Name: Homemade Blue Dragon Pad Thai [easy copycat recipe]
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 100-150 gram rice noodles; 2 Tbs canola oil; 2 cloves garlic (minced); 1-2 chicken breasts (or 1/2 cup firm tofu, cubed (both optional)); 1 egg (whisked in a small bowl(you can omit the egg if you do not eat egg!)); 1 cup bean sprouts; ½ cup white cabbage (sliced thin); 2 Tbs green onion (sliced); 1 Tbs crushed peanuts; 1 lime (quartered); 2 Tbs soy sauce; 2 Tbs mushroom sauce; 1 Tbs ketchup; ½ Tbs sugar; ½ Tbs lime or lemon juice; ½ tsp black soy sauce

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If you love a good easy Pad Thai but want to save money, try this 10 Minute Homemade Blue Dragon Pad Thai recipe!! Everything you love about Pad Thai: saucy rice noodles, tangy lime, crunchy peanuts, and chicken or tofu…but made totally from scratch, no store bought mixes!

While true Pad Thai sauce uses tamarind as a main ingredient for that special tang the dish is famous for, today we are using a pantry staple substitute… ketchup!

Believe it or not this simple condiment imitates tamarind with surprising accuracy: it gives the dish that earthy tartness and sweet undertone.

pad thai in wok with cabbage and chicken — the perfect lunch

I worked for years as a chef at a Thai restaurant (Kapao), and Pad Thai was one of my favorite things to eat for lunch, along with Thai Cashew Chicken and Crispy Thai Spring rolls.

Try this 10 Minutes Thai Green Curry:

I never needed to cook Thai at home because I ate it every day at work! But when I gave birth to my son and stopped at the restaurant(grueling hours for a mom let me tell you!), I was suddenly craving Thai food again.

My teacher taught me that the trick for the home cook without an extensive Thai pantry, is ketchup. And he was right!

What to love about this recipe

This Pad Thai is saucy and rich with flavor, and takes just a few minutes to prepare from start to finish. You can customize the vegetables based on what you have on hand, and make this vegan by using tofu and no egg.

Blue Dragon Pad Thai Copycat recipe

This is an easy recipe for making a homemade Blue Dragon style Pad Thai dish without any store bought sauces.

Growing up we used a lot of packaged mixes! My mom wasn’t a crazy home cook and packages of Noh and bottles of Thai sauce were a lifesaver. Pad Thai is mammas favorite(extra peanuts every time! hahah).

While packaged sauces are handy they can be expensive and you will see how easy it is to create something Homemade, totally from scratch, with no preservatives.

saucy rice noodles — nothing fancy but tastes SO GOOD

Chicken or Tofu Pad Thai ingredients

Use chicken cubes or firm tofu cubes for this Pad Thai, along with bean sprouts, shredded cabbage, and green onion and peanuts. The scrambled egg is optional but it adds so much and I never do without it!

What you need:

Chicken cubed or sliced thin, or firm tofu
rice noodles for Pad Thai (it usually says on the package “Pad Thai noodles”, otherwise get thin clean rice noodles
Bean Sprouts
Shredded cabbage
Minced garlic
Egg (optional but totally recommended)
Green onion added at the end to keep its color
Crushed Peanuts
Lime (you cannot have a good pad Thai without lime! substitute with fresh lemon juice)

Also try these Crispy Fried Sesame Chicken Spring Rolls:

Homemade Blue Dragon Sauce

Pad Thai is all about the sauce! To make this incredible jarred sauce at home from scratch you will need a few simple ingredients.

Soy sauce
Mushroom sauce or Mock Oyster Sauce
Black Soy Sauce(this is much thicker and richer in color and flavor than regular soy sauce. A little bit goes a long way)
Ketchup (our simple substitute for tamarind paste)
Sugar (use white or brown sugar)
Lime or Lemon juice

vegetarian mushroom sauce is a must — vegetarian mushroom sauce for all the umami flavor

To make the sauce simply combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix with a fork until smooth.