A recipe for easy homemade pad thai featuring a delicious homemade pad thai sauce. Whether you’re a lover of all things Thai and ethnic food related or you’ve never tried your hand at this kind of thing before, this recipe is accessible and easy.
After years of making homemade pad thai and being asked for the recipe, I’m finally sharing it today. It’s not that I never wanted to share the recipe before but this is something that I cook without a recipe so it takes some discipline to actually make myself measure everything out and write it down. I also struggle with getting dinner made before it gets dark outside and I don’t like sharing recipe posts with less than stellar photos. I was determined to finally make the recipe yesterday so when I got home from the gym at 7 p.m. it was like an episode of Iron Chef to get this dish together before it got dark. (You should have seen the aftermath in the kitchen…)
So here’s my homemade pad thai in all its glory! This is a crazy delicious recipe that’s relatively easy and doesn’t call for too many special ingredients. Well, I do have one special ingredient.
Peanut butter! But when is peanut butter not my special ingredient?
It’s the key ingredient to the super tasty homemade pad thai sauce. And let me take a pause to state that in no way is this an “authentic” pad thai recipe. I’m definitely not claiming that…but it is really good cheater pad thai.
I also want to note that the rice noodles make a big difference in this recipe so seek them out. They’re usually in the ethnic section of the store with the Asian ingredients. They seem to be more readily available these days since they are gluten-free.
The recipe I’m sharing with you today is a shrimp and chicken pad thai but note that you can use any combo of proteins that you would like. Sometimes I do tofu for a vegetarian option, sometimes chicken only, shrimp only…depends on my mood and what I have on hand.
These things really take the pad thai to a new level. You stir the bean sprouts in at the end of cooking for a little crunch and then top the pad thai with chopped peanuts, cilantro and fresh lime wedges. These four items create really nice flavor dimension along with different textures.
Whether you’re a lover of all things Thai and ethnic food related or you’ve never tried your hand at this kind of thing before, this recipe is accessible and easy. Try, enjoy and let me know what you think!
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The Best Easy Homemade Pad Thai Recipe
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 2-3 servings 1x
Description
A recipe for easy homemade pad thai featuring a delicious homemade pad thai sauce.
Ingredients
FOR THE SAUCE
1/3 cup chicken or vegetable stock (or water would even work in a pinch)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce (if you don’t have this, just use 2 tablespoons of soy and omit the fish sauce)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons natural style peanut butter
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar (if you don’t have this use white vinegar or 2 tablespoons lime juice and omit rice wine vinegar)
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon Sriracha or thai chili sauce (depending on your spice tolerance…if you know you’re not into spicy, go with only 1 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon minced or grated fresh ginger (you can omit or use 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger if you don’t have this)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
FOR THE PAD THAI
4 ounces of rice noodles, cooked to package directions and rinsed
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 large egg, beaten
1 chicken breast, cubed
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined and cut in half
1/2 cup bean sprouts
FOR THE GARNISH
Chopped cilantro
Chopped peanuts
Lime wedges
Sriracha
Instructions
- Whisk together sauce ingredients and set aside.
- Cook noodles according to package direction. Rinse and set aside in a colander.
- Preheat a skillet over medium heat and add oil. Add chicken breast and cook until browned and mostly cooked through. Push the chicken over to one side of the skillet and pour the beaten egg into the skillet in the space you’ve created and use your cooking spatula to scramble the egg in the skillet. Add the shrimp and keep cooking for about another minute.
- Add the noodles to the skillet and then pour the sauce over the noodles. You might want to reduce the heat a little at this point to more like medium-low. The mixture will be saucy at first but let it cook for another 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently. The noodles and proteins will soak up the sauce and it will thicken. Stir the bean sprouts in once everything has thickened and remove from heat. Use a pasta sever to scoop the noodle mixture from the skillet and into shallow bowls (or onto plates).
- Top with desired toppings and adjust spice level with Sriracha.
I’ve been waiting for you to share this! 🙂
PAD THAI. OMG YES!
This is the best pad Thai recipe by far. I used to purchase the mixes before because I could not find a recipe that tastes like restaurant quality. I haven’t purchased a package mix in 2 years now.
