Chicken and Shrimp Pad Thai

Pad thai is one of those dishes I never thought I would attempt at home. The first time I had pad thai was during my first week of college and Thai food was completely foreign to me. A friend suggested the pad thai, telling me that it was a dish that most people liked. Since then, it has always been one of my favorite dishes to order from a Thai restaurant. There was something about the flavors – the balance of sweet, sour, salty – that I couldn’t get of. I’ve also had some really bad pad thai over the years – drowning in a cloyingly sweet sauce, or with mushy, overcooked noodles.

Once I did some research, pad thai wasn’t as intimidating to me anymore. Pad thai gets its unique flavors from tamarind, fish sauce, and palm sugar. I couldn’t find tamarind paste at the Asian market, so I made my own from fresh tamarind, which comes in a box like this. After making the paste, I added fish sauce and palm sugar to it. As for ingredients, I kept things pretty simple. I used flat rice noodles, chicken thighs, shrimp, bean sprouts, green onion, eggs, and ground peanuts. It sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? It really was much simpler than I thought it would be. Now that I’ve made it myself at home, I doubt I’ll order it as often (if at all) at a restaurant.

A lot of restaurants serve the bean sprouts raw on top of the pad thai, but I prefer my bean sprouts cooked, so I stir fried them with the noodles before serving. I’m not sure how the bean sprouts are traditionally served, but this is just how I preferred them.

When I made the sauce, I pretty much just winged it and kept tasting it, adjusting as I went along. I ended up making more tamarind paste to add as I feel my first attempt wasn’t quite sour enough. As with most of my recipes, these are all approximations, but definitely taste and adapt to your own preferences.

Pad Thai serves 4

• 12 oz. flat rice noodles
• 5 fresh tamarind pods or about 1/2 cup jarred tamarind paste
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 1/2 cup palm sugar or 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 T canola oil
• Thai chili powder to taste (see here for a picture) or substitute with cayenne or hot pepper powder
• 3 eggs, beaten lightly
• 1.5 cup bean sprouts
• 1/2 cup green onions, cut in 2-inch lengths
• proteins: whatever you’d like – this time, I used 1/2 cup diced chicken thighs and 1/2 cup medium shrimp. I think I would also like this with just sliced, firm pressed tofu.
• 3 T coarsely chopped peanuts (I pulsed mine in the food processor – if you do this, be careful not to let it go too long, as you’ll turn it into peanut butter)

1. Put your rice noodles in a large bowl and cover with warm water. Soak for 25-30 minutes and then drain in a colander.
2. While the noodles are soaking, prep your other ingredients. If you don’t have jarred tamarind paste, make it out of the tamarind pods by taking the fruit out of the shell and covering the fruit with about 1 cup of boiling water. When the water has cooled enough for you to handle it comfortably, knead the tamarind with your fingers, until you feel the pulp loosen from the seeds and powders. Press the mixture through a sieve, catching the water and pulp, leaving behind the tough fibers and seeds.
3. Make the sauce. To the tamarind paste, add the fish sauce, palm sugar, and chili powder. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Taste and adjust to your own preferences.
4. Heat 1 T oil in the wok over high heat. When hot, add the eggs and swirl the wok to distribute the eggs. When the eggs have set, take them out of the wok and put them aside.
5. Add the other T oil and stirfry the chicken until it is cooked through. Add the green onions and bean sprouts, and stirfry for another minute. Add the drained noodles and stirfry for 1-2 minutes, until all the ingredients are mixed together. Add the shrimp and stirfry for 2 minutes, until almost cooked through. Add the cooked eggs and the sauce. Lower the heat to medium. As the sauce heats and comes to a boil, the noodles will being to absorb the sauce. This is not a saucy dish – after a few minutes, there should be very little liquid left in the wok.
6. Move the pad thai to your serving plate and top with the chopped peanuts.