Pad Thai is Thailand’s most recognizable dish and one of our most popular cooking requests! Below you can find a version adapted to allow you to recreate this delicious recipe at home.
You can catch us cooking pad thai in our cooking class in Bangkok, but we mastered it by teaching youth in our charity’s cooking program. In the video you’ll see them in action, working in teams to prepare the dish after we’ve demonstrated the steps. Each week they learn a fun Thai recipe or international dish, all powered by your support and donations!
Watch our teens learn to make this classic Thai dish:
16 oz. dry or fresh rice noodles, at least ¼ inch in thickness (4 oz or 100g per person)
4 Tbsp. peanut or rice bran oil for frying (1 tbsp per person, because you’ll fry each portion separately)
8 oz. pack of extra firm tofu cubed
4 large eggs
2 shallots diced
1 bundle fresh scallions or garlic chives chopped into ½ inch pieces
2 cups bean sprouts
2 Tbsp fresh minced garlic
Time Saving Tip: Cooking for a big group and don’t want to cook each portion separately? Stir fry all your small ingredients together (shallot, tofu, etc) and then add your proteins and get them fully cooked. Set this aside and use the empty wok to cook your noodles and egg in batches. As each ingredient finishes add it to a mixing bowl where you can mix the ingredients again before serving.
Even the busiest street food stalls don’t make more than 1-2 portions of noodles per wok at a time. This is because if you rush the noodles and overload your wok, you end up with some noodles being overcooked, while others are terribly chewy. You can also swap your rice noodles for an easier type of noodle to cook in large quantities, like instant noodles. This is exactly what we do in our kid’s version of pad thai.
The first time you make an authentic version of pad thai, we recommend you give yourself some extra time for prep to organize and chop all of your ingredients.
Pad Thai Sauce Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
½ cup diced shallots
¾ cup fresh tamarind pulp
¼ cup water (to adjust the texture of the tamarind pulp)
3-4 Tbsp. palm sugar
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
pinch of white pepper and dried chili flakes to taste
pinch of paprika for color
Optional Ingredients & Garnish
8 oz. protein of choice (most commonly shrimp or chicken)
⅓ cup small dried shrimp (1 tbsp per person)
1 limes cut into wedges (1 lime wedge to garnish each plate)
Crushed unsalted peanuts
Dried red chili flakes
Extra bean sprouts, garlic chives, and banana blossom for garnish
Here’s a list of the most classic types of garnish in traditional pad thai. All of the most authentic version will include them, but for a homemade version of pad thai, feel free to stick to the garnish you enjoy the most!
Preparation:
Fully submerge and soak dry noodles in cold water for 20 minutes. If using fresh noodles, soak for 10 minutes. Once noodles are al dente, strain and set aside. If soaked too long, noodles will become gummy to the touch. Prep additional ingredients in advance.
Pad Thai is traditionally cooked very quickly over high heat, so laying out all ready ingredients is essential for a quality dish.
Directions:
Heat large wok on high. Add 1 tbsp oil, shallots, meat, dried shrimp and 2 oz. tofu. Cook for approximately 3 minutes until browned and protein is cooked all the way through, remove meat and set aside. Add in ½ tbsp garlic, 4oz. noodles, 1 cup sauce stirring vigorously until noodles soften. You can add in a little bit of water to help soften. Throw in ½ cup bean sprouts, pinch of garlic chives, and mix thoroughly.
Push your noodles over to one side of the wok, leaving one side clear and crack 1 egg directly into opening, scramble and cook to 80% — do not fold in. Turn down heat to low. Fold noodles over and set directly on top of egg, about 30 seconds to finish cooking. Remove from heat. Plate noodles, add extra chives, peanuts, chili flakes and lime wedges on top for garnish.
Eat and enjoy! Remember your donations help us to keep sharing recipes and training more students for courageous cooking! You can also find more info to answer your most common questions about pad thai. While this can be an intermediate level dish to make at home, once you’ve mastered cooking your rice noodles, you really can make a version that rivals that of your local Thai restaurants.
Credit: Special thanks to Christy Innouvong for writing this recipe, and Dew Napattaloong for creating the recipe video.
How much pad thai should I make at once?
Pad Thai is a one plate dish and meant to be made in single portions. This recipe includes enough ingredients for four servings. However, directions are written for single batch only. Use remaining ingredients to make additional batches if desired, sauce can be kept for a month or more if sealed well and refrigerated.
Can I cook my pad thai in advance and eat it later?