Love the simplicity of this recipe! Making soon!
yum, I can’t wait to make this!
YESSSSSSSSSSS! Thank you for posting this. I LOVE pad thai but have never tried to make it before. I’ll try this over the weekend. Yay!
I saw the title of this post and said “YESSSSS!” 🙂 Thai is my absolute favorite ethnic food – I frequently make coconut curry at home. Thanks for sharing!
I’m the same way with recipes. I’m always telling my friends “ooo I made this delicious thing for dinner last night” and when they ask for the recipe I’m like… well, it’s up here. *taps head* Haha. I grew up learning “little of this, little of that” cooking.
OMG Jen – this recipe is AMAZING! Coincidentally, I was looking for a recipe for dinner when I saw this post as your Facebook status, and had to check it out. Within half an hour, my fiance and I went to the grocery store to get the ingredients. We actually used extra chicken (my fiance eats A LOT) and tofu and the recipe came out AMAZING! I also forgot to buy the chicken/vegetable stock and the store didn’t have any bean sprouts so we got bok choy as a substitution. I have tried a couple of pad thai recipes at home before that came out awful, but this was SO GOOD! And it’s all gone – no leftovers for lunch oops LOL. Thank you for posting this – we absolutely loved it! 🙂
Love pad thai but it’s always intimidated me to make! This definitely looks doable – thanks lady!
I’ll be attempting this recipe this week, thank you… it looks delicious… 🙂
I love Pad Thai though for some reason I rarely make it at home; your post has inspired me to put it on my list of dinners for this week or next! Thanks for sharing!
So I made this for dinner tonight and it was SOOOOO good! This will definitely be in rotation now!
yay! glad it was a hit for you!
I made this recipe tonight with Chicken only, a it was delicious! I had to use ground ginger and added a bit more peanut butter to the recipe and it was spot on. Thanks for this fabulous recipe.
I made this last night and it was AWESOME! Thanks for the recipe!
thanks so much for putting this together- I made it last night and took leftovers to work for lunch today and it’s delicious! I used zucchini “noodles” instead of rice noodles this time but I’m sure I’ll make it the traditional way sometime soon too.
Try the mushrooms noodles, you won’t know they are not rice noodles!
YUM! Made it for dinner tonight. I made too many noodles, so it ended up a bit dry, but the flavor was spot on! I also used tofu instead of meat. Will be keeping this one in our meal rotation for a while. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for sharing the recipe. I made it tonight for my husband & I, and it was so, so good!! Previous attempts at making Pad Thai didn’t turn out so well, and I had “given up” on it for quite a while. Thanks to your recipe I am sure this dish is going to be added to our regular “dinner rotation”.
katja…i’m so happy to hear this! glad it was a hit!
I made this last night for my husband and myself. So good — thank you for posting this recipe!
Definitely making this for my love today! So eager. Thanks heaps for the recipe!
Made this tonight. Didn’t have limes; used dried coriander & splash of lemon juice. Used ground ginger; didn’t have fresh. Didn’t have any bean sprouts. Didn’t miss any of it – this was phenomenal!
This was very good. I did not have the fish sauce or the lime and made it anyways. Delicious! Even my picky boyfriend finished off the third serving! Thanks for sharing.
I’ve made this recipe a few times now and it is delicious! I love how simple it is. I didn’t have fish sauce or rice vinegar, so I used more soy sauce and white vinegar and it turned out great!
This was great!!! I added some thinly sliced green onion at the same time as the bean sprouts. Thanks for the recipe!
Just made this with stuff out of my pantry! Didn’t have shrimp or bean sprouts or rice noodles, although I had everything else, so I used water chestnuts, and spaghetti I already had cooked. Even the 9 year old said it was ok! Made for a nice dish, in the middle of winter storm Jonas….
Where do you get bean sprouts?? I looked at Trader Joes and Whole Foods this weekend and could only find alfalfa sprouts.
They are usually in the produce department loose and you bag them yourself. I have never seen them with the sprouts. They can be hard to find because they spoil incredibly quickly. I have never seen them at TJs but I can usually find them at my local Harris Teeter or hit or miss at Whole Foods.
