If you love Thai food, especially authentic Pad Thai, you need this Pad Thai sauce recipe in your life! Made with tamarind paste, palm sugar, fish sauce, and garlic, learning how to make Pad Thai sauce is simple with this homemade, easy Pad Thai sauce recipe.
Did you know Pad Thai is one of the world’s most popular foods? A global phenomenon, Pad Thai is comforting street-food made of rice noodles stir-fried in a sour, sweet, savory Pad Thai sauce. It also happens to be one of the most ordered take-out dishes in America.
In less time than having to order Thai food and having it delivered, you could easily make this dish at home and it be as good if not better than your local Thai restaurant. I’m serious.
To make authentic Pad Thai, you have to understand what this dish essentially is. Pad Thai is a noodle stir-fry. And with most types of stir-fry, each dish is uniquely seasoned depending on the sauce. With so many variations of Pad Thai sauces on the internet, the most authentic Pad Thai sauce recipe has tamarind, palm, sugar, and fish sauce – sometimes pickled radish.
Some Pad Thai sauces call for none of these ingredients, which would make it not authentic. If you go through all the trouble to make homemade Pad Thai, shouldn’t your hard work go towards enjoying authentic version? If you see a Pad Thai sauce recipe calling for ketchup, DO NOT MAKE. I beg you. You can call it a noodle stir-fry but you won’t in good conscious be able to call it Pad Thai.
I’m going to walk you through how to make the most amazing restaurant quality Pad Thai by teaching you how to make Pad Thai Sauce – remember, every stir-fry dish depends on how it’s seasoned. Best of all, this sauce is easy. Like, 4-ingredients to heavenly Pad Thai sauce easy. Seriously, if you love Pad Thai, there is no good reason not to make homemade Pad Thai sauce. This recipe is so easy, you’ll be so happy to make this dish at home.
Imagine, you, glass of wine, Netflix, and homemade Pad Thai that you made. That is my definition of the perfect night.
Here is everything you need to know about making a kick-ass Pad Thai sauce
List of ingredients you need to make Pad Thai sauce:
- Tamarind Concentrate diluted with some water
- Palm Sugar
- Fish Sauce
- Fresh Cloves
The Pad Thai sauce flavor is a balance of the recipe ingredients of sour, sweet, and salty – umami.
Tamarind is acidic pulp from inside a tree pod (from the pea family) and is a common ingredient in Asian cooking. It adds a pleasant sour flavor to dishes and beverages.
Palm Sugar is derived from the sap of various types of palm trees including sugar and coconut. The sap is collected and boiled until all that’s left is a sticky sugar solid and is often spun into disks. The flavor of palm sugar is very different than refined white and brown sugar. It is noticeably less sweet, deeper and richer in flavor, and is naturally brown in color.
Fish Sauce is an intensely flavored sauce made from anchovies, salt and water which has gone through a fermenting process. Its strong, salty, fishy smell adds a layer of umami flavor that enhances Thai food. Without it, Thai dishes are not the same, including Pad Thai.
Garlic – Fresh garlic in combination with the other ingredients ties the sour, sweet, salty sauce ingredients together in a way only garlic can and does so well.
How to make the Pad Thai:
To make Pad Thai sauce, you cook all the ingredients in a pan until the sugar is dissolved. Once your sauce is ready, you can use it to make Pad Thai by stir-frying rice noodles and fresh ingredients such as tofu, chicken, shrimp, egg, and vegetables.
The Pad Thai sauce is added in slowly added in a little bit at a time to give the noodles a chance to absorb the flavor. You should always add the sauce in small amounts until you reach the flavor you’re looking for. To finish off the dish, roasted chopped peanuts are added to the top.
Over ten years ago before food blogs were a real thing, I discovered a mother-daughter duo who posted their Thai food family recipes on a site called Joys Thai Food. The site appears to be offline now you can find her authentic Thai Food recipes still on Youtube. Inspired by their authentic Pad Thai sauce recipe, I made an adapted version rivaling the best restaurant versions I had grown to love and were accustomed to.
The easiest and best way to make pad Thai is to make the sauce in advance and use as little or much as you need. The recipe makes just over a half a cup of sauce. You can refrigerate it up to a month.
If you do refrigerate the sauce and find it hardened, just microwave it for 30 seconds to soften it up. It will be perfectly warm and usable.
I hope you enjoy making this Pad Thai Sauce recipe – it is the gift that will keep on giving, satisfying all your Thai food cravings!
