No.12 The 100 Most Popular Recipes Ever · October 2026

Pad Thai

Made famous by Pailin Chongchitnant

Photo: Stu Spivak, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From Hot Thai Kitchen, 2016. Hot Thai Kitchen is No. 5 on the Hot 100.

Thailand's best-known dish abroad and the noodle most often ordered at Thai restaurants worldwide. Pailin's method teaches the balance of sour, sweet and salty.

Written in our own words and tested in a home kitchen. Get the original in Hot Thai Kitchen.

Ingredients

• For the sauce: 3 tbsp tamarind paste (the thick, unsweetened kind)
• 3 tbsp (40 g) palm sugar, finely chopped (or light brown sugar)
• 2 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• For the noodles: 5 oz (140 g) dried rice noodles, 1/4 inch wide (sen lek)
• 3 tbsp neutral oil
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 large shrimp, peeled and deveined (or 4 oz firm tofu, cubed)
• 2 tbsp dried shrimp, chopped (optional)
• 2 tbsp sweet preserved radish, chopped (optional)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (100 g) bean sprouts
• 3 stalks garlic chives or scallions, cut into 1 1/2-inch lengths
• 1/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
• Lime wedges, chile flakes and more bean sprouts, to serve

Steps

1. Soak the noodles in room-temperature water for 1 hour, or warm water for 20 to 30 minutes, until they are soft and bendy but still firm in the middle. Drain.
2. Make the sauce: warm the tamarind, palm sugar and fish sauce in a small pan, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Taste: it should be equally sour, sweet and salty. Adjust.
3. Heat a wok or large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons oil. Add the shallot and garlic and stir 30 seconds. Add the shrimp (or tofu), dried shrimp and radish and cook until the shrimp are just pink, 1 minute. Push to one side.
4. Add the drained noodles and 1/4 cup water. Toss until the noodles soften and the water is absorbed, about 1 minute.
5. Add 4 tablespoons of the sauce and toss until the noodles are evenly coated and soft but chewy. Taste one: if too firm, add a splash of water and keep tossing; if too soft, cook hotter and shorter next time.
6. Push the noodles aside, add the last tablespoon of oil and crack in the eggs. Scramble them lightly until half set, then fold the noodles over and toss to mix.
7. Add the bean sprouts and garlic chives and toss 30 seconds, just until the chives wilt.
8. Serve topped with peanuts, with lime wedges, chile flakes and raw bean sprouts on the side.

Chef's tips

• Crowding the pan steams the noodles and makes them gummy. Two servings at a time.
• Tamarind brands vary in strength; always taste the sauce.

This is Chef Amazing's write-up of the dish, tested for a home kitchen. The original is in Hot Thai Kitchen by Pailin Chongchitnant: get the book.

← No. 11Butter chicken→ No. 13Boeuf bourguignon