Spicy Pad Thai with Chicken

I love Thai food. My favorite Thai food restaurant is in Hollywood, CA. It's called Torung Restaurant; it only takes cash, the parking is across the street at the gas station, and it's the best Thai food you will ever have. My go to dish is the Kang Ka Ree, which is yellow curry with potatoes, carrots, onion and your choice of meat.  Even my dad likes this place the best for his favorite dish, Thai Fried Rice, and he is picky!

But today, we aren't talking about curry or fried rice.  Today we are talking about Pad Thai. This is a favorite not only with me, but all across America as well as Thailand. There are street carts in Thailand making this noodle dish for tourists and citizens to enjoy. It was originally concocted in order to lower domestic rice consumption (Thailand's largest export was rice) and promote Thai nationalism during WWII (sorry, I love history). Anyway, I have been testing out this recipe for a while now and this one is a winner!  I hope you have fun trying it out!

Continue below for tasty looking pictures and recipe!

Mince garlic and chop shallots.

Slice up the green onions.

Juice some lime juice!

Chicken before...

... chicken after!

Saucey goodness mmmmm!

  

Noodles added to chicken!

After bok choy and green onions are cooked, scramble the eggs on the side of the pot.

Finished!

Plated!

Yummy close ups below! 

I'm totally eating this for lunch tomorrow...

Pad Thai

Estimated time to make is 45 minutes

Ingredients

Sauce (makes about 1.25-1.5 cups)

• 1/4 cup palm sugar (can use brown sugar as substitute)
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce (can use 1-2 tablespoons salt as substitute)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 whole lime, juiced
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons garlic chili sauce
• 1/8 tsp. ground white pepper
• 1-3 tablespoons sriracha sauce, to taste

Pad Thai

• 1/2 of the pad thai sauce (use more if desired)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (for stir frying)
• 1 package of rice stick noodles (white, flat noodle)
• 1 shallot, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 3 bunches of baby bok choy, roughly chopped
• 1lb chicken breast or thigh, cut into 1 inch chunks
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce 
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 bunch of green onions, sliced (1/2 for cooking, other half for serving)
• 1 cup fresh bean sprouts (optional)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted peanuts, finely chopped (optional)

Instructions

1. Start by adding 1 tablespoon of oil to a medium sauce pan and turn to medium heat.
2. Add your garlic and shallots and stir fry for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
3. Next, add the rest of the sauce ingredients in the same pan and turn the heat to low until palm sugar/brown sugar is dissolved (it will only take a few minutes).
4. While the sauce is doing its thing, chop the rest of the ingredients and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once it’s boiling, drop the whole package of noodles in and let them boil for 2-3 minutes; until limp but too firm to eat. 
5. Turn off the heat, drain the noodles in a strainer, and rinse them with cold water (the cold water will help stop the cooking process so the noodles don't get too mushy). Leave the in the strainer for now.
6. Back to sauce! Once the sugar is dissolved in the sauce pan, increase heat and boil for a few seconds. Remove from the heat. The sauce is done!
7. Now it’s time to stir fry. You’ll need 2 utensils to stir fry the pad thai (I used two wooden spoons). It is easier to separate the noodles this way, so they don't stick together.
8. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon soy sauce to the same large pot you cooked the noodles in (trying to save pots here).
9. Turn the heat to medium and drop in the chicken chunks; cook until done (about 6-8 minutes, test by cutting the largest piece with your wooden spoon). 
10. Add the drained noodles and 1/4 cup of chicken broth and toss. Then add the bok choy, green onions, and 1/2 of the prepared Pad Thai sauce. Mix into the noodles.
11. Make sure to constantly separate the noodles to prevent them from sticking to one another. If noodles are too sticky, add a little more oil. 
12. Once noodles, bok choy, and green onions are cooked (2 minutes), it’s time to add the eggs. Move noodles to one side of the pot and toss the beaten eggs in. Scramble and stir the egg until cooked (about a minute or so).
13. Turn off the heat, add the sugar, peanuts, and bean sprouts and toss until thoroughly combined.
14. Serve with more green onions on top!  Enjoy!