Yummy!!! We followed the recipe and it was delicious!!
Very tasty, will definitely prepare it again. Omitting the chicken and eggs will make it vegan. Did use the bok choi instead of cilantro.
Thank you for your hard work.
I’ve made this a couple of times so far, using different recipes. This was by far the best recipe!!
Made this with tofu and used a thai hot chili sauce in place of sriracha – so freakin’ yummy! And best part – simple! Thanks for sharing. <3
Thanks for sharing your substitutions and I’m so happy to hear it turned out well for you!
Finally made this Friday night- everyone loved it and my husband said it was one of the best things I’ve ever made. Thank you so much for sharing!
I loved the sauce for this recipe. The peanut butter makes it nutty and creamy. The only thing I’d change for next time is to do one and a half times the sauce recipe for the same amount of noodles. The sauce to noodle ratio wasn’t quite right.
I just made your Pad Thai sauce & oh my word! It’s delicious! I’ve been wanting to make Pad Thai for awhile now, & while I’m not following the rest of your recipe, because I have something a little different in mind, your sauce sounded perfect for what I’m aiming for. I just want to keep eating it! It’s perfect, it’s delicious & I’m writing it down so I never ever lose. Thank you so much for the inspiration!
Forgot to mention, I didn’t have fish sauce, either, but I have oyster sauce, so used that instead. Also didn’t have fresh lime juice, so left that out. Didn’t hurt it one bit!
Awesome! Always helpful to know the modifications that have worked for others!
Wow–a winner in my book! I made it with tofu and I made it with only 1 tsp sugar and Bragg’s aminos instead of the fish sauce, and it was phenomenal. My husband loved it, too. And you know what you said about leftovers? Nope, not here!
So glad it turned out well for you and thank you so much for sharing your modifications!
The whole family loved it, I had to add a little more soy sauce. I really appreciated the fact that you gave substitute options for the items that I never have in the fridge (I.e. Fish sauce).
I made this last night for dinner and it was sooooo good! I only had chicken thighs, and had to sub beef broth. Couldn’t use fish sauce because of an allergy. So we doubled the soy like you said, and that was the best Pad Thai I have ever had! Thank you so much for this recipe!
Hey Ashley,
I’m so excited to hear that it turned out well for you and thank you for sharing your substitutions! Always helpful! 🙂
Hands down this is a great recipe. I used left over pork tenderloin and smart pasta noodles and it was fantastic..
So happy to hear it was a hit for you. Thanks for checking in with a report! 🙂
My kids LOVE pad thai! But it is so expensive for us as a family to go out. A family of 5 would easily pay $60+ for pad thai…EXPENSIVE! So the kids are excited about making it at home! I will let you know how it turns out. They are excited about shopping for the ingredients. All girls…11, 13 and 15. The husband likes Pad Thai also!
So happy to hear this Jill! Please report back on how your family likes the recipe!
Made this last night! So good! The sauce taste is spot on! Only changes I made was no shrimp and we didn’t have any bean sprouts ?. I also tripled the recipe as I was making it for our family and had a 14oz box of the rice noodles. It was perfect!
Hey Kelly – Thanks for trying my recipe and for your feedback/modifications!
Loved this recipe!! I had everything on hand since I love making asian dishes. Sooo good and I had always struggled to find a good pad thai recipe.. Delicious!!!
Made this recipe last night, it was amazing!!!
I doubled the recipe and it was a good call. Such a great thing to have left over. SUPER delicious. Thank you so much for this recipe!!!!!
I absolutely adore pad Thai and I’m looking forward to making this recipe tomorrow. My daughter however is allergic to eggs. Can I omit the eggs without compromising the integrity of the recipe?
YES!
Made this tonight and it was GREAT!! My husband & I loved it. This will definetly be on repeat in our house!! Thank you for the recipe!
Tried this recipe tonight. It was delicious! The peanut sauce is the best!
