Best Pad Thai Recipe with Peanut Sauce (2024)

FAQs

Why do people put peanut butter in pad Thai? ›

Recipe Variations:

Peanut Butter: In my recipe, I add a big scoop of peanut butter to the sauce because I think it gives the whole dish an added creaminess and boost of flavor.

Pad Thai is a Thai noodle stir fry with a sweet-savoury-sour sauce scattered with crushed peanuts. It's made with thin, flat rice noodles, and almost always has bean sprouts, garlic chives, scrambled egg, firm tofu and a protein – the most popular being chicken or prawns/shrimp.

If it's only made of those ingredients, what then makes it so unique? A Pad Thai has tamarind, fish sauce, garlic, dried shrimp, palm sugar, and red chili pepper. These simple ingredients make Pad Thai a bowl of five tastes—salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami.

Thai Peanut Sauce is made up of peanut butter, soy sauce, ginger, a sweetener (I used maple syrup), rice wine vinegar, sesame seeds, a spice and water. In some more traditional versions, coconut milk is used instead of water, but I find this combination to be perfect.

While pad thai includes many nutritious ingredients, its sodium content is considerably high. You can reduce its sodium by requesting the eatery go easy on the sauce and salt-contributing condiments. If you make your own, though, you can manage the amount of ingredients and seasonings used.

Pad thai is made with rice noodles, which are stir fried with eggs and chopped firm tofu, flavored with tamarind juice, fish sauce, dried shrimp, garlic, shallots, and sometimes red chili pepper and palm sugar, and served with lime wedges and often crushed roasted peanuts.

However, Americanized versions might swap tamarind for ketchup, making it sweeter and less complex. They may also add proteins like chicken or shrimp, which aren't traditional. The noodles in authentic Pad Thai tend to be softer, whereas Americanized versions often have a firmer texture.

A typical pad thai in Thailand contained only noodles, egg, garlic, bean sprouts, ground peanuts, chives, and a protein – the typical mix ins found in American pad thais such as baby corn, carrots, green beans, squash, and zucchini were nowhere to be found.

The color of the country style Pad Thai was more vibrant, the taste sourer and a little bit spicier than the regular one.

The flavors of this dish are centered around a sweet-savory fusion. Salty, nutty, and with that slightly sweet sauce, it's a treat for tastebuds! Of course, every Pad Thai can be different. Some use fish, some use chicken, and some use tofu.

What are the 5 flavors of pad thai? ›

The name of this establishment refers to the five flavors (ha/ห้า=five, roat/รส=flavors) which are present in a good pad Thai: salty, sweet, sour, spicy, and savory.

And here are the ingredients that you will need to make the delicious pad Thai sauce: Tamarind concentrate: This is the starring ingredient in pad Thai that gives the sauce its signature tangy, sweet, and fruity flavor.

Peanut sauce is the classic dipping sauce for chicken satay (grilled chicken skewers) and makes a delicious dipping sauce for rice paper rolls, shrimp, potstickers, tempura and fresh vegetables including cucumber slices, carrot sticks and red pepper strips.

Simply keep it in a cool, dark place. Generally, an unopened bottle of peanut sauce will last about a year if it's stored correctly. While it's a good idea to keep the “use by” date in mind, it's usually just fine for a few months after that date. Once the bottle is opened, you'll need to keep it in the refrigerator.

Satay sauce is a slightly spicy peanut sauce. While it's popularly associated with Thai cuisine, it's enjoyed throughout Southeast Asia and has Indonesian roots. It's best known as the sauce for satay, a tasty appetizer of marinated meat (often chicken, pork, or beef) grilled on a skewer.

Cook Noodles: Cook the rice noodles according to package directions, drain, and rinse. Make Sauce: Whisk fish sauce, light soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, sriracha, and creamy peanut butter in a small bowl. Set aside. Cook Chicken and Eggs: In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add olive oil and garlic.

99% of satays in Thailand are made from pork, and this easy recipe will get you the real taste of Thai street food in your own home! The peanut sauce is made with freshly ground peanuts, no peanut butter (not a thing in Thailand) and the flavour will blow you away!

Most of the peanuts in America are consumed as peanut butter, a form which is eaten very little by the rest of the world. So when a restaurant makes a peanut sauce using peanut butter, it is really an American sauce and the furthest thing away from Thai or other Asian foods.

It is unknown when peanuts became a part of the Thai food system, but it is believed that foreigners brought peanuts into Thailand about 400 years ago.