Pad Thai
Funky, sweet, sour, spicy. NO KETCHUP.
20 min active, minimal dishes
Timing: 20 mins
Pad Thai
Funky, sweet, sour, spicy. NO KETCHUP.
20 min active, minimal dishes
Timing: 20 mins
Key move
Pad thai works only when the wok stays hot enough to reduce the sauce before the noodles over-soften. Soak the noodles instead of boiling them, cook in small batches, and use just enough tamarind-fish-sauce-sugar mixture to glaze the strands rather than drown them.
Cook mode keeps your place
Larger text, ingredients in reach, and saved step progress while you cook.
The Setup
- Skillet12-inch
- Wok14-inch
- Cutting Board
- Chef's Knife
The Mise en Place
4Your prep station before cooking begins
The Protein (0/1)
The Pantry (0/2)
Other (0/1)
Noodles turned into a solid brick (The "Clump").
You either boiled the noodles (don't), soaked them too long, or overcrowded the pan.
Tastes flat.
More fish sauce and lime. Pad Thai lives and dies on the acid/salt balance.
Chef's Notes
Prep all ingredients before starting; Pad Thai cooks very quickly.
Don't overcrowd the pan when stir-frying. Cook noodles and protein in batches if needed.
Serve immediately with lime wedges, crushed peanuts, and fresh cilantro.
The Method
THE SAUCE
MIX tamarind, fish sauce, and palm sugar. Taste it. It should hit the back of your jaw.
Unbalanced flavor: If the sauce is too thin, it will pool at the bottom of the wok instead of coating the noodles.
Sauce is mixed and balanced to taste.
THE SEAR
In a wok, SEAR shrimp/protein. Remove. Add dried shrimp (30 g), radish, and tofu.
Overcrowding: Too much in the wok lowers the temperature, causing the protein to release juices and boil rather than sear.
Protein is seared, dried shrimp, radish, and tofu are added to the wok.
THE NOODLE
Time-sensitiveAdd soaked noodles and a splash of water. STIR-FRY until noodles soften.
Noodle texture failure: Over-soaking or over-boiling results in broken, gummy noodles that cannot hold the sauce.
Noodles are softened and beginning to absorb sauce.
THE EGG
Push noodles to the side. Crack egg into the wok. Scramble lightly, then fold noodles over it.
Rubberized egg: Leaving the egg too long before folding will cause it to toughen and lose its ability to coat the noodles.
Egg is lightly scrambled and noodles are folded over it.
THE TOSS
Time-sensitiveAdd sauce, bean sprouts, and peanuts. Toss for 30 seconds. Serve immediately with lime.
Soggy bean sprouts: Over-tossing will cause the bean sprouts to release too much water, thinning the sauce into a puddle.
Noodles are chewy and coated in sauce, bean sprouts are tender-crisp.
Appears in collections
Keep browsing by the kind of recipe choice this supports, not just this single dish.