YUMMM this made a lot more than I needed, because I don’t like my noodles too saucy, but holy cow it’s delicious and freezes like a dream. 10/10 will make again
Great to hear this RE: the freezing! Thanks for trying it and glad you enjoyed the recipe!
This was SO YUMMY! My entire family loved it! Definitely going on the “regular” rotation. Thank you!!!! 😉
Awesome to hear that it was a hit for the whole family!
My husband and I were trying to think of a way to use some leftover noodles for lunch today and he mentioned Pad Thai. I did some googling and found this recipe and actually had all of the ingredients on hand for the sauce! It was absolutely delicious! I added my own veggies, but I will absolutely be making this again, and you have a new reader.
This turned out so perfect! I made it twice this week haha. I don’t do shrimp so I doubled the chicken. It’s so good and easy to make! Also I wanted to say how helpful your substitutions are. This recipe was so easy to follow and omg I could eat it every day!!
I just made a double batch of the sauce, and I keep it in the fridge in a quart jar ready to go. On a busy night, I can toss in some frozen stirfry veggies along with this sauce and the rice noodles, and I have vegetarian pad thai in no time. This sauce is really tasty, and has become my go to pad thai suace! I add a big spoonful of chili sauce for an extra kick, since we like spicy.
We thought this recipe was very good and easy to make. We prefer to have our dish a bit saucier and hotter so we doubled the peanut sauce recipe, added some thinly sliced red pepper, definitely 1 tablespoon of the sriracha sauce and finely chopped 2 birds eye chilies to the stir fry.
The BEST homemade pad Thai recipe I’ve made. Little to much lime for my taste, but I don’t think I’d change it at all next time. Soooo good! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you for trying it! Glad you enjoyed!
Dude, you weren’t kidding about the lime taking it to a new level!!! It really brings out the flavors, soooo good. Love the bean sprout ideas, helps bulk it out too. Zoodles (zucchini noodles) are good but best when used with PB2 because zoodles can get watery and dilute the sauce.
This was absolutely fantastic! I doubled the recipe thinking that it didn’t look like enough for my family if 4, and I’m glad I did!! Everyone loved it. Thank you for a great version of a favorite!
Always a good idea to make extras of this recipe, especially if you’re feeding four! Glad to hear this turned out well for you.
Thanks for sharing. I really appreciate the alternative ingredients (I don’t like fish sauce) so the sauce still has the right consistency!
You’re so welcome!
This is the best Pad Thai. There are so many layers of flavour and there is a pleasant mild spicy and nutty after taste. I will make this over and over again.
Thank you for this recipe! After years of searching for the perfect Pad-Thai-meets-Peanut-Sauce recipe, THIS IS IT! It’s a huge hit with my family and I’m adding this one to our “favorite family recipes” binder so we never lose it.
Wonderful! So easy to make and yet top restaurant quality
I made this for dinner today and it was super super yummy. Big hit with the family will definitely be making it again. The sauce was so good. I made a vegetarian version with broccoli, carrots, spring onions and tofu.
Love how you incorporated other options for fish sauce and vinegar! Definitely trying this tonight. Thanks!
So good!! So easy to make.
this is the BOMB. I make it vegan, but the sauce is super on point. thanks
Any nutritional info???
Made this tonight and it was fabulous (sauce to die for, so had to work fast after I made it in case it never reached the pan). I didn’t have chicken, so added a full pound of shrimp, and since I felt like a bit more roughage, added a bit of red pepper and a handful of shredded cabbage along with the sprouts. Very yum; it will be a regular around here:)
Just made this tonight and it was awesome!!! My boyfriend has been begging me to make a pad Thai for a long time and I’ve never found a recipe as easy and yummy as this one!!! I used crunchy skippy peanut butter because that’s all we have and added bok choy because that is my favorite green in Asian food. I love ginger so next time i will add a little extra but other than that it was amazing! Thanks for the recipe!!!
YAY! So glad to hear this. And I love ginger too so I think adding more sounds great!
Hey. Loved the result of this recipie. I’m sure it would be easy to figure out, but this is GF, right?
Cheers.
Will make next week with zucchini noodles for my daily lunches… how long Will the sauce last in the fridge?
