Authentic Pad Thai

Okay I LOVE thai food and I was very skeptical about this dish especially with the word "authentic" but I must say this is beyond DELICIOUS!!! I followed the recipe exactly and this is a WINNER!!!!

This was delicious. The only changes I made were to use tamarind concentrate instead of the paste (it was all they had at the Asian grocery store), and I forgot to add the paprika at the end. I would have liked it to be a bit saucier. I'm not sure if I cooked it a bit too long and the sauce got all soaked up or if I just need to make more sauce next time. Even still the flavors were wonderful so I am giving this 5 stars. Thanks for the great recipe.

Made this recipe after watching the video and it's the best version we've EVER made at home. We used thinly sliced pork instead of chicken and threw in some cilantro too. I'm already craving it again!

Finally, I've found a righteous version of my favorite Asian dish! Only things I did differently is: I marinated the chicken over night in coconut milk, the zest of 1 lime and about a teaspoon of red pepper flake. I also grilled the chicken and added the chicken to the rest of the ingredients in the wok just before the cooking was complete. Came out DELICIOUS, and the chicken had a more authentic texture as opposed to cooking the chicken in a skillet. Thanks for the amazing recipe!

I made this recipe twice. The first time I made it turned out awful. The second time it was great. I believe there were two main issues with the first attempt I had. I couldn't find tamarind paste, only concentrate. When I searched online, I had found some posts saying you could use these interchangeably. I think this caused the sauce to be too thick. The second mistake was that I didn't soak the noodles long enough. The store I went to only had not flat rice noodles. I also soaked them in probably too cold of water. I tried to cook the noodles longer because they were so stiff, which combined with the thicker sauce just turned the noodles into a thick gummy mess. The second attempt I used just over a tablespoon of tamarind concentrate and also soaked the flat noodles for the full hour in room temperature water. Everything else I followed to the dot and it turned out great.

Extremely delish! I doubled the tamarind mixture after reading other reviews and it was a good amount. You could probably just use 1.5X the fish sauce as it's a very strong flavor (2X the other ingredients in the mixture). I used a tamarind paste substitute because I couldn't find any in my town (blend of prunes, lemon juice and dried apricots and was VERY close to the real thing). I also added a tablespoon of worcestshire sauce to the final product while the noodles were cooking. I mixed some of the chives and a dash of cilantro in the mixture in addition to using them as garnishes. I used 5 eggs instead of 4 but only because we love eggs. The dish was great and I will be making it again very soon!

I paid attention to those who thought it was too sweet and reduced the amount of sugar I used. Mistake. With the tamarind paste and vinegar, the amount of sugar in the recipe is appropriate.

I followed two recipes, partly this one partly another. Let that guide what you think of my review. I did not add any vinegar, because the tamarind imparts a very acidic flavor on its own. It has a "lactic"-y flavor like sun dried tomatoes. Other recipes will not include vinegar, and if you watch the video for this recipe, the guy actually doesn't mention vinegar. They show vinegar being used, but the guy only mentions the other 3 ingredients. Maybe if you are starting off with very fresh tamarind you would need it, but the tamarind paste I have was already quite sour in flavor. Many people making this will want an excess of sauce to drizzle over at the end. The sauce is thin compared to the sauce at restaurants. If you want something thicker, brown some onions and puree it into the sauce. The cellulose will give it some of the body that a cream woiuld, but without changing the flavor. Also, I used palm sugar, and most recipes that allow for a substitute will recommend brown sugar. (double these ingredients for the recipe on this page) 1 tbsp. tamarind paste, to taste (available at Asian/Indian food stores) 1/4 cup chicken stock (campbells) 3 Tbsp. fish sauce (i used Thai Kitchen) 1 Tbsp. soy sauce (i used kikkoman) 1/2 to 1 tsp. chili sauce, OR 1/3 to 3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, to taste (i used red curry paste, Thai Kitchen brand) 1/8 tsp. ground white pepper 3-4 Tbsp. palm sugar OR brown sugar

Delicious. Didn't change the sauce proportions at all but did add half a chopped onion, some stir-fried tofu cubes and a splash of sweet chili sauce. We also used a pound of chicken thighs instead of breasts. My Thai-food loving teenager and husband loved it

very tasty, easy to do, but not much plate appeal. definately will make again

Just made this and it is wonderful! Will be making it again and again. I used the ketchup with some worchteshire(sp) instead of the tamarind because I could not find tamarind paste. I also used boneless pork chop for the meat instead of chicken because that's what I had on hand. This dish is a keeper. I also added a bag of stir fry veggies at the end of cooking.

