Easy 30-Minute Pad Thai
Easy Home-Style Pad Thai
The weeknight version: real tamarind flavor, grocery-store ingredients, dinner before everyone gets hostile.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Serves
- 4
- Heat
- mild
This is Pad Thai for Tuesday night, not a culinary obstacle course.
We keep the important stuff — rice noodles, tamarind, fish sauce, sugar, egg, peanuts and lime — and deliberately skip harder-to-source dried shrimp and preserved radish. The result isn't pretending to be the most traditional version on the site. That's why the Authentic Pad Thai page exists.
EAT IT LIKE A LOCAL
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp Tamarind paste
- 3 tbsp Fish sauce
- 3 tbsp Brown sugar or palm sugar
- 2 tbsp Water
- 8 oz Flat rice noodles
- 12 oz Chicken, shrimp or firm tofu (choose one)
- 2 Eggs
- 3 cloves Garlic (minced)
- 4 Scallions (cut into 2-inch pieces)
- 2 cups Bean sprouts
- 1/2 cup Roasted peanuts (chopped)
- 3 tbsp Neutral oil
- 1 Lime (wedges)
Directions
- Soak the noodles according to package directions and start checking early. Drain when flexible but still chewy. Do not wander off and answer email.
- Stir tamarind, fish sauce, sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves. Microwave briefly or warm in a pan if needed.
- Heat oil in a large wok or skillet and cook your chicken, shrimp or tofu until nearly done. Remove if using shrimp so it doesn't overcook.
- Add garlic, then push everything aside and add the eggs. Let them set briefly before breaking into pieces.
- Add noodles and sauce. Toss steadily until the noodles are tender and most of the sauce has been absorbed. Add a little water if the pan dries out too early.
- Return any removed protein. Add half the sprouts and scallions and toss just until warmed but still crisp.
- Add half the peanuts, turn off the heat and serve immediately with remaining sprouts, peanuts and lime.
Notes
Under-soak the noodles slightly. They continue cooking in sauce, and that second stage is what gives Pad Thai its chewy texture instead of mush.
Substitutions
Brown sugar works here because accessibility is the point. Scallions replace garlic chives. Chicken, shrimp or tofu can all work, but their cooking times differ — shrimp should come out of the pan early.