Unfortunately, this isn’t the best idea because the noodles will become gummy. We recommend prepping all the pad thai ingredients and sauce in advance. This will make it easier when you begin to stir fry. After you stir fry your noodles, you should eat it immediately for the best result. If the noodles have a chance to cool, they will begin to clump together.
To save time, cook your other ingredients in advance. They can be thrown in the wok to reheat, while you cook your noodles. This will save time and be much tastier than having microwave reheated, leftover pad thai.
How different is pad thai in Thailand versus elsewhere?
We find that many versions of pad thai (including some in Thailand) are overly sweet. This is likely due to varying ways to make the pad thai sauce. The sauce should balance the sourness and sweetness, and be tangy when you eat the noodles. If your noodles are too sweet, this flavor will dominate your experience of the dish, and the medley of flavors from ingredients such as the dried shrimp and radish will be muted. We’re aware some people may prefer this, but we want to give you a Thai perspective on how pad Thai should really taste!
Is pad thai Thailand’s national dish?
No. Pad Thai is Thailand’s most well known dish. You may argue that the dish is more popular in western countries than it is in Thailand. This makes finding a tasty, authentic version difficult to find in Bangkok. We recommend hunting down a restaurant that specializes in these noodles, or you can always learn to make this recipe in our Courageous Kitchen cooking class.
Can I add meat to this recipe?
Yes, pad thai is most commonly made with chicken or shrimp. You can add 50-100 grams of meat per serving. However if you decide to add shrimp, we recommend you saute the shrimp first.
Unlike the chicken, the shrimp is easy to overcook and may begin to come apart as you vigorously stir your noodles together. Instead, we recommend you shallow fry them first in a few teaspoons of oil. When the shrimp is cooked, set aside. Then keep your now shrimp flavored oil for your batch of pad thai!
What other versions of pad thai should I try?
We love the egg wrapped version of pad thai. This is created by making a thin omelette style wrapper and adding your cooked noodles inside. This can be a lot of work when you’re hungry, but if you’ve got extra time and hands in the kitchen, it is delicious and looks beautiful as well.
In addition to egg wrapped pad thai, there is a version of pad thai cooked in Thailand’s eastern coastal provinces that diverges away from the common versions most people know. In places like Pattaya, Chonburi, Chantaburi, and Rayong you can find pad thai cooked with chunks of crab meat! These coastal regions also prefer a very oily sweet sauce, made by using the oil from the head of the shrimp. They will also use ‘sen jan’ (ผัดไทเส้นจันท์), which are thinner rice noodles than typically used in better known versions. Although thinner, the noodles hold up better for stir frying and are used in other recipes in this region as well.
We appreciate you checking in with us this month and we’ve got two big announcements to share from Bangkok. The first is that there’s a piece of equipment we’ve needed for quite some time and it’s finally arrived. We’ll give you a hint, it’s not a giant oven, or some expensive “must-have” kitchen gadget.
From Your Hood to Ours
If you’ve been following our story, a few months back we renovated a run down house to be a kitchen space with the help of funding from Bangkok Patana School. The new space allowed for use to have more room to host the swarming children of the neighborhood, who all seem interested in cooking at once. However, even after painting, replacing the floor, and knocking out a wall, the new space still wasn’t much of a kitchen.
That’s because doing more cooking in large groups was nearly impossible to do safely with the little to no airflow in the building. In Thailand, most kitchens are powered by portable gas burners which can be dangerous to use with out safety precautions, including having good ventilation. This also meant when we made traditional chili filled Thai dishes, we didn’t have to do much before everyone in the room was coughing and choking on the spiced filled air which couldn’t escape the room.
The good news is we have just installed a custom made exhaust hood into the room. We should have done this a few months ago, but honestly there had been several delays in making the hood happen. We appealed to private donors and to foundations offering grants, but none of the parties were interested in the not so flashy upgrade to our kitchen. Instead we used funding from your efforts to fund cooking classes this year, and spent about $500 to install a new ventilation hood. The new hood will not only improve the safety of our students, but because it is large enough to accommodate more than one burner, it will also open up greater possibilities for our cooking curriculum in the future.
Securing our Bridge to You
The other big safety upgrade is a bit technical, as we’ve just installed an SSL certificate to encrypt our website. To put it in laymen’s terms, we’ve improved the security of our site to be sure your information is safe. This means whether you’re making a donation, booking a cooking class in Bangkok, or just purchasing a t-shirt, all your information is transmitted safely and securely.
