Pad See Ew
A comforting and easy dinner dish that I love to cook and think you will too! Pad See Ew is an iconic Thai dish where noodles, protein and greens are pan fried and caramelized with soy sauce over very high heat. Pad means ‘Stir Fry’ and See Ew means ‘Soy Sauce’, so the name simply translates to ‘Soy Sauce Stir Fry’. It’s a fast food dish of Thailand where you would order this from a street vendor or at a night market, but I love to make this on a weeknight when I’m strapped for time and want to whip up something easy but delicious in less than 20 minutes. It takes 10-15 minutes to prepare all the ingredients (which you should have most in your fridge and pantry) and then only another 5 minutes to cook it all the pan. Trust me, I even timed myself to make sure! For this version of the recipe, I made it with chicken and prawns but you can add in any protein you wish as well as any vegetables you have in the fridge. It’s the perfect dish for throwing any leftovers you have in the fridge!
Serves- 2
Ingredients- 15
Cooking Time- 20 minutes
Skill Level- Easy AF
Ingredients
- 200g (1-2) chicken thighs, sliced into thin pieces
- 100g (5-6) prawns, raw and peeled
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped or grated using a micro plane
- 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon of Vietnamese fish sauce
- 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, ideally dark soy sauce so you get the dark brown colour
- 2 tablespoons of my homemade chilli oil
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
- 1 bunch (100g) of Chinese broccoli (Gai Larn), cut the stems into small thin pieces and the leafy sections cut into 5cm lengths.
- 2-3 stems of spring onions, cut into 5cm lengths
- 1 packet (200g) of pad thai or thick rice noodles
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
Chilli Vinegar:
- ¼ cup of white vinegar
- 1 long red chilli, finely sliced
Watch the process
Method
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For Pad See Ew, you need to prepare all of your ingredients before you start cooking and make sure that all ingredients are cut up into thin small pieces so that they will cook quickly.
- Marinate your protein of choice in separate bowls. Drizzle half a tablespoon of sesame oil each over the chicken and prawns. This helps the pieces to not clump in the pan whilst cooking. Finely grate 2 garlic cloves into the chicken and prawn and add a tablespoon of soy sauce to the chicken and a teaspoon of fish sauce to the prawns. Mix to combine and set aside.
- Prepare your Chinese Broccoli by finely slicing the stems and then cutting the leafy sections into 5cm lengths. Cut your spring onions into 5 cm lengths.
- Mix your remaining soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and chilli oil or chilli flakes to create the sauce.
- Prepare your chilli vinegar sauce (which will be drizzled at the end) by simply adding some chopped fresh chillies into a bowl of white vinegar.
- Crack your eggs and lightly beat them until combined and add a pinch of cracked pepper to season.
- For the noodles, pour a jug of boiling water over them in a bowl, allow to stand for 5 minutes and soften slightly and then drain. Don’t ever cook them in a pot like you do with pasta or you’ll get soft and soggy Pad See Ew! Now you’re ready to fry!
- Firstly, cook your proteins separately. Heat a large pan on the highest heat setting you can, add 1 tablespoon of oil and allow it to get super hot to the point where your oil starts to smoke. Throw in your chicken and stir fry on high for 1 minute until the meat cooks and becomes translucent to opaque. Then throw in your prawns and cook on each side in contact with the bottom of the pan for 20 seconds on each side. Prawns take 1 minute to cook so you want to pull these out when they are still underdone so that when you place them back into the noodles, they will be just cooked. Remove from the pan into a bowl and set aside.
- Reheat the same large pan on the highest heat setting you can, add another tablespoon of oil and allow it to get super hot to the point where your oil starts to smoke. You pan the pan to be super hot so it cooks everything quickly.
- Throw in your Chinese broccoli and stir in the pan for 1 minute until it wilts and softens.
- Throw in your spring onions and stir around for 30 seconds or until softened.
- Then throw in your noodles into the pan and pour over your sauce. Gently stir for 15 seconds so that the noodles and greens are coated evenly in the sauce and then allow them all to stand in the pan untouched for 30 seconds. This is crucial as you want the sauce to caramelise and for the noodles to char in the pan. Then mix and stir the noodles around and repeat for another minute or until your noodles have gone from white to a medium brown colour with char marks.
- Then push all of the ingredients to one half of the pan and move the bare half over the hottest part of your flame.
- Pour in your egg mixture and allow it to cook for 5 seconds before using your spatula to scramble the egg into small bite sized pieces. Then stir it all into your noodles.
- Finely place your chicken and prawns back into the pan and give it a final quick mix and stir to combine before turning off the heat!
- Serve onto a plate and finally, drizzle a few spoonful's of the chilli vinegar mixture over your noodles. The chilli vinegar cuts through the salt from the soy and fat from the protein and stir fry to brighten it, in the same way that drizzling some lemon over a pasta dish will make it taste zingy and fresher.
- Eat immediately whilst hot and enjoy!