This recipe was so disappointing. My husband and I love Pad Thai (and are both good cooks), so we were really excited to try this out. We followed the recipe perfectly and in the end, vinegar was the dominant taste. This is NOT how Pad Thai should taste! We looked into this and found that authentic Pad Thai doesn't have a trace of vinegar in it. Do yourself a favor and leave out the vinegar, or better yet, find a different recipe!!

good, but definitely not authentic. Wwwaaayyyy too much sugar, and real pad thai uses palm sugar not white sugar. It was OK, probably will not make again

I made this for the first time today. I went to 3 different stores, trying to find tamarind PASTE." I finally went to a local International Foods store and asked the counter person what this was, and she handed me a pack of "Wet Tamarind," which was not totally smooth (had some pulp of some sort), so I figured I'd just strain it after boiling it with the sugar and vinegar. Next time, I would probably double the tamarind mixture, as my noodles seems to soak it up and came out a wee bit chewy/dry. The plate appeal is very plain in and of itself, so if you're serving it to others, you might want add some of the garnishes suggested in the recipe. Nevertheless, it was tasty and it passed my kid's picky tastebuds (LOL), so we have a winner. I added photos... :-)

Made this tonight for dinner. I reduced the amount of rice noodles to 8 oz. It was very good, but a bit too sweet. Flavor was great but next time I'll reduce the amount of sugar.

My first attempt at Pad Thai, I made it according to the recipe (scaled for 8 servings). I am very happy with the results as was my girlfriend who hasn't always had a very adventurous palate. I'm looking forward to making it again in the near future, but I would probably double the sauce, lessen the chicken quantity, and add another egg.

I made this recipe tonight after watching the video. It was great. Tasted just like take out from my favorite Thai Restauant. Don't worry if their seems to be too much sauce when you first add everything into the pan - the noodles will absorb much of the liquid after a few minutes of cooking.

I am giving this 5 stars because the taste was great but when I make it again (and I will) I will make more sauce because we found them a little drier than we like.

Way too vinegary.

This is an OUTSTANDING pad thai recipe. Just as good as restaurants if not better! I made several changes 1) in step 5, I used the tamarind mixture only (no sugar or salt added) 2) I half-cooked the rice noodles by boiling it first instead of waiting 30-60 min 3) added an extra egg 4) did not stir in crushed peanuts-- when serving, the bean sprouts goes on the bottom, then the rice noodles with chicken an eggs, then I sprinkled crushed peanuts on top, 5) added a side of sliced cucumbers, goes perfectly with pad thai! 6)used tamarind concentrate not tamarind paste (although the concentrate did have a pasty consistency so not sure what the difference is)... one of the best recipes I've tried here!

This was really good! I could not for the life of me find tamarind paste though, so I used red curry paste instead and it worked out really well. I will definitely be making this again, thanks for the great recipe!

DELICIOUS!!! I live in the country very far away from any Thai restaurants. I can order all of the ingredients online that I can't get locally and have Thai food whenever I want to. I make this very often. I also usually add a bag of frozen peas in at the end to make it a whole meal. Thank you very much for the recipe!!

Made it exactly as instructed and it was amazing!! Everyone loved it and the kids gobbled it up. don't change a thing - it is very authentic. Don't swap the tamarind for ketchup or you'll ruin it.

I didn't anticipate the amount of grease and cleanup. Other than that this is s great recipe. Not sure I'll make it often due up cleanup. And the smell of the tamarind and vinegar-whoa boy. I might leave this to the pros.

This is a winner! Had a little trouble finding Tamarind Paste so I used some sweet and spicy Tamarind Chutney I found in the Indian food section at Safeway. The only change I made was adding water chestnuts (cuz they're delicious!) but other than that I followed the recipe exactly. I will be making this one again. Even my kids ate it! That's a feat.

We gave this a shot, and now we are addicted! We've spent a lot of time in Asia, and this is about as close as we have found to the real thing. We couldn't find tamarind in the stores, so we substituded sugar and lime juice. I also added a little bit of water to the mixture before putting the noodles in, it made everything blend together nicely. We also added more eggs as well. Its a keeper!

