Chicken Keto Pad Thai Dinner Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is chicken Pad Thai made of? ›

Pad Thai is a Thai noodle stir fry with a sweet-savoury-sour sauce scattered with crushed peanuts. It's made with thin, flat rice noodles, and almost always has bean sprouts, garlic chives, scrambled egg, firm tofu and a protein – the most popular being chicken or prawns/shrimp.

The dish is mixed with a tamarind sauce and served with lime. The flavors of this dish are centered around a sweet-savory fusion. Salty, nutty, and with that slightly sweet sauce, it's a treat for tastebuds! Of course, every Pad Thai can be different.

The blend of sweet, salty, umami and (tamarind) sour. Sweet, but not too sweet because, in the original receipt, palm sugar is mostly used. The characteristic of palm sugar is that it's not as sweet as fine cane sugar and it also has the unique aromatic odour. I give it 50% of the taste in Pad Thai sauce.

The most traditional protein to use in pad Thai is shrimp, but pork, chicken, and beef are popular options as well. Eggs and tofu are usually incorporated as part of the basic stir-fry. Pad Thai is often not vegetarian even without meat, however, because of the fish sauce and/or dried shrimp used to make the sauce.

Traditional pad thai sauce includes fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and tamarind paste. Tamarind paste is not easily found at a regular grocery stores so I substituted rice vinegar. If you would like to use tamarind paste, substitute about 2 Tablespoons in place of the rice vinegar in this recipe.

A perfectly cooked pad Thai should have a balance of flavors — tangy, sweet, spicy and salty, Trang says. This comes from a blend of tamarind paste, palm sugar, crushed red chili peppers and fish sauce. Traditional pad Thai sauces follow a basic formula of a third each of palm sugar, tamarind paste and fish sauce.

Pad Thai Adaptations

But the backbone of the dish remains the same – rice noodle, eggs, tofu and dried shrimps. As for the all-important sauce, it consists of a balanced nuance of three tastes: saltiness from either fish sauce or soy sauce, sweetness from palm sugar, and sourness from tamarind juice.

Why is Pad Thai so popular? David Thompson says this dish hits all the flavour notes – sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami. He says, “A good Pad Thai should be made with prawns and deep-fried shallots and when made well, it is damn delicious.”

Palmini is made 100% out of Hearts of Palm. Therefore, if you eat it straight out of the can, it will taste like Hearts of Palm with a softer texture. That being said, if you find Palmini too acidic, just soak it in your choice of milk for about 30 minutes.

Does Palmini make you gassy? ›

Are there any downsides to eating it? If you stick to a single portion, you should be good to go (we all know how easy it is to overdo it!). However, since it's high in fiber, Shapiro says it might cause gas and bloating if you eat it in excess.

Hearts of palm are a suitable pasta substitute for people eating a keto diet, Geiger says, because they're super low in carbs. A typical serving size of this keto-friendly pasta alternative (about ½ cup or three to four ounces) has only four grams of carbs, including one to two grams of fiber.

Thai Food and Travel and Hot Thai Kitchen say there are times American versions of pad Thai will also use paprika to make it red in an effort to make the dish more appealing to customers, but neither ketchup nor paprika are ingredients commonly found in Thai kitchens.

Fish sauce is a central ingredient in Thai cuisine, it is the salty element in the seasoning that balances all savoury dishes. Fish sauce: sweet, salty, fishy, and funky all at once!

TAMARIND SUBSTITUTION

Although ketchup is a common replacement for tamarind paste, we prefer this tasty mixture: 1/4 cup (50 mL) tomato paste, 2 tbsp (30 mL) rice vinegar or freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice, 2 tbsp (30 mL) Worcestershire, 2 garlic cloves, minced, 1 tbsp (15 mL) brown sugar and 1 tbsp (15 mL) water.

The taste of Pad Thai is a harmonious combination of sweet, sour, salty, and sometimes spicy flavors. Here's a breakdown of the flavors you might experience: Sweetness: Pad Thai often has a subtle sweetness, which comes from ingredients like tamarind paste or palm sugar.

Best: Pad Thai

It's made from rice noodles sauteed with spices, peanuts, egg, and bean sprouts. Get it with shrimp, chicken, or tofu for lean protein, and extra veggies for fiber and vitamins. Just watch your portion: Pad thai clocks in at 300 to 400 calories a cup.

Why is Pad Thai so popular? David Thompson says this dish hits all the flavour notes – sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami. He says, “A good Pad Thai should be made with prawns and deep-fried shallots and when made well, it is damn delicious.”

Traditional Pad Thai usually combines tamarind paste, fish sauce, dried shrimp, and palm sugar, creating a sweet, sour, and salty taste balance. It commonly includes tofu, dried shrimp, bean sprouts, and peanuts. However, Americanized versions might swap tamarind for ketchup, making it sweeter and less complex.