Thai Cuisine

Pad thai

Cuisine: Thai Prep time: 10 min(s) Cooking time: 20 min(s) Servings: Serves 2 Created by Jay Phao-Chinda

Once you’ve seen this popular dish made in a Thai kitchen, you realise how easy it is if you know how! It is a wonderful combination of noodles, prawns, crunchy fresh veggies and that distinctive sweet and tangy sauce. A little dried shrimp and preserved radish, with its soft but chewy texture and unique flavour, are two of the essential ingredients. You can adjust the amount of sauce you add to the noodles according to how strong a flavour you like. This quantity of sauce is about right for four people but you can keep any unused sauce in a jar in the refrigerator for next time.

You might also like Suzanne Gibbs' Pad Thai. Or, browse our collection of Thai recipes.

Ingredients

Sauce
100 g tamarind pulp
300 ml warm water
200 g palm sugar
50 g caster sugar
150 ml Thai seasoning sauce

oil
6 large shelled green prawns
10 g dried shrimp
¼ red onion, sliced
40 g firm tofu, sliced
40 g shredded preserved radish
2 eggs
200 g flat rice noodles, soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, drained
garlic chives (some chopped and some left whole to garnish)
bean sprouts
fried shallots
chopped roasted peanuts
roasted chilli powder
lime wedges

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Preparation

Combine the tamarind and warm water in a bowl. Break up the pulp with your fingers until it is dissolving into the water. Strain the water into a saucepan, squeezing all the liquid from the pulp. Add the palm sugar, caster sugar and seasoning sauce. Bring to the boil, then simmer until reduced and slightly syrupy.

Heat a little oil in a wok and when hot, add the prawns. Fry until they curl and change colour then add the dried shrimp, onion, tofu and radish. Stir-fry briefly then push the ingredients to one side and crack in the eggs, breaking them up just a little. Without letting them cook completely, add the noodles, 2 tablespoons of water, a few scoops of tamarind sauce (or to taste) and some chopped garlic chives, bean sprouts, fried shallots, peanuts and chilli powder to taste. Stir briefly then serve garnished with whole garlic chives, more bean sprouts, fried shallots, peanuts and wedges of lime.

SBS cook’s notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55–60 g, unless specified.

Thai Restaurants

Displaying 10 of 823 Thai Restaurants.

Restaurant		Suburb
1.	Bank's Thai Restaurant	Enmore
2.	Pavilion Hotel	Sydney
3.	Asian Gateway	Nightcliff
4.	Ayutthaya	Belconnen
5.	Dickson Asian Noodle House	Dickson
6.	Lemon Grass Thai City	City
7.	Sukothai	Yarralumla
8.	Thai Amarin	Kingston
9.	Thai Garden	Dickson
10.	Three Mothers Thai	City

18 Jun 2013 12:40 AEST

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09 Jun 2013 01:08 AEST

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24 May 2013 05:37 AEST

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20 May 2013 06:13 AEST

gwen

london

I don't like it at all

09 May 2013 11:57 AEST

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29 Apr 2013 09:17 AEST

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bendigo

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14 Apr 2013 05:20 AEST

swengker

nice job

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06 Apr 2013 07:52 AEST

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01 Apr 2013 02:50 AEST

Pugykada

Yabab

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30 Mar 2013 09:34 AEST

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26 Feb 2013 02:39 AEST

octavinsu

cool

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14 Feb 2013 03:03 AEST

Grando

Healesville

Palm Sugar

Thanks for the great recipe. Can I ask for one thing from all the chefs in the world, Please, Please STOP using Palm Sugar. The devistation being caused to forests that are bieing converted to Palm plantation is immense, not to mention the catastrophic events to wild life, such as the Orangutan. Please. if you could substitute Palm Sugar, (I am sure that there are pleanty other sweeteners out there) please do so. Sorry for the hijacking rant, I love my food and appreciate this site very much.