It was too vinegary, and it didn't taste like the typical Pad Thai

It pains me to say this, but this is hands down the worst recipe that I have ever had the misfortune to follow. I'm bit too stupid to follow a recipe. It was awful. This was literally rice noodles and chicken. This recipe was so bad it offends me

The only changes I made were to double the sauce (as I do like it pretty saucy, and after reading other reviews I wanted to make sure there was plenty--especially because I had a 13oz package of noodles), add chili paste to the tamarind mixture and to mix the bean sprouts in with the pad thai instead of as a garnish. The result was a bit disappointing, mostly in the flavoring in the sauce. Perhaps this is because I'm used to getting pad thai at American restuarants, so even those this might be "authentic," it's not the flavor I'm used to. Maybe? It was just kind of meh, and I'm so glad I had sriracha on hand to spice it up, even after adding 1 tbls of chili paste to the tamarind mixture. It was definitely too sweet for my taste. I also think I made the mistake of soaking the noodles too long, as the whole thing was kind of gooey--but that's not reflected in my rating, just a tip to everyone else! I probably had them soaking for a good hour and 15 minutes. I'll likely make a variation of this recipe in the future, but next I'll scale back the amount of sugar and fish sauce, add lots more chili sauce, and double the chicken. Personal preference would have been to crack the eggs on top of the mixture while it was heating and cook it through that way, so I'll do that next time as well.

As written, I would give this 2 to 3 stars. The noodles are dry, dry, dry with the amount of sauce, so I would use half the amount of noodles. Also, all the sauce was absorbed by the noodles, so there was no sauciness to it. I like the flavor, but the recipe needs a lot of work to be what I consider good.

This recipe did not turn out well for me. I read the reviews and doubled the sauce, but it tasted incredibly salty, sweet, and vinegar. With so many good reviews, I feel like I did something wrong, but I followed the recipe exactly except for doubling the sauce from reading review recommendations. I will not try this again.

I didn't realize that authentic pad thai is actually quite boring without all the fixin's we add in. The flavor of the sauce is spot on, but I had to make a trip to the Asian store in town to find tamarind. My thought to make it more of a complete meal rather than just noodles, peanuts, eggs and chicken, is to stirfry some veggies (I used pea shoots from the Asian store, but bok choy, spinach or something that really cooks down works) and other meats (shrimp or pork) ahead of time and add them to your dish. Will make again (hey I have a bunch of tamarind paste to use up!) with more veggies. Dec 2, 2014 Used this recipe again, this time using tamarind concentrate; there was no such thing as 'tamarind paste'. There was a lot of it, but I used it all since I dislike dry pad thai. I continue to add veggies to make more of a complete meal and less authentic. We really like this version.

Good recipe! Enough liquid to cover noddles. The only change I made is adding minced ginger in the oil with the garlic.

The flavor was okay, but the texture/end result was not a success... Followed the recipe to a T, and it turned out a dark, gummy mess. I soaked and cooked the noodles enough, so maybe it was just a bad batch of noodles? I also used tamarind concentrate, not paste, so had hoped for a better presentation. If I made this again (which I probably won't), I'd double the tamarind mixture.

This was really good just following the recipe, although not as good as decent pad thai from a restaurant. I think if I simmered everything together for a little longer (e.g. more than 5 mins), it would have reduced the vinegar flavor which was pretty obvious. Also, my noodles were a bit al dente - so more evidence that I didn't simmer long enough. All in all, this was REALLY good, but the bar is set pretty high for me as there is a lot of good Thai here (Seattle) that this dish is competing with.

So far, this recipe is the most truly pad thai on All Recipes. No paprika needed. If you need spice, use Thai chili pepper. Pad Thai also doesn't served with rice. Rice noodle is the carb for the dish. I like to cook beansprout with the noodle until they half way cooked.

I made this exactly according to the recipe on 5/8/2014. It came out wonderful. People were fighting to take leftovers home. I am made mine with shrimp instead of chicken. Definitely I will be making this again.

Based on the previous reviews, I used only 1/2 pound of rice noodles and increased the amount of sauce. This recipe is a keeper!

This was a fantastic recipe! After eating the very same dish in Thailand this is as close as it gets. We add hot chili sauce at the end to taste for those that like a little extra kick. Also found that if you don't have tamarind paste that you can use lime juice instead. Will definitely make this again!

Soooooo good, I will never order this out again.

I have searched and searched for a Pad Thai recipe and for some reason mine always comes out wrong. I think my problem lies with the tamarind paste. It's as black and thick as tar and I followed this recipe to the T and my dish came out black. It tasted rather tart as well. Any suggestions? Am I using the wrong tamarind medium? My local Thai restaurant guards their recipes tighter than Fort Knox so their no help. I'm an advanced cook but I'm struggling with this dish. Thanks.

