Rival your favorite Thai restaurant with this Shrimp Pad Thai recipe! With simple ingredients, this recipe comes together in less than 30 minutes for an easy weeknight dinner. Have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
This easy pad Thai dish has the scrumptious flavor with the perfect balance among sweet, sour and salty accents. It’s so much better than takeout and comes together within 30 minutes.
Table of Contents
What is Pad Thai?
Pad Thai means “Thai-style stir-fried noodles”, and it is a popular noodle dish commonly served as street food in Thailand. It is the most popular dishes at Thai restaurants in Western countries. Key ingredients include rice noodles, eggs, garlic, green onions, vegetables, shrimp, chicken or Tofu, red chili, sugar, tamarind paste, fish sauce, and usually served with lime wedges, chopped peanuts and cilantro.
Special Ingredients You’ll Need
- Thai Rice Noodles: They are thin, translucent and fat noodles also known as vermicelli rice noodles, ranging from 2 millimeters to 9 millimeters. I find 3 or 5 millimeters in width works best in this Pad Thai recipe. You can find them at Asian grocery stores or online.
- Fish Sauce: Fish sauce is also important ingredient to create the authentic Pad Thai flavor. It is a common ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking. As it’s made from fermented anchovies, some people don’t like the unappealing smell. However, it does taste amazing. They are available in most Asian grocery stores. If you cannot find it or you don’t like the smell, you can substitute it with equivalent amount of Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce.
How To Cook Thai Noodles?
Thai Rice Noodles don’t need to be boiled, it’s very important to cook the noodles properly so that you can have the perfect texture for this dish.
Step 1: Soak the Noodles
- Soaking in cool water: Some directions on the package call for soaking them in cold or lukewarm water. It usually takes about 40 minutes in lukewarm water and about 1 hour in cold water.
- Soaking in hot water: After making so many Pad Thai dishes, I find the best way and fastest way is to soak them in boiling water. First, bring a large pot of water to boil and then remove it from heat. Then add in rice noodles and check every 3 to 5 minutes until noodles are soft but still undercooked. It usually takes anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes.
Step2: Drain the Noodles
Make sure the noodles are tender but not too soft, flexible but not mushy. Drain the extra water when they are ready.
Step 3: Add Oil
Drizzle one tablespoon vegetable oil over the softened noodles to keep them from sticking. Set them aside.
How to Make Pad Thai Sauce?
Homemade Pad Thai sauce is so much better than the store-bought bottles. It’s easy to substitute some ingredients if you cannot find them all. After you make it once, you will never buy bottled Pad Thai sauce again.
In a small to medium bowl, mix together tamarind paste (start with 1 tablespoon), fish sauce, soy sauce and brown sugar. Mix well and taste. Add more tamarind paste gradually and look for the balance sweet and sour flavor.
Tips and Secrets for Making the Best Shrimp Pad Thai
- When you make the Pad Thai sauce mix, taste-test it so that you can get the most balanced sweet, sour and salty flavor.
- The secret to getting the perfect texture of noodles is to soak them in boiling water until it’s flexible but undercooked. As they will be fried with vegetables and shrimp later in the skillet or wok.
- Thaw the shrimp before adding to the skillet so that they can be cooked evenly.
- Don’t over-cook the shrimp. Move to the next step as soon as they turn pink.
- You can adjust the flavor to make it spicier by adding more chili sauce or chili flakes.
- If you plan to double the recipe, don’t add all noodles at once as it will be difficult to mix and noodles can be cooked unevenly.
How to Make Vegetarian Pad Thai?
Substitute shrimp with vegetables and Tofu, and substitute fish sauce with soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce.
How to Substitute Fish Sauce?
You can substitute it with equivalent amount of Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce.
Easy Pad Thai for Two with Shrimp Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 oz Thai rice noodles
- 1/2 lb uncooked shrimp peeled and deveined
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil divided
- 1 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp cup brown sugar
- 1 large eggs
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Green Onions chopped (divided)
- 1 carrot sliced into thin strips
- 1 cup bean sprouts
Topping ingredients
- peanuts crushed
- 1 lime
- Cilantro chopped
- red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- Prepare rice noodles according to the instructions on the package, or as described above. Drain the noodles and add 1 tbsp oil to prevent it from sticking. Set aside.
- In a medium-sized bowl, add brown sugar, rice vinegar, soy sauce and fish sauce. Mix well to create the “Pad Thai” sauce.
- Heat remaining oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and half of green onions and cook for about 1 minute. (Optional: Add red flakes)
- Add carrots and saute for 2 more minutes.
- Push the mixture to the edge of the pan and add eggs into the center. Cook and scramble until eggs have cooked through.
- Add in bean sprouts and cook for 1 minute, and then add in shrimp and toss everything together and cook for about 3 minutes until shrimp turns pink.
- Then add noodles to and sauce mixture to the skillet. Toss everything together and combine well.
- Remove from heat. Squeeze squeeze fresh lime to taste along with peanuts, cilantro, more green onions. Serve and enjoy!
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