When I think of Thai food I think of Pad Thai. Ever since discovering Joy’s Thai Food online 2 years ago, I’ve been making an adapted version of her recipe which I think has to be as good or almost as good as the local Thai restaurant we frequent. For 15 years I have had a love hate relationship with this popular Thai noodle dish. I loved eating it but hated preparing it. You see, I have this weird habit of trying to re-create dishes I love eating out at home. Most recipes I found used ketchup. So each attempt at making Pad Thai always resulted in ketchup tasting noodles. I even tried using boxed Pad Thai kits with not so good results. I wanted to be able to prepare Pad Thai as good as the local Thai restaurant down the street. This would be the only way I would ever be satisfied with preparing this dish at home. I am happy to report I’ve done it. It’s not quite as special as the Pad Thai at our favorite Thai restaurant but it’s as good or even better than most Thai places we’ve eaten at. This my friend, is a personal culinary achievement! And to think, I remember back in the day when I thought ketchup was the key ingredient in making Pad Thai. I’ve come a long way baby.
This recipe calls for tamarind concentrate 
- ⅓ cup fish sauce
- ½ cup palm sugar
- ½ cup tamarind juice concentrate
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 ounces dried rice stick noodles
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- cup red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 ½ cups thinly sliced chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, or tofu
- 1 egg
- 1 cup carrots, match sticks
- cup green onion cut diagonal in ½ inch segments
- 1 cup mung bean sprouts
- cup cilantro
- cup toasted peanuts chopped
- Lime wedge
- To make pad thai sauce, heat a small pan on medium low and add fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind concentrate, and garlic. Cook sauce until palm sugar has completely dissolve. At this point, you will want to taste the sauce and tweek the sweetness or hotness (be careful, the sauce will be hot). To make it more spicy add a little Thai chili powder. Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes before storing it in a jar or plastic container.
- Boil noodles for 4-5 minutes and drain immediately rinsing with cold water for a few seconds. Noodles should be slightly firmer than Al dente. But don’t worry, they will continue to soften and cook later when stir frying. Using kitchen shears, cut the noodle clump in half. This will make it easier to fry and eat.
- Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a wok or frying pan on high and cook raw chicken, pork, beef, tofu or shrimp for 3-4 minutes. Remove meat/tofu/seafood into a small bowl. Next, heat the remaining oil and then add garlic and red onions to the hot pan and stir fry for 1 minute stirring the garlic mixture so it will not burn. Add noodles and stir for 1 minute. Add 3-4 tablespoons Pad Thai sauce continually stirring noodle mixture until well coated with sauce. Add cooked meat/tofu/seafood back and fry for 2-3 minutes. Move the noodle and meat mixture to one side of the pan and crack an egg on the other side. Scramble the egg with a wooden spoon and cook for 30 seconds. Add carrots, green onions, and sprouts and cook for one more minute frying everything together. Test the firmness of the noodle. If the noodle is too firm, fry for an additional minute. If your noodles need more flavor, add another tablespoon of sauce and fry another half minute. Remove from heat and serve. Garnish with remaining raw carrot match sticks, spouts, cilantro, toasted peanuts, and a wedge of lime. Enjoy!
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Hello,
Ran across your site when looking for a pad thai recipe. LOVE your site/blog!!! Cooked the pad thai yesterday and it went well, hubby likes it. I couldn’t find tamarind concentrate so I got a soup base and added water to get the 1/2 cup of tamarind “concentrate” and found palm sugar but did not know how to use it, as it was hard as a rock – so I substituted with brown sugar.
My pad thai didn’t have the color like your’s but it was itty bitty light orange. To give it some color i added just a tiny bit (very very tiny) of dark soy sauce… the color on your photo of course looks better, wonder if it’s the tamarind concentrate or palm sugar that gives it that brownish color on your pad thai. Nevertheless, love your recipe!
Thank you!
I learned a trick for handling palm sugar, grate it with a grater! I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but hope to soon!
i tried this recipe and it really tasted bad. i found this tamarind concentrate but it was so sour and exported from india. I am wondering if the brand of the tamarind and palm sugar make an effect?
