Best Pad Thai
I love Thai food and Thailand. I close my eyes and I’m lying in a hammock on a beach in the sun, there’s a slight breeze, a book open cover side up on my stomach, my eyes partially shaded by my fedora perched on the end of my nose. Hmmm…
Can you tell I’m feeling just a little bit sun deprived?
This gluten and refined sugar free recipe is a culmination of lots of recipes I have tried over the years with varying degrees of success. Pad Thai has been my favourite Thai recipe, long before I realised it is gluten-free. This recipe is also free of refined sugar.
Simple, difficult to annihilate, Pad Thai has always been a safe and tasty bet in any given Thai restaurant or take-away. But (and this is a big BUT) like all simple dishes a really good Pad Thai is a very different beast to your every day, run of the mil Pad Thai. And I have found over the years even harder to re-produce at home. Until now.
This recipe is very adaptable, the chicken can be replaced with prawns, pork or your veggie or vegan alternative of choice. If you like it spicy hot you can add more chilli’s and dried shrimps for fish lovers.
The actual cooking part of this dish are straight forward and not very time consuming. The biggest effort is in the prep of the ingredients. I never like to put the minutes it will take against prep and cooking in my recipes, we’re not after all robots and if your like me sometimes I cook (or need to) quickly and at other times potter and enjoy taking time.
Whatever type of cook you are, I hope you enjoy this Pad Thai as much as I do.
Best Pad Thai
INGREDIENTS
feeds four as a main meal
- 3 tablespoons of tamarind (gluten-free)
- 3 1/2 x tablespoons of soy sauce (gluten-free)
- 3 x tablespoons of maple syrup (preferably organic)
- 1 x teaspoon of Thai fish sauce (gluten-free)
- 3 x tablespoons of coconut oil (or your oil of choice)
- 400g skinless, free-range chicken thighs or breast (ideally organic)
- 3 x baby shallots, peeled and finely chopped
- 4 x crushed or grated garlic cloves
- 2 x teaspoons of chilli flakes (or 1 x tablespoon if you prefer things hotter)
- 300g, 10.5 oz, Flat Rice Noodles
- 200g, 7 oz, bean sprouts
- 2 x large eggs whisked together
- 3 x spring onions finely chopped vertically
- 28g, 1 oz of coriander leaves finely chopped
- a handful of peanuts crushed
- Maldon Sea Salt and Pepper
- 1 x lime cut in to 4 wedges
TO COOK
- Whisk the tamarind, soy, fish sauce and maple syrup together and put on one side.
- Put a pan of water on to boil and cook the noodles as instructed on the packet, rinse and put on one side
- Add the oil to a wok, or large frying pan and turn up the heat. When very hot add the chicken and fry for 3 or so minutes until the chicken is golden brown.
- Add the onions, chilli flakes and garlic and fry for a further minute before adding the noodles, two thirds of the bean sprouts, spring onions and sauce mix and cook for a further a minute on a high heat, constantly stirring all the ingredients together.
- Then add the whisked add constantly string the egg mixture in to the other ingredients for 1 min then turn the heat OFF. This is the part that always scares me a little but if you do it confidently, quickly and keep stirring for just one minute you won’t end up with scrambled eggs.
- Finally with the heat still off, stir through most of the coriander (keeping a few leaves back to add to the top of each plate), the rest of the bean sprouts and most of the crushed peanuts (again keeping a little back to sprinkle on each plate) and season with salt and pepper to taste
- Divide on to 4 plates and sprinkle with the remaining coriander leaves and peanuts on each plate and serve with a wedge of lemon on each plate. Enjoy!
Notes: This dish is best enjoyed immediately, you can keep it in the fridge, covered and re-heat within 24 hours but you will lose some the texture and taste.
For fish lovers you can add dried shrimp and a dash ( additional teaspoon) of Thai fish sauce. Alternatively you can substitute the chicken for prawns or a vegan or veggie choice.
Tabitha’s Edit 
7 Responses to “Best Pad Thai”
Mmmm, I can imagine how good that must taste. Jealous right now.
You’ll have to cook it and see 😉
I also love Thai food & Thailand! The best pad thai I’ve ever had was of course when I traveled to Thailand, hehe. I’m looking forward to giving your recipe a try sometime soon. ^^ Thanks for sharing, Tabitha! 🙂
Thank you. Yes I wouldn’t say this was better than pad Thai in Thailand but a good close/ runner up.
I made Pad Thai using spaghetti squash…It was fantastic!
That sounds great.
I’ll be doing for my blog at some point and posting the recipe