I would love to know if you try out this recipe, so please let me know in the comments or on Google+.

Thank you for stopping by!

XOXO Shelly

Wonton Soup

Asian foods are probably my most favorite kind of food out there. Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Malaysian... I'll stop there because I could go on for a while. They just always entice my taste buds! I tend to do a lot of Asian style cooking (FYI). What can I say? It's so yummy! 

Bubbling goodness!!

I think it all started when we remodeled our kitchen. We had no stove, no oven, no dishwasher, no nothing and we ended up ordering take-out A LOT. We tended to order stuff from this awesome Chinese food restaurant two blocks from our house. One thing that was always in our to-go order was some kind of soup whether is was egg flower, wonton, or something else (my dad is a soup guy). For that time it was like a new tradition in our family.

The weather here in Los Angeles has been very volatile lately. One day it is 80°F one day and 55°F and windy the next, so on those chilly days soup is a great option to help counteract the elements. I chose to make wonton soup on one of those days because it seemed super tasty and fun to make with the family! We all made wontons and reminisced on life during the kitchen remodel. We all agreed it was horrible and no one knows how we survived it.

Continue below and learn how to make wonton soup for yourself!

Chop up all of your ingredients first!

Wonton filling!  OMG.

We used this brand of wonton wrappers.

Makin wontons! 

Little guys waiting to be cooked!

I want to eat this entire thing.  Seriously.

Finished product!  

I added an extra teaspoon of the garlic chili sauce to my bowl of soup.  Perfectly spicy!

Wonton Soup

Wonton Filling

• 1/2 cup finely chopped Napa cabbage (4-5 leaves)
• Salt (for cabbage)
• 1/2 lb ground pork or turkey
• 1/2 bunch of green onions, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 shallot, minced
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 small can water chestnuts, minced
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Wonton Assembly Ingredients

• Rectangular or square wonton wrappers (3 1/2-by-3-inch)
• Prepared wonton filling (from above recipe)

 Wonton Filling Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, toss cabbage with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Let stand 10 minutes. Wrap cabbage in a double layer of paper towels; firmly squeeze out excess liquid.
2. Return cabbage to bowl and mix well with the rest of the wonton filling ingredients.

Wonton Assembly Instructions

1. Work with one wrapper at a time, and keep the rest covered with a damp towel on an oiled plate. Spoon one rounded teaspoon of filling in center of a wrapper.
2. With dampened fingers (or a brush), wet the four edges. Form a triangle by folding the wrapper in half over filling, making sure the ends meet and filling is centered; press down firmly to seal.
3. Moisten one tip on long side of triangle. Bring together both tips on long side, overlapping them slightly; press tips together to seal (you can keep them in this triangle shape or continue to the next step).
4. Fold remaining top corner back. Transfer to an oiled plate; cover with a damp towel to keep moist. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.
5. Once wontons are made, set aside (keep them covered with moist towel).

Soup Ingredients

• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 shallot, minced
• 4 cans low sodium chicken broth 
• 4 cups water
• 1 medium head bok choy, torn into 2-inch pieces
• 16 snow peas
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon garlic chili sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 bunch of green onions, sliced (for topping)

 Soup Instuctions

1. In a large pot, sauté minced garlic and shallots for 2-3 minutes at medium-high heat until very fragrant.
2. Add broth and water; turn to high heat and bring to a boil.
3. Add wontons one at a time; return to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer until wontons are just cooked through, about 4 to 6 minutes or until they float to the surface. There will be a lot of wontons, so you may like to cook half, remove them from the broth and set into a bowl, and then cook the other half.
4. Add bok choy and snow peas and cook until bright and tender. Add back the first half of the cooked wontons if you separated them.
5. Stir in soy sauce, garlic chili sauce, and sesame oil. Serve with the more green onions on top. Yum!

I would love to know if you try out this recipe, so please let me know in the comments or on Google+.

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO Shelly