My husband and I have had this from a mix, but this time I had almost all the ingredients and so I tried it. Because I can't use sugar, I used Splenda as a substitute. Also, I didn't have rice noodles, so I used spaghetti and cooked it 10 minutes before adding it to the wok. We absolutely LOVED it! I watched the video first and then made the dish. I will attempt more Thai food in the future, because my husband was just thrilled. Thank you.

I think I messed it up...I had a 16 oz package of rice noodles so I decided to double the sauce. This put in way too much vinegar. Next time I will still probably double, just cut the vinegar. Also I think it can use a tbsp of peanut butter & hot chili pepper. I also put in a package of stir fry fresh veggies.

We subbed Hoisin since I couldn't find Tamarind. Everything else was followed to recipe. Came out very delicious and authentic except the noodles were lighter than expected instead of the medium brown at restaurants.

I used brown sugar for the sauce and white sugar at the end with the salt. The noodles soaked at room temp for 45 minutes but I wish I would have let them sit another 10 minutes. I used shrimp instead of chicken and cilantro instead of green onion because that is what I had on hand. SO GOOD!!

Everyone loved it! My oldest said it was the best Pad Thai she ever had. I didn't have the tamarind paste but had bought the tamarind pods at a mexican food store a while back. So I just removed them from casing and cooked them in the vinegar sugar solution. We like a little stronger peanut taste so I always add a scoop of peanutbutter just before removing from the heat.

Perhaps it was my brand of fish sauce, but the fish sauce flavor overpowered it all. Had to double the tamarind sauce to cover all the noodles, but I didn't double the amt of fish sauce that goes into it, and the fish sauce flavor was still overwhelming. Will make again, but will seriously scale back the amount of fish sauce. Not sure it's worth going through all the effort for, if you have a good thai place to order from.

Surprisingly easy, resonable time to cook and amazing flavor. My two boys Loved it and my Mom just ate bite afterbite saying...mmmmmm... yup its a hit even though I made a few mistakes cuz I didn't trust the recipe. Its forgiving and was AMAZING

This was a great recipe. I couldn't find tamarind paste, so I just mixed equal parts lime juice and brown sugar, then measured from that mixture. I will say that I felt my end result needed a little less sugar and a little more citrus, but it may have been because of the absence of tamarind paste. Also, I added cayenne pepper and red chili flakes, for a little extra punch. And I used white rice vinegar. It made my pad thai a little darker, but def added depth to the flavor.

The end result was very delicious, however the sauce smells terrible while you're cooking it! I followed others' advice and made a full amount of sauce for half the noodles, eggs, and chicken and still would have liked more sauce. The fish sauce is pretty strong - I will probably cut that down next time - but it turned out as good as my favorite local restaurant and my 5-year-old even liked it. I will make this again soon!

This was fantastic. I used shrimp instead of chicken, as I was trying to use up some leftovers. I couldn't find tamarind paste, so I was planning on winging it then I found some thai curry paste in my pantry. Turned out it had tamarind as a main ingredient as well as a few others so I used that. Hubby loved it and had 3 servings, but said it could be a little spicier. I loved it the way it was.

This was absolutely delicious! I've made it every week since we first tried it and everyone loves it. Don't make substitutions please! So many people seem to be subbing out various ingredients and they end up with something different but still rate it negatively! Tamarind paste/puree is available at asian foodstores or international markets and you only need buy one jar to make this recipe dozens of times so it's worth a detour to get. I soak the noodles longer than the time stated here (1 hour and 1/2) but perhaps they are a thicker style, Rice noodles really make the dish, it wouldn't be the same without them. I often order Pad Thai at Thai restaurants and I've never had one better than this (Some are as good - but never better!)

Amazing recipe! I've made this many times and there are never any leftovers.

I usually bought a jar of Pad Thai sauce. Since I'd moved to new area it was so difficult to find one or at least the brand that I used so I searched for how to make a sauce. Thank you so much for this recipe. Ill never buy a jar sauce again but I'm not a big fan of vinegar so I used only half of the recipe and added water to fill it up. It still tasted right. Oh by the way I made this once about 2 months ago and today I'm making it again for dinner :)

This is perfect! The flavor full and tasty.

This was perfect. I used shrimp instead of chicken. I searched the Internet for how to substitute tamarind powder for paste, no answer anywhere, so I took a shot. Subbed one T. Powder per one T. Paste, worked great!!. I did oversoak noodles, so they broke apart while being tossed with cooked ingredients at end, but made no difference in the taste, which was better than some I’ve had in restaurants. It’s a keeper!!

