Pad Thai

Proper Pad Thai is not a sweet orange noodle dish. It is smoky, sour and salty, and the whole thing is built in under ten minutes over hard heat.

Pad Thai lives or dies on balance. Tamarind brings the sour, palm sugar brings a deep caramel sweetness, and fish sauce brings the salt and the funk that ties the two together. Get those three in proportion and the dish barely needs anything else. Get them wrong and you land on the gluey, ketchup coloured version that gave Pad Thai a bad name outside Thailand.

This one is built the street cart way. A hard aromatic base of garlic, shallots, dried shrimp and pickled radish goes in first, then soaked rice noodles that finish cooking in the sauce rather than in a pot of water. Prawns and fried tofu follow, an egg gets scrambled into the cleared side of the wok, and bean sprouts and garlic chives go in at the very end so they keep their snap. Crushed peanuts land on top.

Jump to recipe

What makes Pad Thai taste like Pad Thai

Pad Thai is a stir fried rice noodle dish built on a tamarind sauce, cooked fast in a very hot wok and finished with raw crunch. The noodles are thin flat rice noodles, the same family used in crispy pad see ew, soaked rather than boiled, so they arrive in the wok pliable but still firm and then drink up the sauce as they cook. That is the whole trick, and it is why Pad Thai tastes seasoned all the way through rather than sauced on top.

The other half of the identity is the salty savoury base. Dried shrimp and pickled radish are not garnish, they are seasoning. The dried shrimp gives a concentrated savoury depth that fish sauce alone cannot reach, and the pickled radish brings a sweet salty crunch that turns up in random bites. Skip them and you have a decent tamarind noodle, not Pad Thai.

Where Pad Thai comes from

Pad Thai is Thai street food, cooked to order on carts and in open front shophouses where the wok never really cools down, the same world that gives us chicken pad kra pao. The format suits the cart: everything is prepped in bowls, one portion goes in at a time, and it is on a plate in a couple of minutes. That speed is built into the recipe, which is why every ingredient here is either already cooked, already soaked or cut small enough to be done in seconds.

It is also why the dish is nearly always cooked in single or double portions rather than for a crowd. A cart cook makes ten plates in sequence, not one enormous batch. The recipe below serves 2 to 3 for exactly that reason.

How the dish comes together

The order is deliberate. Aromatics and palm sugar go in first so the sugar melts and starts to caramelise against the hot metal. The noodles follow and get tossed through that base before any liquid arrives. Then the tamarind and chilli paste, then fish sauce, then the protein. The egg is cooked separately in the same wok so it stays in soft curds instead of coating every noodle.

Bean sprouts and garlic chives are the last things in and they are barely cooked at all. They should still squeak. If they have gone limp and grey, they went in too early.

Ingredients

Aromatic base

• Garlic: Four cloves, finely diced. Goes in cold oil to medium high heat so it perfumes the fat without catching.
• Shallots: Sweeter and softer than brown onion, and they break down fast enough to disappear into the sauce.
• Dried shrimp: The savoury backbone. Concentrated and slightly funky, it gives the sauce a depth that fish sauce on its own cannot.
• Pickled radish: Sweet, salty and crunchy. Finely diced so you get little bursts of it rather than one big mouthful.
• Oil: A neutral high smoke point oil. You want the wok hot enough that the oil shimmers.

Sauce

• Palm sugar: Caramel and slightly smoky, not just sweet. It goes in early so it melts against the wok rather than dissolving into liquid.
• Tamarind paste: The sour. This is the flavour people recognise as Pad Thai, so do not swap it for lime or vinegar.
• Garlic chilli paste: Heat plus a little extra sweetness and body.
• Fish sauce: The salt. Added after the pastes so you can judge the seasoning once the sour and sweet are already in.

Noodles and protein

• Thin flat rice noodles: 200 g. Soaked in room temperature water, never boiled, so they finish in the wok.
• Cooked prawns: Already cooked, so they only need warming through. Added late to keep them from turning rubbery.
• Fried tofu: Cut into bite sized pieces. The fried skin holds up to tossing and soaks up sauce like a sponge.
• Egg: One, scrambled in the cleared side of the wok so it stays in soft curds.

To finish

• Bean sprouts: Raw crunch and a bit of water to loosen the noodles right at the end.
• Garlic chives: Cut into 3 to 4 cm lengths. Grassy and mildly garlicky, and they should stay bright green.
• Crushed peanuts: Texture and a toasty finish. Crush them coarsely so there is something to bite, the same way you would for satay chicken.

