Healthy Pad Thai (Chicken and Shrimp)
This Homemade Healthy Pad Thai (Chicken and Shrimp) is the cure for your takeout cravings. You can use rice noodles, brown rice noodles, zucchini, or spaghetti squash. This recipe is gluten-free and has fewer calories, fat, and sugar than most versions. Feel free to load it up with your favorite veggies!
Servings 4 servings
Calories 443kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
Pad Thai Sauce
- 1/3 cup brown sweetener See notes for substitutions.
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 1/2 tablespoons tamarind paste See notes.
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce You can also use liquid aminos or coconut aminos.
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce See notes.
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (flakes) Add more or less to taste.
Pad Thai
- 8 oz rice noodles See notes for substitutions.
- 1/2 pound raw shrimp Peeled and deveined.
- 1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts Cut into 1 inch cubes.
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2-3 teaspoons peanut oil Divided, Olive oil and avocado oil work fine.
- 1/4 cup chopped onions
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 2 tablespoons chopped green onions
- 1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts
- 2 eggs Beaten
Garnish
- fresh lime wedges
- bean sprouts
- green onions
- crushed red pepper (flakes)
Instructions
Rice Noodles
- Cook the rice noodles in accordance with the instructions on the package. Drain the noodles, rinse with cold water to stop the noodles from cooking, and set aside. Mine cooked for 3 minutes.
Pad Thai Sauce
- Place a skillet or saucepan on medium heat. Add all of the ingredients for the sauce. Stir for several minutes until the sweetener melts. The sauce won't become super thick. It will bubble some while the sweetener melts.
- If you want to make this recipe using one pan, you can by using a skillet. But if you are using monkfruit sweetener, the sweetener will cause the sauce to harden and crystallize as it stands (when removed from heat and set aside). I like to cook the sauce in a small saucepan and leave it heating on the stove on low while I perform the remaining steps of the recipe. You don't have to do this. You can set it aside and microwave it, when you're ready to add it to the pad Thai. Your choice.
Pad Thai
- Season the shrimp and chicken with salt and pepper to taste.
- Place a large skillet or wok on medium-high heat and add 1 teaspoon of peanut oil. Add in the shrimp. Cook for 3-4 minutes, flipping to cook both sides. When the shrimp has turned bright pink and fully cooked, remove it and set aside.
- Add the chicken cubes to the pan. If you need additional oil here, add it. Cook the chicken for 5-6 minutes, flipping to cook both sides and until completely cooked through. Remove the chicken and set it aside.
- Add 1 teaspoon of peanut oil to the pan (if needed) and add in the onions and garlic. Saute for 2-3 minutes until fragrant.
- Add the cooked noodles, Pad Thai Sauce, bean sprouts, green onions, and 1/2 of the chopped roasted peanuts to the pan. Stir to fully coat the noodles.
- Move the noodle mixture to the side to create room to scramble the eggs. Add the beaten eggs and scramble them to the side of the noodles. Once cooked, stir to incorporate the mixture.
- Add the chicken and shrimp back to the pan. Stir.
- Top with the additional peanuts and other garnish like bean sprouts and lime.
Video
Notes
- I love to serve my pad thai with extra crushed red pepper on top so I go a little easier during the recipe and start with 1 teaspoon.
- The sauce is the most important element of this recipe. Adjust to your taste. Make it sweeter, less sweet, spicier, etc by tasting as you go. You can always start with a small dose of the recommended ingredients and build from there if you wish.
- Peanut oil is used because it enhances the flavor of the dish. Feel free to substitute.
- You can use a large skillet or wok for this recipe. If using a wok, move quickly as food will cook much faster.
- I'm not a fan of super saucy pad Thai. If you like a lot of sauce, double the sauce ingredients. (This impacts the macros, recalculate as necessary).
- I usually can only find bean sprouts at my local Asian market. Kudos if your grocer carries them!
- You can substitute monkfruit for palm sugar, coconut sugar, or regular refined table sugar and use the same amount noted in the recipe.
- You can sub monkfruit for 1/4 cup of organic maple syrup.
- You can sub monkfruit for 1/4 cup of honey.
- What does fish sauce taste like? It's salty. Do not taste it straight. It's meant to be used in conjunction with food and other ingredients as an enhancement. Some substitute Worcestershire sauce, but it's not the same in my opinion. If you omit the fish sauce the dish will lack flavor.
- You can substitute tamarind paste for lime juice. Use enough to suit your taste.
- Omit the eggs if you wish.
- Substitute the protein for whatever you wish. You can even use tofu.
- I like a lot of shrimp, feel free to use however much you want. Blame years of being upset for only receiving 2 shrimp while picking up take out lol.
- Chicken thighs can be subbed for chicken breasts.
- You can also use brown rice noodles. These typically have similar macros to standard rice noodles, but our body processes brown rice differently than white rice.
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You can easily swap out the rice noodles for veggie noodles. Here are my favorites
- Hearts of Palm: You can find brands here on Amazon and Trader Joe's carries them as well. This is my FAVORITE pasta substitute. It’s a vegetable harvested from the inner core and growing bud of certain palm trees. And it tastes darn good when made into pasta!
- Zucchini Noodles – Use a spiralizer to create these.
- Spaghetti Squash
- Miracle Noodles – These are shirataki noodles. I have tried them once and they are ok. I’m not a huge fan. People swear by them!
- Here are the macros if you use Hearts of Palm Linguine (feel free to calculate your own macros using what you use in the recipe): Cals: 293 Fat: 10G Net Carbs: 12G Protein: 26G
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 443kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 27g | Fat: 11g | Sugar: 2g