This easy Pad Thai recipe takes 10 mins to prep and 8 mins to cook – it’s so simple and so tasty! Silky noodles, slathered in a delicious sauce – what’s not to love! 

easy Pad Thai Recipe

Why This Easy Pad Thai Recipe Is So Good

  • Cheater sauce! Enhance store-bought pad thai sauce with fresh, flavorful ingredients
  • Less than 20 minutes, start to finish
  • Looking for a no-carb version? Replace noodles with zucchini noodles “zoodles”
  • Great mild or spicy

Ingredients

  • Dry rice noodles
  • Cooking oil
  • Raw shrimp
  • Egg
  • Garlic cloves
  • Snow peas, bean sprouts
  • Pad Thai sauce
  • Optional toppings; Sriracha, cilantro, lime, chopped peanuts

How To Make This Easy Pad Thai – Step By Step

  1. In a large bowl, fully submerge the dry rice noodles in hot tap water (not boiling, just hot to touch). Let them soak for 8-10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
  2. In a wok or large saute pan over high heat, add just half of the cooking oil. When the oil is hot, swirl it around the bottom of the pan and add the shrimp in a single layer. Let cook for 2 minutes. Try not to move the shrimp too much, let them develop a sear and then flip to sear the other side for an additional minute. The shrimp should be half-cooked. Remove the half-cooked shrimp to a bowl and set aside.
  3. Keep the pan on the stove and add the beaten egg to the pan, stirring constantly to fry quickly. Remove cooked egg to the same bowl as the shrimp.
  4. Turn the heat down to medium-low and let the pan cool down a bit. Swirl in the remaining cooking oil. Add the garlic to the pan and stir fry until the garlic becomes fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the snow peas and bean sprouts and stir fry for another minute. Add the sauce to the pan from the jar. To get every bit of sauce from the jar, add a tablespoon or so of water, close lid, shake jar and pour that into the pan. Add the drained noodles into the pan. Turn the heat back up to medium-high. Stir to combine.
  5. The moment the sauce begins to simmer, add the shrimp and egg back into the pan and stir fry everything until the shrimp are fully cooked through, about another minute. Add optional garnishes and serve immediately.

Yummy Cheater Pad Thai Recipe

Pad Thai Sauce

The Asian aisle at my local grocery store has soo many bottles and jars of Asian sauces – sweet-sour, kung-pao, ginger-garlic. Most of the time, I tell you to skip the pre-made stuff – it’s just easier to combine fresh ginger, fresh garlic, soy sauce or other easy-to-find ingredients to make your own type of sauce.

But when it comes to Pad Thai noodles, a do-it-yourself sauce can be tricky. The recipe for the sauce includes tamarind paste, which isn’t that easy to find in most American grocery stores. Thai Kitchen Pad Thai sauce is the only one my store carries, and it’s good! Let me know if you’ve tried others and have had good/bad results.

Original Pad Thai Sauce

Buy Pad Thai Sauce on Amazon!

 

easy pad thai recipe in bowl

How To Cook Rice Noodles

Dried rice noodles are not cooked the same way regular pasta noodles are cooked. If you try to cook dry rice noodles in a pot of boiling water (like you do with spaghetti) – you’ll end up with a mushy mushy mushy mess. Instead, soak the noodles in hot (not boiling) water. That will soften the rice noodles and the stir-fry will finish cooking the rice noodles.

Shrimp In This Easy Pad Thai Recipe

Shrimp is not very forgiving to cook with. Because of their size, they are so easy to overcook! Then they become rubbery. To make sure that the shrimp is perfectly cook AND also get a nice sear – we sear them each side first before we do anything else. The shrimp are only cooked half-way. We’ll add them back into the pan near the end of the stir-fry. In fact, this is the technique that I use for stir-frying all meats and seafood. Sear at high heat, remove, then add back into finish cooking towards end.

shrimp in easy pad thai recipe

 

tasty noodles

Top Tips For This Easy Pad Thai Recipe

  • Let the rice noodles soak in water for at least 8 minutes.
  • The shrimp, egg, garlic, ginger and vegetables all cook at different heat setting and different times. In order to make sure nothing is under or over cooked, you have to adjust heat and add the ingredients into the wok or pan in a certain order. Prepare all of your ingredients first, and have them all ready within arm’s reach.
  • Egg is also another funny ingredient – if you just crack an egg into a stir-fry, you’ll end up with a soggy mess. The egg will coat all of the ingredients and weigh down the dish, making it very “wet” and mushy. Instead, right after the shrimp are taken out of the pan, the egg is added to the pan. Give it a good scramble, and when it sets, remove the cooked eggs from pan too. You can just put the egg in the same bowl as the shrimp. This way, your Pad Thai will get nice bits of perfectly scrambled egg.
  • Serve with Sriracha for an extra kick!

Cheater Pad Thai Recipe Video

  

Check Out These Delicious Stir Fry Recipes

Have you tried this Easy Pad Thai recipe? Feel free to leave a star rating and I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Easy Pad Thai Recipe

Jaden Hair
This easy Pad Thai recipe takes 10 mins to prep and 8 mins to cook - it's so simple and so tasty! Silky noodles, slathered in a delicious sauce - what's not to love! 

5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 8 minutes
Total Time 18 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Asian, Thai
Servings 4 servings
Calories 624 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pound dry rice noodles about 1/4" wide
  • 1 tablespoon cooking oil divided
  • 1 pound raw shrimp peeled and deveined
  • 1 egg beaten
  • 2 cloves garlic finely minced
  • 1/4 pound snow peas sliced diagonally lengthwise
  • 8 ounces bean sprouts
  • one 8-ounce jar prepared Pad Thai sauce
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • optional toppings: Sriracha hot chili sauce torn fresh cilantro, lime wedges, chopped peanuts

Instructions
 

  • In a large bowl, fully submerge the dry rice noodles in hot tap water (not boiling, just hot to touch). Let them soak for 8-10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
  • In a wok or large saute pan over high heat, add just half of the cooking oil. When the oil is hot, swirl it around the bottom of the pan and add the shrimp in a single layer. Let cook for 2 minutes. Try not to move the shrimp too much, let them develop a sear and then flip to sear the other side for an additional minute. The shrimp should be half-cooked. Remove the half-cooked shrimp to a bowl and set aside.
  • Keep the pan on the stove and add the beaten egg to the pan, stirring constantly to fry quickly. Remove cooked egg to the same bowl as the shrimp.
  • Turn the heat down to medium-low and let the pan cool down a bit. Swirl in the remaining cooking oil. Add the garlic to the pan and stir fry until the garlic becomes fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the snow peas and bean sprouts and stir fry for another minute. Add the sauce to the pan from the jar. To get every bit of sauce from the jar, add a tablespoon or so of water, close lid, shake jar and pour that into the pan. Add the drained noodles into the pan. Turn the heat back up to medium-high. Stir to combine.
  • The moment the sauce begins to simmer, add the shrimp and egg back into the pan and stir fry everything until the shrimp are fully cooked through, about another minute. Add optional garnishes and serve immediately.

Nutrition

Calories: 624kcalCarbohydrates: 103gProtein: 34gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 327mgSodium: 5560mgPotassium: 444mgFiber: 4gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 368IUVitamin C: 30mgCalcium: 238mgIron: 5mg
Keyword easy noodles, pad thai, pad thai recipe
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