19 Jan 2013 01:41 AEST

Cyc Yakixi

woe

cool

Now not sure how an "unique" pad thai should style like however the results have been yum! My sauce was once most likely too effective (lots of flavour) for me as a result of I favor more bland meals however nonetheless, I enjoyed cooking it and my fiance gobbled it down. :) http://octavinsu.blogspot.com/2013/01/software-erp-indonesia.html http://update-seputar-software.blogspot.com/2013/01/bank-mandiri-bank-terbaik-di-indonesia_7534.html

05 Jan 2013 01:11 AEST

Totetu Ves

Washington

Good Job

chris brown.That now not proper for saying that to Jay.Her recipe is nearly one hundred% authentic already,excluding the seasoning sauce and caster sugar .That are meant to be fish sauce but not that a lot and the caster sugar for this one is to make the sauce extra sharp. We just have this dish approximately 54 years.http://octavinsu.blogspot.com/2012/12/ekioskucom-jual-beli-online-aman.html

26 Nov 2012 05:08 AEST

Danny C. Davis

cool

great article

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08 Nov 2012 01:05 AEST

palak kapoor

new delhi

excellent

yumm

02 Mar 2012 08:53 AEST

Yiing Chen

Box Hill

Yummmmmyyy!

Not sure how an "authentic" pad thai should taste like but the results were yum! My sauce was probably too potent (heaps of flavour) for me because I prefer more bland foods but nonetheless, I enjoyed cooking it and my fiance gobbled it down. :)

22 Dec 2011 12:58 AEST

Lisa

Maribyrnong

Good recipe.. but not 100%

I think it was definitely missing fish sauce, but otherwise not too bad!

13 Sep 2011 07:07 AEST

Ambrose

North Yorkshire, UK (Spent a year in Lilyfield Sydney)

Tasty Thai

Can now make Pad Thai better than my Thai sister-in-law (don't tell her that ;). Worth trying easy and tasty!

23 Aug 2011 04:11 AEST

Yui A lot of Thai

Chiang Mai

a little change will be better

Just add egg(s)in before veggies is better than before noodles.Egg get mushy(and over cook) from water and sauce.Adjust sauce quantity as Jay said ,don't soak noodles that long.If already long you need more oil to make it more tender and not break easily. And... so many Thai (in&out of country )don't know how to cook Pad Thai properly.They are from different regions but this dish were started in Bangkok. I'm sorry for the long comment.I just loveThai food so much.

23 Aug 2011 03:39 AEST

Yui A lot of Thai

Chiang Mai

Good job Jay!!

re: chris brown.That not right for saying that to Jay.Her recipe is almost 100% authentic already,except the seasoning sauce and caster sugar .That should be fish sauce but not that much and the caster sugar for this one is to make the sauce more sharp. We just have this dish about 54 years.Pad Thai sauce is unique that why it's different from others stir fried noodles (no sauce&just marinate meat).The seasoning sauce is a type of soy sauce like light olive oil.They aren't first brew.

20 Aug 2011 12:06 AEST

julai

Homehill

thank

Thank for recipe I try tonight

18 Jun 2011 08:43 AEST

chris brown

sutherland

hmmm???

this recipe seems like far to many ingredients for pad thai, i showed it to some of my kitchen staff who are thai, and they laughed, and cooked me an AWESOME pad thai, with 1/4 of the ingredients - go figure

11 Jul 2010 06:47 AEST

Rob

Yagoon

Great Recipe

Just made it fresh for the first time after watching this video hundreds of times, and making it before with premade sauces out of bottles. But this recipe by far is soooooo much better than any pad thai ive ever tried. I couldnt get preserved turnips either, and didnt put in the dried shrimp as i dont like them myself, but followed the recipe closely otherwise, and it turned out great. Will eb maikng this again and again for sure.

24 May 2010 04:07 AEST

Dylan

Woohoo

Turnip

I couldn't find preserved turnip but apparently it's the same as preserved radish (might just be a translation thing)

23 May 2010 06:58 AEST

Damon

nundah

seasoning sauce

Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce uses two flavor enhancers but no MSG. The flavor enhancer disodium guanylate is, according to Wikipedia, "produced from dried fish or dried seaweed" and is often used in conjunction with disodium-inosinate to create the taste of umami. This flavor enhancer combination is known as disodium ribonucleotides and is not recommended for those with gout or asthma or people with an allergic reaction to asprin (see Wikipedia for more details). You could use a substitute!