Other Thai Food Recipes You Might Enjoy:
Chicken Coconut Curry Soup
Acorn Squash Coconut Curry Soup
Chicken Satay and Peanut Sauce
- Pad Thai Sauce
- 3 tablespoons tamarind juice (paste) concentrate
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup palm sugar
- 2 Tbl fish sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Pad Thai Stir-Fry Ingredients
- 8 ounces dried rice stick noodles
- 5 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- ½ smallish-medium red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ lb protein (thinly sliced chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, or cubed tofu)
- 1 egg
- 1½ cups mung bean sprouts, divided in half
- 1 cup carrots, julienned (match sticks), divided in half
- 4 green onions (scallions) cut diagonal in ½ inch segments
- ¼ cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
- ½ cup toasted peanuts, chopped
- Lime wedges
- To make pad Thai sauce, heat a small pan on medium low and add the tamarind concentrate, water, palm sugar, fish sauce, and garlic. Cook the sauce until the palm sugar has completely dissolved. At this point, you will want to carefully taste the sauce and tweak the sweetness or tangyness by adding a tiny bit more palm sugar or tamarind. Be careful, the sauce will be hot.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes before storing it in a jar or plastic container.
- Boil the rice noodles on high heat for 2 minutes then drain immediately, rinsing the noodles with cold water for just a few seconds. Noodles should be slightly firmer than al dente. 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 a lot easier to stir-fry and eat.
- In a wok of large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil on high heat. Add to the pan the protein and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the protein and transfer to a plate or bowl.
- Return the pan to heat and add a tablespoon of oil. Allow the oil to heat up and add the onions and stir-fry (stir + fry) for one minute then add the garlic and cook for another minute, making sure to stir often enough so the garlic does not burn.
- Add the noodles to the pan and drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Stir fry the noodles for two minutes. This will help the noodles soften a tiny bit more but more importantly will provide enough surface texture for the sauce to adhere to.
- Add 3-4 tablespoons of the pad Thai sauce continually stirring the noodles until they are coasted with sauce - about a minute.
- Add the protein back in and fry for an additional 2-3 minutes, adding more sauce if necessary. You don't want to noodles to be "wet." Instead you want to add a little bit at a time allowing the noodles and the other ingredients to soak in the sauce.
- Move the pad Thai over to one side of the pan. Add the last tablespoon of oil to the bare side then crack an egg over it. Scramble the egg with a wooden spoon and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add half the sprouts and half the carrots along with the scallions. Mix and stir-fry everything for 1 more minute, frying everything together.
- Test the firmness of the noodle. If the noodle is too firm, continue to stir-fry for an additional minute adding a spoonful of sauce if necessary.
- Remove pad Thai from heat and serve and garnish with remaining julienned carrots, spouts, cilantro, toasted peanuts, and a wedge of lime. Enjoy!
Updated May 3, 2018
Jaynee Stolba says
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
Jaynee Stolba says
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
Renee Shockley says
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:)
Greg Floyd says
You can dissolve the palm sugar in water by cooking it in low heat. I then put it in a squeeze bottle.
Karen says
Yes…1/2C is correct (or very close). you need a lot to counter balance the fish sauce and tamarind.
Jan says
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!!!!!
Jun says
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…
Joe Graff says
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!!
MaryBeth says
I learned a trick for handling palm sugar, grate it with a grater! I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but hope to soon!
Natalie says
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!
Christina Kapetaneas says
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
Hanna says
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.
DNO says
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.
lin jeffries says
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.
DNO says
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.
otehlia cassidy says
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!
otehlia cassidy says
This recipe is so good! We have made it twice this week already. Even my husband, who barely ever cooks, makes this:) Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Neil Fox says
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!
brian says
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?
shannon says
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?
Kelly says
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!
chef's apprentice says
I love you so much for this recipe!!
My pad thai craving was not only over-satisfied, but reignited.
You are a genie!
Sailaja says
My search for Pad Thai ends here. Awesome recipe and ever more awesome picture. Bookmarked!
dalia says
i have been looking for a pad thai recipe that makes sense. your method of boiling the noodle solves a big problem. also , making the sauce and adding to taste later is more convenient. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Ashley says
I just found your blog and made this the other night – exactly as stated. SOOOO GOOD!!!! My husband was SO HAPPY because he loves Pad Thai and said this was the best he’s ever had!! 🙂 I was so proud of myself for making this because it’s a little out of my comfort zone, but it tasted FABULOUS and wasn’t that hard. And I had such a fun time visiting the Asian market for the first time! What’s even better is that I have everything to make this again (and like you said – there is extra sauce so I don’t have to make that over) tonight! YAY!! Thanks for a wonderful recipe! I can’t wait to try more.