Steps

1. Soak the rice noodles in room temperature water according to the packet instructions, until softened but still slightly firm. Drain well and set aside.
2. Heat a wok over medium high heat and add the oil.
3. Add the garlic, shallots and dried shrimp. Stir fry until fragrant.

4. Add the pickled radish and palm sugar. Stir until the palm sugar starts to dissolve.
5. Add the drained rice noodles and turn the heat to high. Stir and toss until everything is evenly combined.
6. Add the tamarind paste and garlic chilli paste. Keep stirring and tossing until the noodles are coated.

7. Add the fish sauce, cooked prawns and fried tofu. Mix well and let the noodles absorb the sauce and cook through.

8. Push the noodles to one side of the wok and crack in the egg. Scramble until just cooked, then mix it through the noodles.

9. Add the bean sprouts and garlic chives. Give everything one final stir and toss over high heat until just combined.
10. Finish with the crushed peanuts and serve immediately.

Soaking the noodles instead of boiling them

Why room temperature water

Hot water cooks the starch on the outside of the noodle before the centre has softened, which is how you end up with a Pad Thai that is simultaneously mushy and chalky. Room temperature water hydrates the noodle evenly and slowly, so every strand reaches the same state at the same time. It takes longer, usually 30 to 60 minutes depending on the brand, but it is almost impossible to overdo.

How to tell when they are ready

Pull one out and bend it. It should wrap around your finger without snapping, but still feel firm and slightly chalky in the middle when you bite it. That residual firmness is deliberate, because the noodle has a full minute or two of cooking left in the wok where it will be absorbing sauce. If it is already soft and floppy in the bowl, it will be paste on the plate.

Drain properly before they go in

Wet noodles dump water into the wok and drop the temperature, which is the difference between frying and steaming. Drain them well and give the colander a shake. If they have been sitting a while and clumped together, loosen them with your hands before they hit the oil.

Balancing the tamarind, palm sugar and fish sauce

Taste it before the protein goes in

The window to fix the seasoning is the moment after the tamarind and chilli paste are tossed through and before the prawns and tofu arrive. Pull out a strand and taste it. You are looking for sour first, then sweet, then salt arriving at the back, all three clearly present rather than one of them shouting.

What to do if it tastes flat

Flat almost always means not enough fish sauce, so add it half a teaspoon at a time. If it tastes sharp and thin instead, it needs a little more palm sugar to round the tamarind off. If it tastes sweet and cloying, more tamarind is the fix, not more chilli. Tamarind paste strength varies a lot between brands, which is why tasting beats measuring here.

Why the sugar goes in early

Palm sugar added to the dry wok with the aromatics melts and lightly caramelises against the metal, which builds a toasty background note you cannot get by stirring sugar into a sauce. It also means the sugar is fully dissolved before the noodles arrive, so you never get gritty patches.

Where Pad Thai goes wrong

Crowding the wok

This recipe serves 2 to 3 and that is about the ceiling for a home burner. Double it and the wok temperature collapses, exactly the problem that ruins charcoal char kway teow, the noodles release their starch into a puddle instead of frying, and everything turns sticky and pale. If you need more, cook it twice. It takes ten minutes a round.

Adding the bean sprouts too early

Bean sprouts are mostly water and they collapse in well under a minute of real heat. They go in at the very end with the garlic chives, get one toss, and then the wok comes off. If your sprouts are soft and the chives have gone olive green, they were in for too long.

Scrambling the egg through the noodles

Cracking the egg straight on top of the noodles coats every strand in a thin layer of egg and makes the whole thing claggy. Push the noodles aside, give the egg its own patch of hot wok, let it set into curds, then fold it back through. You want recognisable pieces of egg.

Overcooking the prawns

The prawns here are already cooked, so they are being warmed rather than cooked again. They go in with the fish sauce and tofu, which is late enough that they spend under two minutes in the wok. Any longer and they tighten up and go rubbery.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use raw prawns instead of cooked?

Yes, but change when they go in. Raw prawns need about two minutes over high heat, so sear them in the wok first, take them out, then add them back at the same point the recipe calls for the cooked ones. That is the same method used in garlic king prawn noodles. Cooking them from raw in among the noodles tends to steam them rather than sear them, and they release water into the sauce.

What can I use if I cannot find tamarind paste?

