Quick and easy Prawn Pad Thai recipe made with king prawns, rice noodles, and delicious 3-ingredient stir fry sauce. Made with simple cupboard-friendly ingredients and is so delicious. Create your own restaurant-quality pad Thai with prawns at home in 20 minutes!
Stir-fried Thai noodle dishes are salty, sweet, savoury, and packed with umami flavour. Pad See Ew ( Thai Stir Fried Rice Noodle ) and Drunken Noodles ( Pad Kee Mao ) are also our go-to favourite Thai rice noodles recipes you might love to try out.
It cost around £15 for 1 portion of king prawn pad Thai in authentic Thai restaurants in the UK. Succulent prawns, noodles, and crisp veggies are wok-fried to perfection. It's quite pricy but I really love it and couldn't have enough of it. So we cook it at home often and that can serve the whole family with a minimum budget! If you use the right ingredients and know the simple techniques you will be a pad Thai master in no time!
Why you would love this recipe
This dish is simple and fast. You can whip up everything from scratch in 20 minutes. Made with minimum ingredients but the taste is not bland. Packed with an authentic Thai flavour. Taste fresher and better than storebought pad Thai kits and readymade sauces.
When we cook it at home, we can adjust the sweetness and saltiness to our liking. You can customize the protein, and vegetables to your preference. We have tried many versions of pad Thai and this simple recipe is our favourite. A money-saving, time-saving foolproof recipe that anyone can make at home.
What is Prawn Pad Thai?
Pad Thai ( ผัดไท ) is a stir-fried Thai flat rice noodle and you can either cook it with prawns or your choice of protein and vegetables. Originated in Thailand and is one of the most popular Thai dishes in the UK, US, Europe and worldwide. You can find it in the menu of every Thai and Oriental Asian restaurant and takeaways.
Ingredients and cooking methods can be varied to the restaurant's own recipe or family recipe but the basic ingredients are rice stick, protein, bean sprouts, garlic chives, and salty, sweet, sour stir fry sauce. Toasted crushed peanuts and roasted chilli flakes are classic toppings that bring more crunchiness and a kick of heat.
What do we need
The necessary ingredients in this recipe are not very hard to find. You can easily buy most of them at your nearby supermarkets or grocery stores, except Thai preserved radish. Following is a quick guide and detailed measurements on the recipe card at the bottom of this page.
- Pad Thai Noodles - You can use flat rice sticks ( rice noodles ) and recommended to use thin rice noodles about 3-5 mm wide.
- Prawns - Add your choice of king prawns, tiger prawns, white prawns, or shrimp. Prawns should be peeled and deveined.
- Tofu - Use firm tofu or fried tofu puff. You don't need to fry the tofu if you are using ready-made fried tofu puff.
- Eggs - A fluffy scrambled egg goes really well with Pad Thai.
- Vegetables - You will need shallots, garlic, bean sprouts, garlic chives or spring onions.
- Thai preserved radish - it is a salted preserved radish and is similar to Chinese preserved turnip. It has a unique salty-sweet taste and adds great flavour to the dish. If you cannot find preserved radish you can add Japanese pickled daikon or you can omit it.
3 Ingredients Pad Thai Sauce
Pad Thai sauce is the key ingredient to make this dish very unique and aromatic. You need only 3 Asian basic ingredients: palm sugar, tamarind, and fish sauce. Add a bit of water to dilute the sauce.
Palm sugar - it has a caramel-like sweetness and is a staple ingredient for authentic Thai cooking recipes. Instead of palm sugar, you can add brown sugar or regular white sugar.
Fish sauce ( Nam Pla ) - is made from salted fermented fish and it has an umami, salty, rich flavour. It doesn't smell fishy because you are cooking together with other ingredients. You can add regular all-purpose soy sauce if you can't eat fish sauce.
Tamarind - Use cooking tamarind sauce which doesn't contain any sugar or added flavour. I used Madam Pum cooking tamarind sauce in this recipe which has a brown thick consistency and tastes just like made from tamarind pulp.
How to make it from the tamarind block? You can also make tamarind paste from the pulp. Soak the tamarind pulp in the hot water for 30 minutes, then massage and squeeze with your hands. Strain it with a strainer and ready to use!
If you are using thick dark sticky tamarind concentrate you might want to reduce the amount to half.
How to make it
- First, prepare the rice noodles according to the packet instructions. ( I usually soak my Pad Thai noodles in warm water for 10-15 minutes, then rinse with cold water. )
- Gather and prepare the prawns, tofu, and vegetables and set them aside.
- To make pad Thai sauce, add palm sugar and water to a heat-proof bowl and melt it in the microwave. Then add the tamarind and fish sauce to the bowl and mix everything well.
- Heat the wok/pan over medium-high heat, drizzle oil, and stir-fry the tofu and prawns for 2-3 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from pan and set them aside.
- Add more oil to the wok, saute onions and garlic for a few seconds until fragrant and follow by the preserved radish.
- Place the noodles in the pan and pour the sauce over it. Bring the heat to high and toss it well for a few seconds.
- Now add the cooked prawns and tofu back into the pan and push everything to one side of the pan. Drizzle more oil, add eggs and let them set for a few seconds then combine well with the noodles.
