven't tried it with tamarind before - will have to give it a go. Thanks

Unknown said...

Yum Love a good Pad Thai
I struggled with it too, then i went to Thailand for a holiday & took a cooking class with a Thai chef. My Pad Thai is perfect now.

I am the same way with pad thai. I have tried it from the Steamy Kitchen cookbook and its really good!

Jeanne said...

Is this the end of your battle with Pad Thai? Or are you still looking for one better? It looks tasty! (but looks can be deceiving!)

stephchows said...

Vintage sew and so... so what's the secret??? :D

jeanne- you know it will never be over, but this is the go to recipe for now! it's tasty!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a terrific and easy pad thai recipe, yummy!

First off, love your title here, Steph! :)

Second, I'm with you on the love hate thang. Love to order it out, never make it at home. Perhaps that will change now, thanks to you. This recipe looks excellent and I'm happy to see there's no ketchup in the sauce. Can't wait to try it!

Unknown said...

O thankyou for this!

Reeni said...

This is one of my favorites! I haven't tried it at home - yet - I have tamarind just waiting...

Astra Libris said...

Steph, words cannot describe how excited I am about this recipe! Pad Thai has been one of my favorite restaurant dishes and also my kitchen nemesis for years now - I just can't seem to get it right at home! I am SO grateful to you for this gorgeous recipe!!! Thank you!! I can't wait to fix this!!

I've never had pad thai but it looks delicious! Happy to hear that you finally found a way to make it to your taste at home!

Unknown said...

Do you have any idea how much I love you (and your acquaintance) right now?

Maria said...

I have never made Pad Thai at home, I better try it soon!

Natalie said...

yum!! i remember your previous posts about this so i'm glad you found something that works! i'll be trying this soon!

Love to eat pad thai as well, but never make it at home because I've seen so many recipes and then reviews say they're just crap. How can one make good pad thai at home???

You know good food, and if it's Steph Chows's approved, it's gotta be good. Bookmarked for future use. Gotta find tamarind paste!

Thanks for sharing :)

me too!! I still haven't mastered it. gonna give one more try :)

I am the same way with pad thai. I have tried it from the Steamy Kitchen cookbook and its really good!

Yum Love a good Pad Thai
I struggled with it too, then i went to Thailand for a holiday & took a cooking class with a Thai chef. My Pad Thai is perfect now.

Jo said...

Mmmm my mouth is watering...

I, too, struggle with achieving that authentic flavour. I haven't tried it with tamarind before - will have to give it a go. Thanks

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