This evening I realized I had leftover tofu and leftover chicken tenders uncooked that needed to be used up. I googled chicken and tofu recipes and came instantly upon a load of recipes for pad Thai. How did I not think of that right away?! It’s even on my list of goals for 2013. Many of the recipes called for tamarind paste of which I had none but this one had the word “easy” in the title and didn’t require tamarind paste, saying that it was a more traditional southern Thai version. I also didn’t have the bean sprouts but everything else was in my kitchen and cupboard so I decided to take on this New Year’s goal.

©EverydayCookingAdventures2013

There was quite a bit of prep involved with this recipe so I wouldn’t really call it quick, but once everything was chopped, grated, sliced, and ready to go, the recipe went smoothly. In this recipe you could also add shrimp if you had them so perhaps I’ll try that another time. I realized that this recipe actually doesn’t call for tofu so I had to look at other pad Thai recipes to determine when to add it in. I sliced and dried the tofu on paper towels and then added it at the same time as the chicken since both needed a good amount of time to brown up. The pad Thai came out looking seriously like the restaurant  version of professional pad Thai! However, it was pretty vinegary tasting so I added a little more soy sauce at the very end which helped balance that out. I feel like I needed to tweak the sauce it a little more, by adding some peanut sauce into the dish. Once I did that I really liked it too. We’ll make this again but I may borrow from some other recipes to see how to change the sauce a little. Here’s my pad Thai: #thai

Easy Pad Thai ©EverydayCookingAdventures2013

Pad Thai with Chicken

By Darlene Schmidt

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
SERVES: 2-3 people

Pad Thai Ingredients:

• 9 oz. pad Thai rice noodles
• 1 boneless chicken breast or 1-2 thighs, chopped up into small pieces
• 1.5 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 fresh red or green chilies (to taste), finely sliced
• 1 tsp. grated galangal or ginger
• 4 green onions, sliced (keep white separate from green)
• 1 egg
• 2-3 cups bean sprouts
• 1/3 cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped
• 2-3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• lime wedges for serving

Pad Thai Sauce Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup chicken stock
• 3 Tbsp. rice vinegar or white vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. lime juice
• 3-4 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/8 tsp. white pepper

Preparation:
1. Place chopped chicken in a bowl and toss with soy sauce (1.5 Tbsp). Set aside.
2. Combine ‘Pad Thai Sauce’ ingredients together in a cup, stirring to dissolve sugar. Set aside.
3. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Dunk in rice noodles and switch off heat. Allow noodles to soak approximately 6 minutes OR until soft enough to bend easily, but still firm and ‘undercooked’ by regular standards (this is key to good pad Thai; noodles will finish cooking when you stir-fry them later).  After 6 minutes, drain and rinse noodles briefly with cold water to keep from sticking. Set aside.
4. Heat a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Drizzle in the oil and swirl around, then add the garlic, chili, galangal/ginger, and the white parts of the green onion (reserve green tops for later). Stir-fry 1 minute.
5. Add marinated chicken and stir-fry 4 to 5 minutes. If pan becomes dry, add a tablespoon of the Pad Thai Sauce – just enough to keep ingredients frying nicely.
6. Using your spatula or cooking utensil, push ingredients to the side of the pan (if pan is dry, drizzle in a little oil). Crack egg into center and stir-fry quickly to scramble. Then add noodles, plus 3-4 Tbsp. of the pad Thai sauce. Using two utensils, lift and turn noodles to stir-fry with other ingredients. Continue in this way, adding more sauce every minute or two, until all has been added and the noodles are chewy-delicious and a little bit sticky (8-10 minutes).
7. Take 1 more minute to gently fold in the bean sprouts (they will soften down into the heat of the noodles while remaining crispy). Remove from heat and taste-test, adding more fish sauce until desired taste is achieved (I usually end up adding 1-2 Tbsp).
8. Portion out onto individual plates and add a lime wedge on the side. Top with remaining green onion and a small heap of chopped/ground peanuts.