The added encryption to our website also opens up more possibilities in the future as we grow. For example, the added security may expedite further development of online teaching resources, and fundraising products for our own mini-marketplace. And more importantly, it means you can give not only with Paypal, but with any credit card you want, without fretting about being exposed to fraud.
We’re steadily building towards ambitious goals to connect better with you and improve the lives of our students and their families here in Thailand. Thank you for joining us on this journey and stick with us as we grow, and strive to conquer our most ambitious and challenging year yet!
This past week our Courageous Kitchen students had the opportunity for a special visit to local international school Bangkok Patana. There the teens participated in a student led baking activity, making chocolate chip cookies and dark chocolate brownies with students from 8 international schools from around the city. The activity was part of the 2017 ServICE Conference which aims to engage young leaders at international schools to discover ways they can more actively give back.
On the first day of the conference the participants were divided up for activities with several NGOs and small charities, where they could serve the organizations with direct action in some way. Students who indicated interest in “No Hunger”, one of the new Sustainable Development Goals, joined our Courageous Kitchen students in the Bangkok Patana cooking classroom. These students who are passionate about ending extreme hunger, improving agricultural practices, and eliminating food waste — had probably not been expecting to spend the day baking and making friends with our kids from a community in Bangkok where food can be scarce.
This activity was also rewarding because, although our students have been cooking as a part of the Courageous Kitchen activities for more than two years, our kitchen facilities are basic compared to what you would find in a western kitchen. Instead the cooking we mostly do involves Thai or Asian recipes requiring minimal electrical equipment. This means CK students are pros are stir frying on a gas burner, but had not had the opportunity to bake before. When the activity began they were forced to learn very quickly how to deal with wax paper, induction stoves, electronic scales, and the sometimes tricky controls of built-in ovens.
The activity was a giant success, and although not all of the baked goods came out as planned, the new friendships made, and young minds expanded were beyond everyone’s expectations.
All photos are credited to volunteer photographer Alisa Suwanrumpha.
We’re excited to announce the latest Courageous Kitchen documentary called Urban Refugee: Bangkok. The 12 minute film debuted recently on youtube and we hope you’ll watch below and share with friends:
The film was directed and shot by Tara Milutis a talented American filmmaker. She helps explain the plight of urban refugees and asylum seekers in Bangkok, in their own words. Each of the narratives is assisted by members of the community who have been actively working to aid this vulnerable group of people. The video also introduces views to the work of the Courageous Kitchen, especially in the lives of children who don’t have typical access to education, live in broken homes, and who are not eating enough nutritious food. The goal of the film is to inspire, educate, and challenge people to get involved. Please do take the time to leave a comment and let us know what you think!
Common Questions About the Video:
I had no idea this was happening, how can I help?
You can help further the mission by donating to our project, especially by creating a recurring donation. When you click the donate button there are options where you can choose to donate, no matter how large or small the gift. Beyond giving financially, following along on our facebook page, while sharing our activities with friends is a contribution we don’t take for granted.
Finally for people who will be traveling to Thailand and hoping to get involved please be aware most of our volunteer opportunities go to people who are in the country long term. Although there are not many short term opportunities, do make sure you follow our facebook page for events and other happenings where you may participate.
Is this a Christian ministry?
Courageous Kitchen is a non religious, non political public charity. The classification of our organization means we neither discriminate among the people we help, nor the volunteers who help us, based on religious or political affiliation.
While we do enjoy good relationships with some churches and faith based organizations, we do not receive any regular financial contributions from these institutions.
Is it possible to donate clothes?
No, we are not currently accepting any clothing donations. We do encourage people interested in giving their clothes to find another local charity who can accept these in-kind gifts. If you are in Thailand, one such organization is called Second Chance Bangkok. For other locations around the world, please check with the local refugee organizations in your community.
We can’t believe it’s already here, but have some good news for our supporters in the US. Our charity bank accounts are now setup, making it easier to make a donation if you’re based in the US.
You can deposit or transfer to our Courageous Kitchen Inc. by visiting a branch of Wells Fargo orCitizens Trust.
Remember to email us if you’re making a deposit and we can provide account details! We appreciate all gifts, but are required to report to the state and federal government. We will also issue you a donor acknowledgement letter so that you can claim donations over $250 as tax deductible (US citizens only).
Finally, if you have been giving to us via paypal in the coming months we hope to also be recognized there soon, making more of your gift go towards helping us feed and inspire, not fees!
PS – We’re doing a small BBQ event this Labor Day weekend in Atlanta. Find more details on our Courageous Kitchen Facebook Page.