I made this the other night for dinner. I love it! It was even better the next day for lunch and my hubby who doesn’t typically love asian food said he wouldn’t mind having it again. Thank you for sharing!
Excellent! Great flavor, I used 2 tsp of sriracha and it was a perfect amount of hot for my family. Will definitely make this again!
I finally made this, this evening. DELICIOUS- even my teenage boys loved it and it’s sometimes a challenge for everyone to like the same meal. Will definitely add this to the dinner rotation!!
I used Miracle Noodles and Splendia brown sugar to make it low carb and it was fabulous
I love this recipie and so does the family! It makes a huge portion so enough for lunch the next day too and easy! Easy and delicious, not much more you can ask for. Thank you!
Made this tonight with shrimp & chicken, no substitutions on any ingredients… DELICIOUS!!! I’m sad there are no leftovers, my family loved it!
Great to hear that it was a hit for the whole family!
I’m so happy I doubled the sauce recipe! This was easy and delicious!!! New favourite. I added some shredded carrot but otherwise followed the recipe!
Thanks so much for sharing!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was yummy!!! We had to substitute a few items and I think I maybe went a little overkill on the peanut butter! I put in shrimp and I also put in less brown sugar since I wasn’t using natural peanut butter.
Next time I want to add a little more soy sauce and vinegar and a little less peanut butter, but other than that… LOVED it! My 3 year old even ate it! Thank you!!
Made this tonight!
Used shrimp only and green onions instead of cilantro. I didn’t have peanuts so I used cashews.
My husband was raving about it!
Big hit. Thanks!
This was SO good!!! My grocery didn’t have sprouts so I used purple cabbage. Also did half rice noodles and half spaghetti squash. Yummm
So glad this turned out well for you and thank you for sharing your substitutions! So helpful! I will have to try it with the spaghetti squash!
I made this tonight for dinner, Absolutely delicious. I can’t tell you how many Pad Thai recipes I have tried and wasn’t pleased with any of them. This is a keeper.
I just made your Sauce recipe for my spaghetti squash. IT IS DELICIOUS! Thank you 🙂
Yay! So happy to hear that it was a winner for you!
Made this for dinner tonight! It was super delicious, even my 3 year old ate it!
Thanks for sharing!
This is a really great recipe, even for beginners. I really appreciate your suggestions for substitutions, so helpful when you want to make it TODAY! Thank you for sharing this -made it and it was fab ?
Fantastic recipe and easy to make. I’m watching my carbs and fat so I used PB2 in place of peanut butter which obviously made my sauce thinner and Shirataki noodles in place of noodles. I also added some carrots and peppers on increase the veggies. I loved it will be making this regularly, thank you!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and substitutions! Always helpful!
I love this pad thai! I lived in Thailand for a year and this is super close to real street food. I make this like twice month now, so good and so easy! Thanks for the recipe!
Awesome Sarah! I’m so happy to hear that you like the recipe. And very cool that you lived in Thailand and think my recipe is in any way similar to the street food you had.
I substituted Zoodles (zucchini noodles) instead of Rice Noodles and made it into a casserole. YUM!
Thanks for sharing your substitution! Glad it turned out well for you!
Soo yummy and very easy to make! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
I’ve been making and loving this recipe for years… Was just never in the habit of posting comments. I made it again tonight and need to exclaim to the world how delicious this is.
I’m so happy to hear this Lindsay! 🙂
Is there a way to modify this to make it in the slow cooker?
I have a can of beef broth open, could I use that or should I stick with chicken or vegetable broth due to the ‘chicken’ ingredients?
I think you could try it!
I liked the sauce! ?
I have made this recipe a few times now. Delicious!!!
This recipe is too too good. The best pad thai I have had hands down
I figured I should write a review for this recipe since I’ve been making it regularly since it came out. So a total of 9.5 years.
Love it 10/10
Thank you 😄
Ahh thank you Courtney! I need to add it to my dinner rotation soon. It’s been a minute!
Just made this. It’s pretty darn good! Full flavor and just delicious! Thank you!
Just wanted to let you know that I found this years ago and I make it ALL THE TIME! Easy and delicious 🤤