Homemade Pad Thai

I've cracked the code, y'all.

I have seen so many recipes for Pad Thai (thank you, Pinterest. But sometimes you are a liar.) and I've even bought the already bottled sauces and kits and NOTHING tastes even remotely like Pad Thai.

Until now...

And I really must give credit where it is due. Jen Hatmaker is a Christian author that I happen to like and it just so happens she loves food (probably more than me). I've tried a few recipes of hers that she swears by so I knew I could trust her. When she posted a Pad Thai recipe on Facebook I had to try it. The most important thing you'll get from this is the SAUCE - the part that is never right. There are a few ingredients she uses in the sauce that are only found at specialty food stores. I don't even know where an Asian one is around here, nor do I have the time/energy to burn going to another store so I Googled some easy substitutions and it totally worked!

Jen's Sauce:

2 T Fish Sauce
3 T Palm Sugar
2 T Tamarind Concentrate

Melt together. I'm sure that tastes fabulous but I could not find Palm Sugar and Tamarind Concentrate. So here was my version:

2 T Fish Sauce
3 T Brown Sugar (to substitute the palm sugar)
2 T Rice Vinegar + 1 T Brown Sugar (to substitute the tamarind)

(Fair warning: the fish sauce stinks really bad until everything is combined.)

UPDATE: I always double the sauce and make all the noodles. Because leftovers. If you choose to double the sauce the recipe is: 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1/4 cup fish sauce, 1/2 brown sugar.

I made two mistakes while cooking: 1) I made the whole package of noodles and only really needed half so I ended up doubling the sauce. 2) I don't have a Wok. That would have made life easier.

Okay, so once you get the sauce done the rest is easy, peasy.

In a large bowl, soak the rice noodles in hot water.

Chop up all your veggies. I used sweet onion, shredded carrots, green onion, and zucchini.

Slice chicken into thin strips (or have shrimp or tofu ready).

Mince 3 cloves of garlic.

In a skillet or Wok heat up 3 T of vegetable oil on medium-high heat, add garlic and chicken (thinly sliced) or shrimp or tofu or whatever. Sautee for about a minute. Add veggies, stirring continually for a few more minutes.

If you have space to scramble an egg in your skillet, go for it. I used a separate skillet because I didn't.

Add the scrambled egg, drained noodles, and sauce. Toss it all together and keep tossing until everything is hot and the noodles and chicken are cooked through. (Note: Add red pepper flakes, red chili sauce, or sweet chili sauce if you want it to be spicey. I added a little sweet chili sauce because my little ones don't do super spicey.)

Once plated, add a squeeze of lime and top with chopped peanuts. If you don't have one of those chopper thingies (as pictured above), you've got to get one! I love mine.

You can also add sprouts but those were also not available at my grocery store.

And that's it! Super easy. Darren and I took one bite and said, "The sauce is right." Sweet victory!