Easy Chicken Pad Thai
I ordered pad thai every Friday for a year before I decided to crack the code at home. Twelve attempts, three brands of fish sauce, and one smoke alarm incident later — I got it.
Ingredients
For the Sauce
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar substitute for tamarind
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sriracha adjust to taste
- Juice of 1 lime
For the Pad Thai
- 8 oz rice noodles 225g; flat, about 3mm wide
- 2 chicken breasts, sliced thin
- 2 eggs
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 3 green onions, sliced
- 1/4 cup crushed peanuts
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- Fresh cilantro and lime wedges for serving
Method
Soak the Noodles
- Place the rice noodles in a large bowl and cover with room temperature water. Soak for 30 minutes — they should be flexible but still slightly firm. NOT soft. They'll finish cooking in the pan. If they're fully soft before hitting the wok, they'll turn to mush. I learned this the hard way (attempt #3) and now I set a timer because my attention span during dinner prep is... compromised by four kids.
Mix the Sauce
- Whisk all sauce ingredients together. Taste it — it should be a balance of salty (fish sauce), sweet (sugar), sour (vinegar/lime), and spicy (sriracha). If any one flavour dominates, adjust. This sauce is the whole personality of the dish. Get it right and everything else falls into place.
Cook
- Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over HIGH heat. Cook the chicken strips 3-4 minutes until golden. Push to one side. Crack the eggs into the empty side and scramble until just set. Add the garlic — 30 seconds, no more. Add the drained noodles and the sauce. Toss everything together with tongs for 2-3 minutes until the noodles absorb the sauce and everything is coated. Add bean sprouts and green onions in the last 30 seconds — they should stay crisp.
Serve
- Pile onto plates. Top with crushed peanuts, fresh cilantro, and a lime wedge for squeezing. Eat immediately. Pad thai waits for no one — the noodles continue absorbing sauce as they sit, so fresh from the pan is peak performance.