17 Tips You Need To Make Restaurant-Quality Pad Thai At Home

Today, we're diving chopsticks first into Thailand's most recognized dish, pad Thai. The popularity of pad Thai is no coincidence. The dictator who gave pad Thai its name, Luang Phibunsongkhram, initiated a campaign to establish a national dish, attempting to foster a sense of ultra-nationalism. He orchestrated campaigns that provided visas to Thai chefs born abroad and distributed complimentary samples of the flavorful noodle dish with recipe cards to the local residents. 

Ultimately, the advertising campaign succeeded. The world loves the umami-rich, tangy, sweet, and sour sauce that coats chewy noodles, succulent proteins, and crisp vegetables. Not forgetting the obligatory sprinkle of peanuts and beansprouts. Even though pad Thai is a quick dish — ready in less than 20 minutes — mastering the techniques and finding the ultimate depth of flavor at home is no easy task.

That's why we've reached out to a special source offering the best advice on preparing authentic restaurant-quality pad Thai in your kitchen: Mike Morales, the Executive Chef of Sunda New Asian. The acclaimed restaurant, known for its selection of pan-Asian dishes, including sushi, adobo, poke bowls, dim sum, and pad Thai, has three locations in Chicago, Nashville, and Tampa. If you can't make it to a Sunda, don't worry — these tips are everything you need to make restaurant-quality pad Thai at home.

Few things are as disappointing as a plate of pad Thai that's turned mushy or gummy. The texture of your noodles can make or break the dish, and aside from selecting the correct variety, the second most crucial step to avoid disaster lies in how you cook your noodles. Unlike other noodles, the rice noodles used for pad Thai don't require cooking in the traditional sense. Pre-boiling or blanching the rice noodles causes excess starch to leech from the ribbons, leading to a gloopy dish — nobody wants that.

You need to soak the rice sticks in room-temperature water. Although the time varies depending on the brand and width of the noodles, a general rule of thumb is around 30 minutes, with the noodles visibly turning white, becoming pliable, and yet retaining a bite. You'll finish the cooking process in the wok, yielding a perfect al-dente, slightly chewy texture.

If you want your loved ones to question whether you've snuck out to the local restaurant when they taste your pad Thai, put down the readymade sauce mixes and head to your local specialty store to stock up on authentic essentials. 

For example, fish sauce — known in Thailand as nam pla — adds an indescribable sweet, briny, salty flavor. There are many types of fish sauce, and the Thai variety tends to be the saltiest. Premium quality fish sauce should have a reddish tint, with a price to reflect the quality. Aside from fish sauce, another seafood condiment is crucial to that authentic taste: ground-dried shrimp. This addition intends to enhance the depth and complexity of the flavor. As opposed to the subtle sweetness of fresh shrimp, dried shrimp contribute a robust umami flavor. Vegetarians can replace the glutamate with diced shiitake mushrooms. Finally, it's worth seeking out palm sugar, a healthier alternative to white granulated sugar, with a distinctive caramel-like, smoky complexity that helps develop pad Thai's signature sweet edge.

Head into a Thai restaurant and find pad Thai on the menu, and you'll see two proteins that dominate the pairing options: shrimp and chicken. Of the two, you'll find shrimp pad Thai is the default option sold by Thai eateries and street vendors. Uniquely, shrimp doesn't have the same pungent fishy taste as most other seafood, instead inclining towards a mildly buttery, sweet, and salty flavor. Chicken, on the other hand, is a fantastic crowd-pleasing option. Most recipes use boneless chicken breast or thigh. You may feel tempted to cut it into chunks; we recommend finely slicing it for the best texture.

Other protein possibilities include pork and beef, which are less common but equally delicious. Extra-firm tofu is traditionally included in all varieties of pad Thai but also makes for a protein-packed solution for vegans and vegetarians; just be mindful of the fact you'll have to omit the fish sauce and switch out dried shrimp with shiitake mushrooms for plant-based tofu pad Thai.

