Recipe: Quick & Easy Pad Thai

It seems like every restaurant has their own version of Pad Thai. And I love just about all of them. I’m a sucker for Thai food, Pad Thai, and most Asian noodle dishes. Yum! I happened to maybe probably, steal some Pad Thai sauce from my parents’ house, so I thought it was time to give it a whirl. I love it when one of my favorite foods can be made at home. It’s even better when it’s a quick meal!

To make this a super easy recipe, pick up some premade sauce. Thai Kitchen makes a good one, and so does Annie Chun. If you want to get fancy, you can make your own sauce ahead of time. I keep mine in a squeeze bottle in the fridge because I’m super fancy. Here’s a quick recipe for the sauce if you’re up to the challenge because it’s all of 4 ingredients…

Pad Thai Sauce Ingredients from Food Network:
3 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoon water
3 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
3 teaspoon Asian chili paste

Whisk the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
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In true Heather-fashion, I used mostly what I had on hand, so it wasn’t necessarily authentic, per se… I might have to pick up the usual ingredients on our next grocery shopping trip to try the recipe again. I sliced a red bell pepper, zucchini, and onion to go in here. To be more authentic, use green onions, bean sprouts, and cilantro.

Quick & Easy Chicken Pad Thai
Servings: 4
Time: 20 minutes or less!

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, sliced
8 oz. pad Thai or rice noodles
4-6 tablespoons pad Thai sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:
Cook noodles according to package directions.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Put in the chicken, cook for 1 minute. Put in the onions and red bell peppers, cook for 2 minutes. Move chicken and veggies to the outer rim of the pan, put in egg. Stir and cook for 1 minute. Put in cooked noodles and 4 tablespoons of sauce, carefully toss thoroughly, so everything gets a nice coat of sauce. You can add more sauce, to taste.
And that is it!

A whole 5-7 minutes of cooking time, depending on how thick (or thinly) sliced your chicken and veggies are, plus a few minutes of prep time to chop, and you’ve got a tasty home cooked meal in under 20 minutes!

Now that I’ve got the quick & easy version down, I’ll have to work on adding different things to spice it up. Hubby and I added a little chili garlic sauce to ours for a little spicy. I made some edamame, too, knowing that Will would gobble those up. I used them as leverage to get him to try the noodles. He slurped up noodles, ate some chicken, and ate more than his fair share of edamame. I’ll add that as a win in the ever-changing Will foods. 3 year olds… sometimes you just can’t win.

Next time, I’ll have to experiment with a little ginger and garlic for some added flavor, and definitely pick up some cilantro. Oh, and a little lime juice.

What’s your favorite Asian dish? Do you have a favorite meal you loved eating out but found you could make it at home, too? I love when that happens!