- Finish with bean sprouts and spring onions. Make a final quick toss and transfer to a serving plate. Serve with toasted crushed peanuts, and roasted chilli flakes.
Most asked questions
This dish is delicious on its own with crunchy peanuts and roasted chilli toppings. You can also pair it with Tom Yum Soup, Thai Spring Rolls, or Thai Basil Fried Rice and make it a wholesome banquet dinner.
It tastes best when freshly cooked but if you have any leftovers you can heat it up in the microwave or over the stovetop. Add a splash of water if the noodles are dry. Freshen up the noodles with freshly chopped spring onions or coriander.
Both recipes are made with flat rice noodles and vegetables with savoury stir-fry sauce. The main difference is the types of noodles and stir fry sauce. Pad Thai noodles are thinner and the sauce is sweet, sour, and salty in flavour. While pad see ew noodles are wider and the sauce is more to savoury.
This recipe is 512 kcal per serving and is calculated approximately and it can be varied by the number of different ingredients you use.
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Pad Thai with Prawns
Equipment
- Large wok or pan
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 120 g Dry rice noodles/stick (5 mm) Or 2 servings, About 4.2oz, ( see details in note )
- 250 g Prawn Peeled and deveined king prawns, tiger prawns, or shrimp ( About 8.8oz )
- 100 g Firm Tofu Cut into small cubes or fried tofu puff
- 3-4 cloves Garlic Finely chopped
- 1 Shallot Or small onion, finely chopped
- 3 tbsp Thai preserved radish Or radish pickle ( see details in note ), finely chopped
- 100 g Bean Sprouts
- 3-4 Spring onions Or garlic chives, cut into 2" pieces
- 2 Eggs
- 2-3 tbsp Oil Vegetable oil, sunflower, peanut, canola, etc
Pad Thai Sauce
- 4 tbsp Palm sugar Or Brown sugar
- 3 tbsp Tamarind Cooking tamarind sauce or paste
- 2 tbsp Fish Sauce ( see details in note )
- 2 tbsp Water
To Serve
- Toasted crushed peanuts
- Roasted chilli flakes
- Fresh Lime wedges
Instructions
- First, prepare the rice noodles according to the packet instructions. Gather and prepare the prawns, tofu, and vegetables and set them aside.
- Add palm sugar and water to a heat-proof bowl and melt it in the microwave for 1 minute. Then add the tamarind and fish sauce to the bowl and combine everything well.
- Heat the wok/pan over medium-high heat, drizzle oil, and stir-fry the tofu and prawns for 2-3 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from pan and set them aside. Keep it warm.
- Drizzle more oil into the wok, stir fry onions and garlic for a few seconds until fragrant. Next, add the preserved radish.
- Place the noodles in the pan and pour the sauce over it. Bring the heat to high and toss it well for a few seconds.
- Now add the cooked prawns and tofu back into the pan and push everything to one side of the pan. Drizzle more oil, add eggs and let them set for a few seconds then combine well with the noodles.
- Finish with bean sprouts and spring onions. Make a final quick toss and transfer to a serving plate. Serve with toasted crushed peanuts, roasted chilli flakes, and lime wedges.
Video
Notes
- Prawns - add your choice of peeled and deveined prawns or shrimp. You can also add chicken, beef, or a choice of minced meat, as a prawn substitute.
- Rice Stick - Use thin flat rice noodles about 3-5 mm in width. Noodle preparation time can be varied according to the brands. You can either soak in the warm water for 15-20 minutes or soak in the cold water for 45-50 minutes. If you are boiling or soaking in warm water, rinse it in cold water to prevent it from being overcooked. Rice noodles should be a bit undercooked before adding them to the stir fry because you are cooking it again with the sauce.
- Preserved Thai radish - is a salted pickled turnip/radish. It comes in strips or minced. Available in Asian grocery stores or Amazon online. Chinese preserved radish and Japanese-preserved daikon are the nearest substitutes if you cannot find Thai preserved radish. You might want to make a taste test before adding to the stir fry. If the radish is too salty, rinse with cold water and squeeze the water out. You can omit it if you cannot get it easily.
- Fish Sauce - Fish sauce is the key ingredient in making prawn pad Thai sauce. It brings umami and a pungent flavour to the dish and highly recommend adding it to this recipe. But if you have a certain shellfish allergy, substitute with light soy sauce or add salt to taste.
- How to achieve restaurant-style charred ( wok hei ) flavour? If you love the wok-fried flavour, use seasoned carbon steel wok and fry with high heat after adding the sauce. Use a large wok that can distribute enough heat to all ingredients. If you are cooking with a small wok, fry each portion in batches.
- Can you reheat it? It tastes best when freshly cooked but if you have any leftovers you can heat it up in the microwave or over the stovetop. Add a splash of water if the noodles are dry. Freshen up the noodles with freshly chopped spring onions or coriander.
Teo aili says
Hi! How do I get assam paste? I only have the dry one where I add in water. Kindly help. Thanks
Khin says
Hi Teo, you can buy tamarind paste at Oriental Chinese, Thai, or Indian grocery stores. If you cannot get tamarind paste, you can use tamarind pulp. Soak the tamarind pulp in hot water for 30 minutes until soft, mix it well with hand then strain it with a mesh strainer.