Pad Thai typically features shrimp, but if you wish to substitute it with other proteins, prepare to invest some additional effort to infuse jaw-dropping flavor into your meal. While shrimp doesn't require marination, other proteins — such as chicken, pork, beef, and tofu — massively benefit from the flavor and texture changes.

Your marinade can be as simple as equal amounts of soy sauce, cornstarch, and water. This straightforward combination of ingredients will tenderize the protein, coating it in extra layers of flavor. The umami-rich soy sauce will draw those savory, intensely meaty flavors to the forefront. For ultra-flavorful chicken and other proteins, we recommend using a fork and pricking your protein, so the marinade can saturate through the entire thing. Making slashes on the surface will help, too. Because this isn't a traditional marinade, you don't need to let it sit for so long; we recommend letting it aromatize while you soak your noodles and prep all the other ingredients.

If you're well versed in Asian cuisine, you may have heard of the wok hei technique, literally meaning "the breath of the wok." It refers to the remarkable charred, smoky aroma that food seared over high temperatures attain, and it's the benchmark for a really great pad Thai.

The first step toward harnessing the full potential of wok hei in your pad Thai is using a hot wok and high smoke point oil. Unlike Western cooking schools, wok-cooking dictates that you heat your wok until smoking, then add cold oil to create a non-stick surface. 

Second, you need to maintain that heat throughout the cooking process — this can be tricky, as home burners can't reach the same burning heat as commercial kitchens. To ensure we preserve that heat, avoid overcrowding and constantly rotate the ingredients. The combination of sizzling heat and controlled tossing will guarantee the ingredients lock in their natural flavors while adding a smoky depth to the dish that no other technique can match.

While a recipe can lead you to delicious flavored pad Thai, achieving the right texture of crunchy vegetables, succulent protein, and chewy noodles relies on techniques, a topic that brief recipes typically don't delve into. There's a frequently overlooked element to ensuring your pad Thai attains that restaurant-quality standard we all strive for — using the right sized wok.

Even though a wok may seem spacious at first glance, it's important to note that the round bottom, where most of the heat concentrates, is relatively small. This unique design requires a tossing method to ensure even cooking. When you overcrowd your wok, it becomes challenging for everything to cook uniformly, and more significantly, the excess moisture in your ingredients, such as vegetables and noodles, struggles to evaporate, resulting in a mushy texture. To prevent this problem, it's essential to take into account the number of servings you intend to prepare and choose a wok size based on your usual portions. 

There's a good chance you've eaten a few substandard plates of pad Thai in your time. One thing they likely have in common is a peculiar red tint to the sauce-coated noodles. The culprit? Ketchup. It's an ingredient traditional pad Thai doesn't use, though somehow, it has ended up in Western mock-ups. 

Admittedly, ketchup offers much of the flavors combined in pad Thai — sweet, tangy, and with natural umami from tomatoes. However, it's no substitute for authentic ingredients and can't conjure the same depth of sophisticated and nuanced flavor. And using it to make the dish look a more appealing color, as many restaurants do, is unnecessary. Instead, whisk up a straightforward and authentic sauce by combining Thai tamarind paste with palm sugar, dark soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, and fish sauce. Other aromatics you can optionally include are fresh red chili peppers or ground white peppercorns.

We've all heard of green onions (scallions), spring onions (the sweeter, more bulbous sister of green onions), and chives. But what about garlic chives? Otherwise known as Chinese chives, this long green allium is well-known for its use in Asian cuisine. Chinese chefs have been cooking with the shoots for over 5,000 years — hence the name — but the chives are also eaten throughout Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand.

When it comes to flavor, garlic chives have a distinct profile. Unlike their allium counterparts, Chinese chives have a punchy, vibrant, garlicky flavor on top of the usual mild onion undertones. We advise adding the shoots at the end of cooking to maintain their beautiful green color and unique aroma. It adds much-needed freshness to the dish and enhances the natural balance of flavors as well as colors. If you're anything like us, you've been guilty of using scallions in place of garlic chives — but undoubtedly, it's worth seeking out this authentic ingredient.