Chicken Pad Thai {Family Friendly}
Well howdy! {Did I really just say howdy?} How was your weekend, partner? {Oh geeze.}
Over the weekend, I took part in a relay race from Portland to Eugene here in Oregon. Basically, me and 11 other ladies take turns running different legs of the 200 mile course non stop until we finish. I ended up running 19 miles. Today, my legs are refusing to work. My quads feel like they are on fire ALL.THE.TIME and I’ve resorted to waddling. Like a 9-month pregnancy waddle minus the baby. My husband laughs at me. For example:
last night he asked “wanna go on a walk after dinner? Oh wait…you can’t. Never mind…hahahaha”
What a kind soul I married.
Can you guess what I did next? Punch him in the throat. Offered to do ALL the dishes for him for the next week as his Father’s Day gift.
Umm….#worstideaever.
Not just because I hate the dishes but because {1} I’m a food blogger and mess up my kitchen every 2 3/4 hours and {2} I’ll be handicapped with sore muscles for the next few days.
My morphine drip is clearly making me loopy. WHAT WAS I THINKING?
I’m so verklempt.
ANYWAYS, today I’m posting a recipe that gets you in and out of the kitchen in no time and keeps you off your feet. This Pad Thai is a very quick dinner to cook up that uses a bunch of ingredients you probably already have on hand. Traditional Pad Thai dishes typically call for fish sauce and tamarind juice concentrate. Do you have those in your pantry already? Yeah…me either. So, I subbed them out with more common things to make some seriously flavorful noodles. Not traditional but still amazing and fast enough to make this on a weeknight. Promise 
Here’s how to do it:
First up we’ll make the sauce–in a small bowl, combine some soy sauce, sugar, red wine vinegar, hoisin sauce,
grated garlic, worcestershire sauce and red pepper flakes all together. Microwave for 30-ish seconds until the sugar dissolves. Set this aside. Yup, that’s the sauce. Takes about 2 minutes.
Next we’ll cook up some rice noodles. This was half a package of the Thai Kitchen brand. Cook these for 3-5 minutes, then drain and rinse in cold water. They should be slightly underdone because we’ll be cooking them up a little later. Set these aside.
Now, we can get to the main event. Slice up some onion,
and chicken. Cutting chicken that is half frozen makes my life 27 1/2 times easier. Approximately.
Heat up some canola oil in a wok or a big skillet over medium high heat.
Add in that chicken and onions and cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Push these ingredients to one side of the pan and then….
pour in two beaten eggs.
Scramble these babies up and get ready to finish this recipe! Home stretch, my peeps! Yes, this recipe is that fast.
On top of everything, pour on the cooked rice noodles, some julienned carrot, some bean sprouts
and that sauce we made at the beginning.
Toss everything together and cook to heat the veggies through.
Grab some peanuts, green onions and cilantro and go to town!
So so so so so good with peanuts and cilantro, but that’s totally my preference. Make this how you like! Here’s the printable:
{Also, Around the World in 80 Plates is going to THAILAND this week! Be sure to make this for dinner Wednesday evening and tune in at 10/9C on Bravo!}
Chicken Pad Thai
yield: 4 servings
Print This Recipe
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
4 tablespoons sugar
4 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
pinch of red pepper flakes
7 oz. rice noodles
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup sliced yellow onion
2 large eggs
3/4 cup julienned carrot
3/4 cup bean sprouts
cilantro, peanuts, lime wedges and green onion for garnish
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, hoisin, sugar, garlic, vinegar, Worcestershire and red pepper flakes together. Microwave 30 seconds to 1 minute or until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.
Bring large pot of water to boil. Cook rice noodles 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
In a large wok or skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Cook chicken and onions together until browned. Move to one side of the pan. Crack eggs into small bowl and beat with a fork. Pour into the empty side of the pan and stir to scramble. Toss in carrots, bean sprouts, cooked noodles and sauce until all coated. You may add in 1/4-1/2 cup water if you think there isn’t enough sauce. Cook another 2 minutes to heat veggies through. Serve with cilantro, lime wedges, peanuts and green onion.
This looks like a great weekday supper, full of flavour and packed with good things!
Also, look at you run! So impressed with what you’re doing.
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Love this!!! And I’m always in the same boat. Adore pad thai, but anytime I’ve bought the crazy ingredients, I use them like ONCE before they expire. Argh. This sounds great though!
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I can only imagine how sore your legs are right now. I’ve thought of running a Ragnar a few times, but still have to work up my mental fortitude. This Pad Thai looks fantastic…I know my family would love it.
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Love this! My hubby isn’t a big Thai fan, but I’m sure I could get him to eat this!
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Pad Thai is my fave! So comforting no matter when it’s served.
And wow, way to kick running butt! See how your husband likes it when you won’t waddle up to make him some more cookies.
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Hood to Coast?
Also, looks delicious!!
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Lauren — June 18th, 2012 @ 7:24 am
No, it was called the Epic relay. Much smaller than Hood to Coast.
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Pad Thai is my favorite. I could eat this everyday! This looks great!
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F-A-V-E to the max.
