When my Mom came back from Thailand in the year 2000, she brought back a love of Thai food that she infectiously shared with her children. We began making different Thai dishes and seeking out Thai restaurants. When I got married, I brought with me this love and my husband, Marius, wholeheartedly shared it. Phad thai is a regular dish in our home, one which we always double because the leftovers are one of the best parts! I'll make a bit batch at the beginning of the week and Marius brings this in his lunch all week and eats it cold, an excellent mix up from sandwiches.
A roadblock in making Thai food is there is often ingredients hard to find in our small town grocery store. This recipe has only one "odd" ingredient, fish sauce, although I think its one you should stock anyways. You could make it gluten free by making sure your soy sauce and other ingredients are gluten free (ALWAYSSS check every label when cooking for someone with Celiac, its not a joke!) Its already dairy free, you could make it meat free by leaving out the chicken and using more eggs, or swap for prawns/shrimp. Heck I bet pork would be good here too!
I've got picky kids, they turn their nose up at every italian pasta dish there is. One kid wont touch eggs with a 10 foot pole. They dont like their food "mixed" together. And yet? They LOVE phad thai. If you realllly needed to, you could leave everything but the noodles, chicken, eggs and sauce on the side and everyone make up their bowls from there.
Real Food, Kid Friendly, Chicken Phad Thai
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken, diced small
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce I use naturally brewed shoyu
- 3 eggs, scrambled until firm and chopped up small
Sauce
- ½ cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
- ¼ cup sugar sub 2 tablespoon honey
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
Toppings
- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped up
- 1 bundle green onions, chopped up
- ½ cup peanuts
- 3 cups shredded carrots, divided
- 2-3 limes, sliced into wedges
- bean or pea sprouts optional (in winter here we dont even bother, theyre too sad)
Main Dish
- 1 lb wide rice noodles, cooked al dente according to package directions
- 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
- 1 tablespoon grated/minced fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons grated/minced fresh garlic
Instructions
- Mix together chopped chicken and 3 tablespoon soy sauce to marinate and set aside.
- Mix up the sauce ingredients and set aside.
- Cook scrambled eggs and set aside.
- Prep toppings and set aside.
- Get water going for noodles (and cook when water boils, then set aside. Its okay if they stick together, this wont matter in the end), and start the assembly at the same time.
- Heat up a large pan on medium high heat, add the sunflower oil, garlic and ginger. Stir around for a minute or less while it becomes fragrant but doesnt brown.
- Add the chicken, cook until well done.
- Add the cooked noodles and half the sauce to the chicken, get it stirring around until noodles separate from a clump, then add the egg, rest of the sauce, 2 cups carrots, half the cilantro and half the green onions. Stir around well to combine, cook for a couple minutes, stirring the whole time, until there is no liquid in the bottom of the pan and the flavours are well combined.
- Set out bowls of lime wedges, cilantro, green onions, peanuts, sprouts and carrots alongside the finished pan of phad thai and let people make up their own plates with toppings of choice.
Emily Adema
My whole family (including kids) loved this!
Caitlin Gray
My family loved this dinner! Can’t wait to make it again soon.
Deena Beaudoin
Delicious home made dish. Husband loves is and asks for it on a regular basis
Heather
Love this so much! I’ve made as is and tweaked the protein and veggies and it turned out great every time! And such simple ingredients that I always have on hand. A really winner ??
HealthyLivingwithChristene
This recipe was easy but I think I bought the wrong sauce because it was very vinegary. Going to try to make it again.
Gratsia
Delicious!!!!
Grace
An absolute family fave and it's enough to have leftovers
Kate
We call this pad Thai, not Phad, but I do love this recipe. Always double the veg and sauce.
Laura Recker
I liked this as-is, but the rest of the family may prefer with less ACV. Going to try again and cut it back! Appreciate a non-intimidating recipe to make it at home vs. takeout since we live so far from Thai restaurants now!
erin
I made this this week for my family, it was a huge success. followed the recipe (except added more chicken) and everyone loved it. Fed our family- two adults, two teens and four kids- with about one serving leftover.
Danika Whittaker
Our family loves this recipe! We tweak it just a bit to fit our tastes, less apple cider vinegar and fish sauce sub more soy sauce. This recipe is simple and easy to adjust to your families liking and use what you have on hand.
Abby
This is my new favorite comfort food - and it's one of those meals that the leftovers are even better than the first serving! I love eating it warm, freshly made...and I love eating it cold the next day. Don't skimp, the fresh ginger and fish sauce are worth it!!
Benita Hofer
First time I made it nobody ate it! Very disheartening:( Next time I made it I totally omitted the apple cider vinegar and they nearly floored it! And the leftovers are almost better than fresh off the stove ( can I even say that?!)
olgamorderer
This is such a great recipe! I have tried so many diff phad thai recipes before i found this one! Including one I got in Thailand when I did a cooking class there... Kates recipe beats all others - its simple with minimal ingredients and max flavour, easy to adapt and add different veg or protein. It's the best!:) Thank you!
Julie
Loved this. Used 2 lbs chicken and kept everything else the same. Makes a lot. Great leftovers.
Katy Clark
I keep this on our meal plan rotation, with a variety of proteins to keep it fresh! Always a delicious dinner.
Betsy Gorrell
So good! Easy to make, and my more picky eater went back for thirds! Going into the rotation.
Linnea LARSON
I tried this the other day and had delicious leftovers for work the next few days
sonia marchesini
Delicious! I will be making this again
Grace Seeley
A family favorite ?.
Ben
no way the prep time is only 15 minutes
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15 minutes to prep and 30 minutes to cook so I guess it should say 45 minutes from start to eating.
Patti Lyon
Easy and delicious! Added some sriracha and it was so good! Used up ingredients that I had leftover in the fridge. Everyone loved it! Thanks, Kate!
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Gotta love that!
Carrie
This is absolutely delicious. My whole family, even our six kids, look forward to this for dinner! I love having carrots and peanuts on it, and I like to use toasted sesame oil instead of sunflower and rice wine vinegar instead of ACV, but we’ve made it as written too and it’s fantastic!
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Wow, sounds like you really knocked this one out of the park!! Well done.