My first attempt to make pad thai and it was so good! I used tamarind concentrate b/c i did not have paste and it still turned out great. I doubled the whole recipe to make a big tray of it for pot luck and it was a winner! No left over. I will definitely make this again! I used shrimp and pork instead of chicken and lots of bean sprouts!

Vinegar was the dominant taste. Completely overwhelmed the fish sauce and any other savory flavor that was in this dish. Next time I'm going to omit the vinegar entirely. Most other recipes I've seen use either a lighter vinegar or tamarind paste, never both.

Amazing pad thai! It is even better if you let it sit overnight and then reheat it the next day. As a matter of fact I will most likely be making this the night before we eat it from now on. I love this pad thai!

This is a very good recipe. I’ve played with it and without changing any ingredients I’d like to give some tips. The proportions for this recipe are, I find, a bit off. First this is enough noodles to feed way more than six. A lot more. These noodles expand and absorb every bit of sauce. These are my tips: Double the vinegar and sugar. Increase fish sauce to 1/3 cup. Tamarind paste 2 1/2 TBS.

I love this recipe. Absolutely amazing

I love Pad Thai but have only had it in the US so I can't vouch for it's authenticity. None-the-less this came out really good. I had a hard time finding Tamarind paste but did find it eventually and got some very good fish sauce to make this dish. I followed the recipe (omitting the peanuts). I watched the video which was very helpful - especially to make my Rice noodles come out right. Thank you for submitting it - we no longer have to go out for Pad Thai it is wonderfully made right here at home.

My husband loved this and he usually does not like Pad Thai. I halved the recipe except for the sauce but I think I put too much vinegar in so I will add less next time. Other then that it was really good. Thank you

Great Recipe! I cheated and used Pad Thai sauce I purchased in Chinatown, but the technique makes a really great Pad Thai.

I live in Istanbul and finding tamarind paste can be problematic at best, but I substituted Nar syrup, made from pomegranate juice, and it worked well.

LOVED this dish and my guests did, too! Only wish I had been able to find tamarind at my grocery store. I substituted 1 Tbsp brown sugar and 1 Tbsp lime juice for it, and it was delicious, but I'm sure it would have been even better with the real thing :)

Too sweet. 2.5

I had to make a few changes. I didn't have paprika, so I used a few red pepper flakes instead. I did shrimp instead of chicken. I squirted on lime juice at the last minute out of a bottle instead of wedges. I also added the bean sprouts in after the noodles had cooked a little bit instead of as a garnish. It was so delicious. We love Pad Thai at restaurants. My family loved this more than any restaurant we've been to.

Absolutely delicious!

Made it exactly as the recipe called. It is delicious !!

Awesome!!

This was really good. I had two servings and took a few more bites as I was putting the leftovers away. My kids and husband really liked it too.

I made this for a gathering of friends. Great reviews. Good balance of tangy and sweet. I added fried tofu instead of chicken. The tofu takes in the flavor of the sauce. I soaked the noodles for 1 hour but I think I would give it more time in the future. I'll keep and use this recipe.

Tried making it for the first time last night. Was a little worried the noodles wouldn't absorb the sauce but, they did and the dish turned out wonderful.

I really enjoyed this and so did hubby. I had to improvise with the tamarind paste - could not find any - the closest was a tamarind-date sauce - that worked fine. The flavour of the pad thai was great, but it wouldn't hurt to have more sauce - I might try doubling it next time. I also omitted the second amount of sugar. And I found this dish tasted particularly good the next day.

Recipe is missing two things: 1. The first attempt, pad thai was too dry, noodles didn't soften enough. Need to add some liquid. My second attempt I added enough chicken broth so noodles had enough liquid to soften properly. 2. Recipe has no heat like chili flakes or srirachi. I added both the second time, and after items 1 and 2 fixes, the pad thai was terrific.

Great!

I really wanted this to work out! All the flavors were on point except it was WAY too vinegary! I had to throw it away.

Really enjoyed this. I've be making variations on Pad Thai for years and this is one of the better ones. Be sure to google how to prepare tamarind paste if you aren't used to using it. I added a few of my favorite fixes like basil and soy sauce, but the recipe is good without any alterations.

This is a great, simple recipe which is how pad Thai should be! I added puff tofu (personal favorite from a local Thai place and a wonderful punch of soaked up sauce) but in order to make it "saucier" I mistakenly added too much fish sauce...My bf loved it but it was way to salty for me (my own fault). Next time will follow recipe to the tee because this was otherwise excellent and I shouldn't have messed with it!