On a note about the tamarind concentrate, you have to use the more watery concentrate. If you use the thick gel-like one, you have to dilute it first. And I used brown sugar, and it worked fine!
1/2 cup palm sugar? That can’t be correct. Should it be 1/2 tbsp? I’d love to try this recipe as I’ve also had trouble recreating the perfect pad thai at home. Also when measuring the palm sugar is it best to grate or chop or do you just keep it whole?
Yes…1/2C is correct (or very close). you need a lot to counter balance the fish sauce and tamarind.
I’ve used recipes similar to this and have found it very tricky to get the balance of the sauce correct. To those of you who have had the same experience, if you add a tablespoon or two of corn syrup to the sauce while cooking, it will temper the sour taste of the tamarind.
Enjoy!
This recipe is so good! We have made it twice this week already. Even my husband, who barely ever cooks, makes this:) Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Excellent recipe; I made it last night for the first time. A couple of tips/answers to comments:
- Don’t skip rinsing noodles after boiling; they will clump if you don’t
- Crush peanuts in a baggie; it’s easier to herd cats than to chop peanuts
- You need to use the full amount of sugar in the sauce, otherwise it won’t taste right. And, you’ll use ~< half of the sauce, keep the rest. So it won't really have 1/2 cup sugar in the meal. Use the remaining sauce in classic dishes like Thai Curry shrimp; works great!
- Added 3 minced thai chilis, and a bit of minced fresh basil to make it more restaurant style.
- Squeeze fresh lime and lightly toss, right before you take it out of the wok.
does tis recipe useba total of 8 cloves of garlic? also, what is pad thai sauce? pad thai sauce is not in the ingredients. i cant trust this recipe, if its not clear.
You use 4 garlic cloves for the sauce, and 4 more for the stir fry ingredients. Since you don’t use all of the sauce, you don’t use 8 cloves total. See my comment above yours.
The Pad Thai sauce is the first 4 ingredients, as described.
The prep time is pretty off; It took me >30 mins to make the sauce, boil noodles, chop/mince the ingredients (steps 1& 2). Step 3 takes ~ 15 mins. Make sure everything is prepped and ready to go before step 3, because you’re tossing in new ingredients every few minutes. It’s a little labor intensive, but it’s worth it since you pretty much make everything from scratch. It’s a really good recipe.
I’m so glad i found your site! I have been trying to find a good pad Thai noodle recipe for the longest time and am really excited to try it out this week, maybe on Friday for dinner. I will get back on and let you know how it went.
I have one question is that 1/2 cup of undiluted tamarind concentrate?
I purchased the Nuoc Me Chua (tamarind concentrate). It’s the Thai brand. I am confused because some recipes say to dilute it. Please help..
Thanks
Christina Kapetaneas
My husband and I love Thai food so we decided to give this recipe a try. We loved it so much that we now make it once a week and serve it to all our guests and it’s gotten nothing but great reviews! Thanks so much!
I lived in Thailand for 9 years and from that experience I can tell you, your recipe seems spot on. I don’t understand why so many recipes (and even some restaurants) have ketchup in their phat thai! There is no crying in baseball and there is NO ketchup in phat Thai!!
it looks yummy n well prepared…. can’t wait to try your pad thai recipe this weekend….. I just tried other people’s recipe for chicken satay last night and it went well. Hopefully, I’ll get the same result with this pad thai as well… I’m a Filipino food cook expert but trying to experiment other Asian’s authentic food versions…
My son wanted Pad Thai for dinner as he loved it when I made it a long time ago. I could not fine my recipe so I searched online and decided to try your recipe. I was shocked!!! The sauce is amazing!!! I could only find tamarind in which I had to get hot and make my own Paste/sauce. I had my sister here as well from out of state and we all loved this recipe!!! Thanks for creating such a great recipe!!!!!
You can dissolve the palm sugar in water by cooking it in low heat. I then put it in a squeeze bottle.