There is no clean substitute, because tamarind is the flavour that defines the dish. If you genuinely cannot get it, a mix of lime juice and a little extra palm sugar will give you sour and sweet, but it will taste bright and sharp rather than deep and fruity. Most Asian grocers carry tamarind paste in a jar or as a block of pulp, and the jarred paste is the easier one to measure.

Is Pad Thai supposed to be sweet?

It is supposed to be balanced, with the sour slightly in front. The very sweet orange Pad Thai served in a lot of Western restaurants is an adaptation, usually built on ketchup or a heavy sweet premade sauce. Street cart Pad Thai in Thailand leads with tamarind, and the sugar is there to round it off rather than dominate.

Can I make it vegetarian?

Mostly. Drop the prawns and double the fried tofu, and swap the fish sauce for a vegetarian fish sauce or light soy with a pinch of extra salt. The dried shrimp is the harder one, since it does a lot of the savoury work. Finely chopped rehydrated shiitake gets you part of the way there, though the result tastes different rather than identical.

Why are my noodles breaking into short pieces?

Usually they were soaked too long, so they are fragile before they even reach the heat. The other cause is over tossing with a spatula, which chops them. Use a lifting and folding motion with tongs or a wok spatula rather than stirring, which is worth practising on wider noodles like pad kee mao first, and move the noodles from the bottom of the wok to the top instead of pushing them around.

How do I reheat leftovers?

A hot wok or frying pan with a splash of water, tossed for a minute or two until the noodles loosen and warm through. Microwaving works but softens everything, and the bean sprouts give up entirely. Pad Thai is genuinely best within a few minutes of being cooked, so make what you will eat.

Get your wok properly hot, have every bowl lined up before you start, and this is a ten minute dish. Cook it, eat it straight away, and tell me how your tamarind balance landed.

Pad Thai

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

No reviews

Print Recipe

Smoky, sour and salty Pad Thai built the street cart way, with a tamarind and palm sugar sauce, soaked rice noodles, prawns, fried tofu and a last toss of bean sprouts and garlic chives.

• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 2 to 3 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Aromatic base

• 4 garlic cloves, finely diced
• 2 shallots, finely diced
• 2 tbsp dried shrimp
• 2 tbsp pickled radish, finely diced
• 2 tbsp oil

Sauce

• 2 tbsp palm sugar
• 2 tbsp tamarind paste
• 1 tbsp garlic chilli paste
• 2 tbsp fish sauce

Noodles and protein

• 200 g (0.44 lb) thin flat rice noodles
• 200 g (0.44 lb) cooked prawns
• 100 g (0.22 lb) fried tofu, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 egg

To finish

• 1 cup bean sprouts
• ½ cup garlic chives, cut into 3 to 4 cm lengths
• ¼ cup crushed peanuts

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

1. Soak the rice noodles in room temperature water according to the packet instructions, until softened but still slightly firm. Drain well and set aside.
2. Heat a wok over medium high heat and add the oil.
3. Add the garlic, shallots and dried shrimp. Stir fry until fragrant.
4. Add the pickled radish and palm sugar. Stir until the palm sugar starts to dissolve.
5. Add the drained rice noodles and turn the heat to high. Stir and toss until everything is evenly combined.
6. Add the tamarind paste and garlic chilli paste. Keep stirring and tossing until the noodles are coated.
7. Add the fish sauce, cooked prawns and fried tofu. Mix well and let the noodles absorb the sauce and cook through.
8. Push the noodles to one side of the wok and crack in the egg. Scramble until just cooked, then mix it through the noodles.
9. Add the bean sprouts and garlic chives. Give everything one final stir and toss over high heat until just combined.
10. Finish with the crushed peanuts and serve immediately.

Notes

• Soak the noodles in room temperature water, never hot. Hot water cooks the outside before the centre softens and the noodles turn to paste in the wok.
• Taste the noodles after the tamarind and chilli paste go in and before the prawns arrive. That is the only comfortable moment to adjust the balance.
• This serves 2 to 3 and that is about the limit for a home burner. For more, cook it twice rather than doubling the wok load.
• Tamarind paste strength varies a lot between brands, so season by taste rather than by the measurement alone.

• Author: Vincent Yeow Lim
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Stir Fry
• Cuisine: Thai

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 serving

Vincent Yeow Lim

Chef, former restaurant owner and creator of the Wolf of Wok Street cookbook. Over 7 million people follow my cooking — more than 1 billion views and counting. I teach the real restaurant techniques behind takeout-style Asian food, so your dinners come out restaurant-quality every single time.

See Full Bio