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This sounds like the perfect dinner for tonight! We have some leftover rotisserie chicken which I can use instead… just to make sure the crowd here will eat it. Nothing like a quick and easy meal on a seriously HOT day!! Thanks! and we have sugar snap peas too… now I’m hungry!
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Never volunteer for anything that has to do with dishes. Everrrrrrrrrrr.
Proud of your race, though
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Your version looks DELISH!
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I cook with these flavors all the time, it seems like I am always buying more soy sauce, more hoisin, etc. And we love pad thai! Sounds great.
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I made this for dinner tonight and my family LOVED it!! Which is no small feat especially since we have 3 teenage boys who can only seem to agree on pizza, waffles, and rotisserie chicken these days. We did not have any bean sprouts but I did have sugar snap peas which I julienned instead. Yep this is a definite keeper!! (oh we used leftover rotisserie chicken which made it a super quick meal!!)
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oh man, your legs do not sound fun right now..but this pad thai sounds like they need to be somewhere fun..like my bellayyy!
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Pad Thai is one of my favourite dishes, although I’ve never had the guts to try making it myself! This looks like an easy enough recipe for me to attempt
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I love simple recipes like this one for weeknight meals! And, holy moly, 19 miles!? I’m impressed that this meal was homemade and not take-out after that much running…let alone that you did the dishes! You’re one strong lady!
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I have no idea how you could run 19 miles. I’m completely happy with 3. That is amazing! So, my boys LOVE pad thai. We have lots of Vietnamese food around us here so they’ve grown up eating it with friends. They’d be pretty pleased if I sprung this on them.
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I love you and your everyday ingredients. Pinned! (Also, I am so impressed by your running prowess).
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This is one of my favorite dishes!! I will have to try your version… I haven’t got it quite right yet with other recipes I’ve tried.
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Phew 19 miles! Congrats! That’s a whole lot of running. I’m always on the lookout for a simplified pad thai recipe (sans the fish sauce and other uncommon ingredients). I’ll have to give this one a try next time I’m craving it!
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Ok, Lauren. This is too awesome. We ate Thai food the night before our race
(clearly we didn’t know what we were doing) 6 of us Montana mamas just had our first Epic Relay on an ultra team this weekend in Oregon. In Montana We Run…From Grizzlies, was our team. We survived and are in the books as the first all female ultra epic to complete that bad boy. I wonder if we saw your team along the way? Congrats on your race! Oh Oregon…you are Epic. wow.
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Congratulations on running the race!! That’s so cool. Not so cool, is how sore you are .. this is the perfect opportunity for your hubby to help out more than he already does
Great dinner idea too!!
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Was it the Ragnar!! My husband and I are running it early this Fall….I can’t wait, it was my “bucket list” item for this year.
Yummy dinner, we”ll be eating this likely this week:)
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Yes please! Pretty sure this needs to be my lunch.
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oh wow, this sounds awesome! i love pad thai but have never thought about trying it at home. question – i wonder if you could substitute ground chicken instead of bite-size chicken breast pieces? i have some in the freezer that i’d love to use up! =)
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oh wow, this sounds awesome! i love pad thai but have never thought about trying it at home. question – i wonder how it would be if i substituted ground chicken instead of bite-size chicken breast pieces? i have some in the freezer that i’d love to use up! =)
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I am loving Around The World in 80 Plates – thanks for mentioning it awhile back!
This Pad Thai looks amazing! It is my go to Thai food. Last time I made it at home, it was not good. I will try this recipe for sure!
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Hi Lauren! Whenever I see chicken pad thai on the menu at a restaurant, I must order it! I love all of the different textures and flavors. The eggs, the peanuts, chicken, and rice noodles… it is all so delicious together. I’ve never made my own in fear that it would be too complicated but it’s not! Thanks for the recipe.
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This pad thai looks so scrumptious, Lauren! Love that you made it so simple and full of flavor. Thanks for sharing!
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Just thought you would like to know this reheats wonderfully as well! I found a tiny bit hid in the back of the refrigerator today and reheated it… oh my it made my mouth dance with joy! had some sugar snap peas and a bit of watermelon w/ chile & lime to finish it off!! MMMmmmm I love tasty healthy food!
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bookmarking this one! My kids love Pad Thai
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Hi, there! I just printed out a few of your recipes to try. I have made the garlic cheese breadsticks lots of times, and guess what-my Kitchenaid broke! Ha. During the 6 minute kneading it just died. So sad. I thought those things were indestructible. I had to knead it by hand-oh the humanity!
Anyways, thanks for all the great recipe ideas! They all look so good!
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Made this last night. Simple. Delicious. Looked as beautiful as your photos.
Thanks for sharing the recipe!!!!
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WOW! Sometimes hubbies think they are funny but they AIN’T! Silly bugger! Thank you for hobbling around and posting this, YUM!
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Hi Lauren! I just made this for my family this evening and it was great! I have to say, there is alot of prep, but it was so worth it! I used roasted cashews (raw ones that roasted myself!) because I am allergic to peanuts. I have so been loving me some Asian food lately!!!!!!! This recipe is totally a keeper!
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