Delicious!!!! So easy and my whole family loved it:) Had to make my own tamarind paste by dissolving them in hot water and straining through a sieve, but so worth it:)
I love Pat Thai! I can’t wait to try your recipe, because I think I drowned my pad thai with too much red chili sauce and some soy, but cilantro always seems to make everything taste fresh and better! I will get back to you when I master it! Thanks again. J
I love Pad Thai! I can’t wait to try your recipe, because I think I drowned my Pad Thai with too much red chili sauce and some soy, but cilantro always seems to make everything taste fresh and better! I will get back to you when I master it! Thanks again. J
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! It was easy to follow and the results were excellent. It’s actually better than the Pad Thai I buy from our local Thai restaurant! This recipe is going into the filing cabinet
Since palm sugar comes in solid blocks, how do we measure out 1/2 cup?
Great recipe! I always add 2-4 tablespoons of peanut butter to the sauce as im stir frying instead of using peanuts. A Great substitute for the tamarind if you don’t have it or can’t find it is white vinegar or lime juice to make it a but more acidic
Making this on an impulse, have to have it however I live in serious redneckville I get excited when I can find couscous in the rice section because around here the stores carry only white and brown. Basically, they didn’t have any type of tamarind nor in a box or concentrate and I did not find palm sugar, after some googling and searching for tamarind I substituted one of those horrible “pad thai sauce in a bottle” But added some lime juice to it and for palm sugar substituted with dark brown sugar. Surprisingly the sauce didn’t come out too bad.I will def be back to let everyone know how the entire meal turned out. I’m so glad I came across this and will def stock my pantry with palm sugars and tamarind whenever I find them.
Turned out fantastic!! Better than some restaurants ! I can only imagine what it will taste like when I find the tamarind and palm sugar!! Passing this on to friends!
I just tried this recipe and the kids love it.. I have substitute the palm sugar with white sugar.. maybe that’s why the color look pale compare to yours.. and the noodle was a little dry.. nonetheless the taste turns out quite good.. Will try again to perfect the sauce again..
Just tried this recipe and I substituted lime juice for the tamarind and brown sugar for the palm sugar and added 2 teaspoons Asian chili sauce to the sauce mixture. Turned out great! It was a big hit with my whole family – even my kids liked it!
This recipe was really so great. I first made it today for lunch,whole family liked it. I made tamarind concentrate by mixing 1/2 cup warm water with 2 tbsp tamarind (asam jawa,as in Indonesia). Thank you so much.
Just tackled this recipe today. It is spot-on. Added a tablespoon of chli-garlic sauce to the base sauce to get it to my taste. Very nice recipe. I must also give a shout-out to Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati for stocking all the authentic ingredients!
Maybe the fish sauce I used was too strong but this recipe tasted WAY too fishy. I even added more palm sugar. I had to throw it away. My husband tried eating so he wouldn’t hurt my feelings but I told him I wouldn’t mind if he didn’t like it because I couldn’t get past the fish taste. I will try it again but next time use a couple of table spoons of fish sauce and not 1/3 cup.
Awesome recipe – I combined ideas from another traditional pad thai and used 1/2 tamarind paste and 1/2 lime juice as an experiment and it was awesome! It had the perfect balance and sweet, salty, and tangy, and spicy (I was liberal with the chillies…)! I also added a bit of cayenne and white pepper to the sauce (as per the other recipe I saw) for a bit more depth. By far the best Pad Thai recipe I’ve ever made – my partner said he preferred it to what he has had in restaurants as well! Have reserved the leftover sauce and will definitely be making this again soon…
This is a great recipie. The palm sugar will disolve once heated – start at medium fire- with the tamarind and fish sauce. Definatly prepare in advance. Let the sauce cool then taste. The sauce will taste different and then reheat (simmer) to alter it if you need to.
I was searching the web for a good Pad Thai recipe and ran across yours. I made this last night as directed (I like to do that the first time I make a new recipe to give it a fair chance). This was the best Pad Thai I have ever made. It was not only delicious (hubby gave it 5 stars out of 5) but it was soooo pretty on the plate. Thank you, Alice, for a real keeper. I’ll never have to look for a Pad Thai recipe again!