Made as is and found the fish sauce was overpowering. May need to make again with a different type of fish sauce (lighter color version).

I just made this for dinner, and it was a super hit. I read the reviews and made a few slight changes, but not much. I used a 16 Oz package of noodles and the recipe calls for 12, so instead of doubling the sauce I tripled it. I cut the vinegar and sugar by about a third, used 5 eggs, added a generous tablespoon of peanut butter and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. I have been wanting to try to make pad thai for ages but was a bit nervous about it. It was awesome for my first try!

Easy to make. Just assemble the parts (noodles, chicken, sauce, egg and garlic, toppers) Since I don't like my noodles too aldente, will probably boil them for a short time before putting everything together. And...Next time I'll get a photo; Hubs couldn't get the green onions and sprouts...looks real dull with no green, but is delicious! Am enjoying it with slices of pickled ginger

So delicious!! I’m Thai and this recipe is spot on. Thank you for posting.

It was a bit on the sweet side and my noodles turned out a bit sticky too. When you get to the stage of putting everything together in the frying pan, be ready!! Everything seems to happen fast at the end and turning around to put something else in is not the way to go. When I make this again, I think I'll try a different noodle, cut down a bit on the sugar and use some chilis in oil to do the final stir fry. All in all, pretty good taste!

great recipe, so yummy and easy to make! I highly recommend this.

Add peanut butter to the sauce. Yum!

Way to much vinegar and sugar, which made for an intense and unpleasant combination.

Good directions for making pad thai. I used a premade sauce instead of making one, so I skipped that step. I found the noodles to be best after soaking for an hour or slightly more.

Great flavor. Noodles didn't quite soften up enough. A little too sweet. May have reduced sauce too much, but seemed a little dry.

Excellent recipe that creates a "restaurant quality" pad thai. My only minor complaint is it can be a little bit dry so I add a quarter cup of additional fluid.

My package of rice noodles was for 14 oz, not 12. I used all 14 oz and regretted it. It threw off the balance. If I made it again, I'd make sure to make slightly more sauce and add more chicken, especially if adding extra noodles. Overall, this was a good find.

I soaked noodles for an hour -- 30 minutes was not long enough. The tamarind paste I bought was more like mashed fruit (included pits and rind) than puree. Will try this again and double the mashed tamarind, cook in sugar/vinegar mixture, then strain the mixture before adding it to the chicken and rice noodles. Fresh bean sprouts are better than canned. I didn't have/use chives, paprika, and lime wedges.

I did not add the extra sugar and salt at the end, as the dish was already very very flavorful (I used tamarind concentrate). I also omitted bean sprouts and chives as I do not like those, but I added stir fried sweet bell pepper strips for some color and as a veggie. I thought this recipe was ok, it smelled great, but taste wise it somehow lacked depth. The noodles were also quite pale and didn't look that appealing. Perhaps replacing a bit of the fish sauce with dark soy sauce might help? A shame I had no peanuts available at home, peanuts would help the texture and taste a lot!

I have tried to make several Pad Thai recipes but this is the only one that is worthwhile. This recipe is as good as the best Thai restaurant I've been. I think the tamarind is probably a key ingredient (with the fish sauce of course). I did use tamarind concentrate which worked out fine. I did not add the paprika cause I don't really like it. I also added shrimp along with the chicken. This is the real deal! No ketchup in this recipe! It is right on the money.

Cut out all the salt. Added a pound of shrimp, 1 tsp Worstershire sauce. Replaced half the rice noodles with shredded zucchini.

My wife said this was her favorite thing I ever made for her! We unfortunately had to leave out the bean sprouts for medical reasons, and I garnished it with green onions instead of chives because we prefer them. Otherwise I stuck to the recipe. It was so much easier to make than I would have guessed to make a good pad thai. Next time, I will probably use a bit less fish sauce since the wife and I aren’t huge fans, otherwise I won’t be changing a thing. We will definitely be making this again!

this recipe was awesome!! Just like a restaurant a few things I did was -tomato paste instead of tamarind (however you spell that) paste because it's not as sour so it won't be as vinegary and you don't have to take a trip to the Asian market -add the paprika towards the end of cooking so the color will turn out more like you will see at a restaurant -let the sauce simmer for a few minutes so some of the vinegar will evaporate off if you hate vinegar (although it will be hard to breathe for a minute) happy cooking!

My husband and son thought this was fantastic! Substituted palm sugar which is traditionally used instead of using white granulated sugar. We will be making this again!