02 May 2010 07:36 AEST

lin

rockdale

great

i dont normally like pad thai when i order it from thai restaurant, cos its usually quite bland, but i thought i make this one cos it looked really good. The recipe is great. lots of flavour, i like to add more chilli, my whole family really enjoyed it. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.

25 Apr 2010 05:13 AEST

nishmita

boomsville

Kathryn Bird

ITS JUST TOO GOOD ,,,YUMMY

10 Apr 2010 11:03 AEST

Bec

Greenway

Looks good, trying receipe tonight!

If you actually watch the video she only puts one egg in not two.. I think that wopuld definitly make all the difference!

26 Feb 2010 11:39 AEST

Martin B

Melbourne

What's special about it?

What's special about pad thai? It's just stir-fried noodles. Everyone has it (Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, etc).

20 Nov 2009 10:36 AEST

Dat Nguyen

Yagoona

love padthai

I love this recipe! we always order a dish or 2 when we dine at a Thai restaurant. Great show. JC, its human to make mistake but it takes more courage to admit your mistake. so don't feel bad with people disagreeing with you. First time i tried cooking this, it was awfully dry, now i know whats the secret ingredient is, its WATER!!! LOL

17 Jul 2009 05:43 AEST

Gina

California, U.S.A

Wow

I made this last night, and it was a hit!!! so good!! Next time i would probably not put the egg in, and add shreded carrots and cilantro.

11 Jul 2009 10:28 AEST

Kathryn Bird

Alexandria

Scratch That

I noticed there was a brief cut away to the thai sauce in the video, so I will go in quest of the 'Golden Mountain' sauce this afternoon and have a new recipe to try tonight

11 Jul 2009 10:18 AEST

Kathryn Bird

Alexandria

Looking forward to making this based on the comments but can someone please clarify.... what is the Thai Seasoning sauce that is to be added to the sauce in this recipe? And how would one find it? Thanks

12 Jun 2009 04:07 AEST

Zombie-Killa

Zombie's Restaurant @ your local cemetery

Right on the Money!

Followed the instructions down to the absolute gram and the taste was right on the money! Only thing I might tweak is the soaking of the noodles?.make sure you don?t soak them for too long as they get too soft and will break into small bits when you try to fry them. Thank you for Jay and SBS for sharing this. The Alpha Bunyip was very happy with it!!

07 May 2009 12:43 AEST

Lesley C

Sunshine Coast QLD

yummy

Spot on. This one's a keeper. Next time i am going to add some chicken thigh cubes as i am not fussed on prawns so much.

08 Mar 2009 06:06 AEST

Sirina

Bangkok

Excellent!

I followed the recipe for the sauce exactly and this sauce mix is definitely a keeper. I'm Thai, living in Bangkok where pad thai can be found anywhere from roadside stalls to 5-star hotels. I'd say this is one of the tastiest I've tried. My family also likes it. Thank you, Jay, for sharing your mother's recipe.

21 Feb 2009 05:14 AEST

Brisbane

Sorry, it was great!

I sincerely apologise for my earlier comment. It turns out that I did not follow the method correctly in terms of the heaviness of the sauce. I incorporated the sauce with the noodles by just pouring it over the mix rather than spooning it in. I guess all 13 year olds make this type of mistake! I tried the dish again (as all avid foodies would do), and it catered for my family's gastronomical requirements very well. It was a genuine thai dish which was a textural delight with exquisite flavours

07 Feb 2009 09:12 AEST

Brisbane

Okay

It was certainly genuine as far as the method goes, but I found the recipe TOO sweet, and lso a little bit heavy on the sauce. It was okay, but it was far too sweet for me.

12 Jan 2009 12:27 AEST

Merika

Authentic!

Great recipe! Very authentic.

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