U ran across this recipe last nite?………Just flipped it up and had all the stuff in u fridge .WOW u are awesome.
Scott, Luckily, we have a good Asian market nearby so the day I made it, I ran out and picked up the palm sugar, tamarind, green onions and bean sprouts. I used only chicken. I had the other ingredients – always keep fish sauce on hand – my daughter-in-law is Filipino and she has gotten me in the habit of keeping certain ingredients in the house – she’s awesome!! So yes, I did have many of the ingredients at home. I love to cook. Since I wrote my review, I’ve made this recipe many times – it’s our favorite and it is better than most Pad Thai I’ve had at restaurants.
Joy’s Thai Food recipes are an amazing resource. That said, I’ll be experimenting with your very own variation. Thank you!
Disappointed. But you may have tofollow the recipe Exactly. i had a couple if substitutes. Wonder if I should have used Thai fish sauce vs. Filipino fish sauce. Also couldn’t find palm sugar, so used cane sugar instead. Sauce was too strong and needed to add more noodles so the sourness flavor toned down.
Just got back from Thailand and was on the hunt for an authentic pad thai recipe. This was as good and better in a some cases than the pad thai we ate in Thailand. I used the block of tamarind too, so had a bit of a guess at the amount and added to half a cup of boiling water and pushed through a sieve.
Forgot to add chilli, which I think would have been a great addition. Lime juice squeezed over at the end brought the whole thing to life.
After a few failed attempts at pad Thai, I was thinking i would be searching and making many more failed attempts, but this recipe is brilliant!
Thank you so much!
I plan to make this but I really wish you also had the weights in here. That would help with the palm sugar measurement especially. Grate the palm sugar then measure?
Thank you for the recipe! I am going to try it this week. One question – how do I substitute 1/2 cup tamarind juice with tamarind paste? I could only find the paste in our Asian food store. Thank you again!
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If you’re having problems with the sauce coming out too watery you may have to cook it longer. Palm sugar thickens the longer it’s cooked. If you’re still having problems with the sauce thickening enough you may need to add more palm sugar. Some palm sugars thicken better than others.
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This was amazing. Thumbs up from all of the family. I doubled the recipe and used 3/4 cup of palm sugar. I found palm sugar in a jar so was able to put it in the microwave for 20 seconds to soften and then measured. I also didn’t have peanuts so used cashews. This was as good as the best pad thai that I have had in any restaurant, and I am somewhat of a pad thai snob after living in NYC for a while.
I read the recipe and it says “cup” for the red onions and green onions. Is that 1 cup or 1/2 cup? I assumed 1/2 cup when I made it. Turned out great! Love the recipe, I’ll probably add some peanut butter to the sauce next time to get a more peanut taste.
I always think pad thai at most restaurants are too sweet or ketchup-y….I want to try this but need to force myself to go to 99 Ranch and buy all these ingredients haha
I just recently discovered pad thai and have become addicted. But, it was wreaking havoc on my budget, and probably my diet. While looking for a recipe online I landed here. Hallelujah! This recipe is easy, delicious and even better than the stuff I’ve been getting in restaurants. I make a batch of sauce every other week or so and store it in a squeeze bottle in the refrigerator so I’m always ready to satisfy the craving. Thank you for such an authentic and delicious recipe!
hey I really want to try out this recipe but I have a couple of questions I hope you can answer.
is there something else that I can use instead of fish sauce?
I live in Holland and I’ve never seen palm sugar so could I just use brown sugar?
thanks! can’t wait to try it
I don’t know how I didn’t comment here earlier since I’ve made your recipe at least 4 times now! I add quite a bit more palm sugar than you but that may be because I can only get the Indian tamarind paste, but this recipe seriously rocks! I am so picky now when I go to Thai restaurants (which I don’t go to as often now that I make Pad Kee Mao, Pad see Ew, and now this). My family can’t get over how authentic this tastes. I have made small batches and used the extra sauce later for other small batches and also made several small batches at once to feed a small crowd. I love impressing people with this recipe! Thanks!
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