After only eating thai food twice in my life, the last time being about 3 1/2 years ago, I’m not really sure what possessed me to taking on making a thai dish at home.
It might have been that I stumbled upon a pad thai recipe on the Williams-Sonoma website and that every W-S recipe I’ve read about in other people’s blogs (like Annie’s Eats) has turned out wonderfully.
It probably also had something to do with the fact that I had nearly every ingredient on the lengthy list in my pantry and would only need to purchase one or two things outside of chicken and shrimp.
So last night, I took to the kitchen and cooked up a pretty damn good pad thai dish! Kyle gave it an 8.5 on the ‘ol 10-point scale and that was after he took a taste from the pan before it was finished cooking and made a God-awful face. (duh.)
I do admit there was a bit of veggie prep and I highly recommended prepping everything before you start cooking this dish. But once things started moving, the cooking part was quite basic.
And the results….MMMM!! I’ll admit that I was a little skeptical while cooking because the recipe doesn’t call for any spices but it really turned into a wonderful dish.
I only very slightly modified the recipe which is what you can see below but overall, I really stuck to the recipe.
DEFINITELY give this one a shot!!
Shrimp Pad Thai
This simple shrimp and chicken pad Thai is a homestyle noodle dish that is quick and easy to prepare and is a great alternative to ordering take-out.
Ingredients
- ½ lb dried rice noodles
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil, or as needed
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast half, cut into strips ⅛ inch thick
- ¼ lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup minced shallot
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp plus 1 ½ tsp Thai fish sauce
- 2 tbsp lime juice or rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 egg
- Large pinch of red pepper flakes (small pinch for me)
- ½ cup chicken stock
- ½ lb bean sprouts
- 6 green onions, including tender green portions, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 carrot, peeled and julienned
- ⅓ cup chopped roasted peanuts (omitted)
- ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves (for garnish, optional)
- 1 lime, cut into 6 wedges (for serving)
Instructions
- Place the noodles in a bowl, add warm water to cover and soak until soft and pliable, about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- In a nonstick wok or a 12-inch non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat, warm 1 Tbs. of the oil. Add the chicken and toss and stir until opaque, about 1 minute. Add the shrimp and toss and stir until bright pink, about 1 minute more. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Return the wok to medium-high heat and add the remaining 1 Tbs. oil. Add the garlic and shallot and toss and stir until golden, about 1 minute. Increase the heat to high and add the ketchup, fish sauce, lime juice and sugar. Toss and stir until thickened, about 30 seconds.
- Crack the egg into the middle of the wok and lightly beat. Cook, without stirring, until set, about 20 seconds. Gently fold the egg into the sauce; tiny egg flecks should peek through the sauce. Add the noodles and red pepper flakes and, using tongs, toss to coat with the sauce.
- Add the stock, 2 Tbs. at a time, to moisten the stiff noodles, and cook until the noodles begin to cling together and are almost tender, about 3 minutes. Add the bean sprouts, green onions, carrot, chicken-shrimp mixture and half of the peanuts. Toss to combine and cook until the bean sprouts begin to wilt, about 3 minutes. (I probably cooked the dish for an extra 4 minutes or so while adding about 1/4 cup chicken stock at the end and letting it cook down in order to finish cooking the noodles. The noodles were al dente when I served up the pad thai.)
- Divide among individual plates and top with the remaining peanuts and the cilantro. Squeeze the lime wedges over the noodles. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Notes
adapted from Williams-Sonoma
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i love pad thai 🙂 every time i make it at home, it doesn’t come out right…but maybe i need to try this WS recipe instead 🙂 it looks great!