You can use any protein, like beef, pork, or chicken, or even tofu or shrimp, to make Pad See Ew, but be sure to marinate it with some soy sauce and potato starch. The soy sauce seasons the protein while the starch helps hold in its juices, keeping it moist and tender. Because all the ingredients have different cooking times, it can be a bit tough to time everything right. That’s why I like to simplify things by cooking the chicken separately before I cook the noodles. Aside from the soy sauce, the other key flavor component to this dish is not listed in the ingredients. That’s because it’s the smoky taste you get from being stir-fried in a high temperature wok (I like to call it “burnt wok flavor”). Unfortunately, not all of us have a high BTU wok burner in our homes, and there’s nothing worse than using a wok over a weak flame. So I’ve adapted this Pad See Ew recipe to work in a frying pan. Just be sure to use a frying pan or large skillet that’s big enough for the amount of food you put in it. This works great in a 12-inch pan. Because Pad See Ew cooks very quickly, it’s important to have all your ingredients prepared and ready to go into the pan one after the other. While sen yai (or ho fun) fresh rice noodles work best, they can be hard to find outside of Thailand, which is why I’ve written the directions for this Pad See Ew recipe using dried noodles. I used some dried noodles that come in 2-inch-wide square “flakes”. Be sure to rehydrate them completely before using. They take about 2 hours to rehydrate with room temperature water, or about 10 minutes if you use boiling water. Pad See Ew doesn’t have any chili peppers in the dish, but it’s usually served with chili peppers pickled in vinegar. The chilies and vinegar make for a spicy condiment that not only brings a bit of heat to the noodles, it provides a refreshing tang. You can make this buy slicing up some of your favorite chilies(I used serrano chilies), then soaking them in vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar) for a few days.
More Thai Dishes
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📖 Recipe
