Pad Thai for 25+

Wow. Those three years went by pretty fast! That was my first reaction to seeing that I had not posted anything since May 2019. Then it occurred to me what happened in May 2019… I took on an administrative role as the director of our graduate program. Guess what happened last week? I completed my 3-year term and stepped down. Yay for moving on, working on new projects, and returning to some old ones.

One of the things I’ve been making time for over since the beginning of this year is contributing to my community — volunteering at music festivals, serving on the board of our native plant garden, and helping with dinner at a homeless shelter once a month. Our group decided upon Asian cuisine (or our version of it anyway). It has been a big hit. This month’s dish was Pad Thai. I had a basic recipe with which to work, then modified it to suit my taste and current obsession with spicy chili crisp.

I love this dish and hope you do too! See you soon — Lynn

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds thin rice noodles
• 1 1/2 cups fish sauce
• 1 1/2 cups rice wine vinegar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chili garlic crisp
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 3 pound chicken thighs, cut into ¾ inch cubes
• 1 t. garlic powder
• 1 t. onion powder
• 1 t. salt
• 2 t. sesame oil
• 1/2 cup peanut oil
• 10-12 cloves of garlic, minced
• 6-9 eggs, whisked
• Shredded/ matchstick carrots (2 10-oz. bags)
• 3 bunches green onions, slice diagonally into 1 ½ inch long pieces
• bean sprouts (4 8-oz bags)
• 1 ½ cups roughly chopped roasted salt peanuts (plus more for garnish)
• 3-4 limes, quartered
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Method:

1. Put noodles on to soak for 10 minutes in warm water.
2. Whisk together fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, chili garlic crisp and peanut butter until well-incorporated.
3. Toss chicken with 1 t. salt, garlic and onion powders.
4. Drain noodles and toss with sesame oil to keep from sticking.
5. Note: You are now cooking in two batches going forward…
6. Heat wok over medium high heat. Add ½ cup peanut oil; add half of the garlic, sauté until fragrant.
7. Add half of the chicken in a single layer. Cook, without disturbing, until opaque and golden. Flip the chicken and cook for another 3-5 minutes until done.
8. Add half the noodles and half the sauce (about 2 cups) to the pan with the chicken, tossing noodles gently. Bring sauce to a boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
9. Make a hole in the middle and pour in half the eggs; cover with noodles and let sit for 1 minute; then toss the mix cooked eggs with noodles.
10. Add half the shredded carrots and half the green onions; cook 2 more minutes.
11. Dump into large pan and mix in half of bean sprouts and 3/4 cup roughly chopped peanuts
12. Clean work and repeat steps 5-11.

Toppings: Roughly chopped peanuts, lime wedges, chopped cilantro

Yield: 25 servings

Prep time: 40 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes