I have been trying very hard to eat healthier, and it’s paying off. I have lost a lot of weight since I started my journey, and I feel great! A lot of that is thanks to cooking at home a lot more and ditching the takeout. And although I am happy with my homemade food, I do miss a few things like pad Thai. It was always a favorite takeout dish, so I was really excited to find this Chicken Pad Thai recipe on Pinterest. It promises to be better than takeout, and that’s a bold claim. Join me as I give it a try!
Rave reviews have been pouring in for years for this better-than-take-out Chicken Pad Thai. It’s a quick-and-easy family favorite ready in just 30 minutes!
The Ingredients
The list of ingredients for this recipe is on the long-ish side at 17, but I didn’t have any trouble finding what I needed at my regular grocery store. I had a few things on hand like the soy sauce, fish sauce, ketchup, sugar, eggs, and spices.
That left me with a good amount to shop for, but nothing was unusually expensive. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find the flat rice noodles, but the store actually had several brands, types, and sizes available. I found an 8-ounce box for $3.29.
The Process
I’ve never made pad Thai before, and for some reason, I imagined it would be complicated. Oh, but no. This recipe was pleasantly quick and easy to make, and I had it ready in the time listed. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 13 minutes to prep
- 17 minutes to cook
- 30 minutes total
I started things off by prepping, measuring, and heating water for the noodles (I used a 4.5-quart pan). This recipe moves quickly, so it really helped to have everything ready to go.
Next, I started cooking the chicken. Since it needed to be stirred constantly, I really wasn’t able to do much else for about 8 minutes. However, I did have a quick moment to add the rice noodles to the boiling water towards the end. The noodles only take 4 minutes to cook, and I timed it so they would be ready right after the chicken.
Once the noodles were safely draining in a colander, I moved onto frying the eggs. (The next step in the recipe is mixing up the sauce, but I did that with the rest of the prep work.) Things moved quickly from there, and I had my Chicken pad Thai mixed up in just a few more minutes, complete with a garnish of crushed peanuts.
Do I need a wok?
Let’s take a moment to talk about equipment, specifically the pan. This recipe gives the option of using a wok or a large pan, and I seriously considered buying a wok. What stopped me? My cabinets are already stuffed with pots and pans, and I can’t justify buying a pan I would rarely use and have no room to store.
I decided to do a quick search for the best alternative to a wok, and I found a couple. One was a sauté pan because it has high sides. The more popular option was a plain old skillet because it has sloped sides, similar to a wok.
I have both types of pans, but I ended up using my 12-inch non-stick skillet after reading 10 Reasons to Stir Fry with a Frying Pan Instead of a Wok by Maggie Zhu. I did have to be more cautious when I was stir-frying because of the shorter sides, but I think it worked very well. A few bits of food jump did out of the pan when I stirred too hard, but it wasn’t any worse than usual.
