Chicken Pad Thai with Daikon Noodles

Chicken Pad Thai with Daikon Noodles

One of the best parts about spiralizing is that just by simply changing up the...

Chicken Pad Thai with Daikon Noodles

One of the best parts about spiralizing is that just by simply changing up the noodle type in a recipe, you can completely change the taste and texture of the dish.

I feel like I start many blog posts with “one of the best parts about spiralizing is…” but, that’s because there are a lot of best parts!

While I’ve made a pad thai on this blog before, it is a) vegetarian and b) made with zucchini noodles. Today’s recipe has a few different steps and ingredients and of course, it’s made with a) chicken and b) daikon noodles.

Chicken Pad Thai with Daikon Noodles

Not that I need to preface my recipes, but I didn’t want you to think “oh, she’s losing her edge!” or “oh, she’s running out of recipe ideas!” Au contraire, my friends.

Daikon noodles are tricky, because they have a sometimes soapy flavor on account of their bitter, radish-like notes. In this recipe, I cook the daikon noodles right after the chicken so that the juices in the chicken cooks into the daikon noodles. Then, when the noodles are added back in with the sauce, they soak up even more flavor. Voila – no soapy daikon.

Chicken Pad Thai with Daikon Noodles

More flavor emerges from cooking the garlic and scallions together, which marries well with the robust flavors of the pad thai sauce (which is, perfectly spicy – with a hint of rich coconut and refreshing lime.)

If you want, it’s easy to substitute zucchini noodles here- just amp the coconut flour up by 1 teaspoon and use two medium zucchinis. Depending on if you want a softer noodle or something more al dente, cook the noodles with the sauce anywhere from 2-5 minutes.

Chicken Pad Thai with Daikon Noodles

My main beef with asian noodle dishes is that they tend to be high in sodium. I counteract the high sodium levels by drinking a large glass of water during and after this meal. This always does the trick – plus, it helps with digestion and avoids any feeling of bloat.

On a completely separate note, I never shared with you my Halloween costume from the weekend. I was supposed to be a fitness instructor but someone called me “gym girl,” so I guess I didn’t exactly nail the costume. Oh well, I was SO comfortable.

A photo posted by Ali(ssandra) Maffucci (@inspiralized) on

Also, sadly, I didn’t eat any Halloween candy this year. Normally I indulge in some candy corn or 3 Musketeers (I know, so random!), but I didn’t. I did manage to see the NYC Halloween Parade, which I’ve never done before – for some reason, I always miss it.

Lu was a zebra. Well, he bought a zebra onesie at Target which was hilarious.

Chicken Pad Thai with Daikon Noodles

So yea, that’s my life update and my recipe for the day. See you tomorrow – can’t wait to share a new video with you on my YouTube channel. If you’re not following already, make sure to subscribe by clicking the image below – and check out my new trailer!:

Nutritional Information & Recipe

Inspiralized

Chicken Pad Thai with Daikon Noodles

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 2

Ingredients

  • 2 whole eggs
  • 1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
  • 1 tablespoon peanut oil or oil of choice
  • ½ pound thin chicken breast sliced into strips
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 garlic clove minced
  • ½ cup diced scallions
  • 1 tablespoon coconut flour
  • 1 tablespoon roughly chopped cilantro + whole cilantro leaves to garnish
  • 1 medium daikon radish Blade C, noodles trimmed
  • For the sauce:
  • 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
  • 2 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1.5 tablespoon chili sauce I used Thai chili garlic sauce
  • 1.5 tablespoon honey

Instructions

  • Scramble the eggs and set aside.
  • Place all of the ingredients for the sauce into a bowl, whisk together and set aside.
  • Place the peanuts into a food processor and pulse until lightly ground (no big peanuts should remain, but it shouldn't be powdery). Set aside.
  • Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add in half of the oil and let heat. Once heated, add in the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink. Turn the heat down to low and set the chicken aside on a plate, using tongs or a slotted spoon. Immediately add in the daikon noodles, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat the noodles in the juices. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until daikon has softened.
  • Transfer the cooked daikon to a large bowl and add in the other ½ tablespoon of oil. Add the garlic and scallions into the pan, stirring constantly to avoid burning and cook for about 1 minute, until the scallions begin to soften. Add in the sauce and then the flour, turn the heat back up to medium and whisk quickly so that the flour dissolves and the sauce thickens.
  • Once the sauce is thick, add back in the daikon noodles and toss to combine thoroughly, tossing until noodles are completely coated in the sauce.
  • Add in the cooked chicken (with any juices), scrambled eggs and half the ground peanuts. Cook for about 30 seconds, tossing to fully combine.
  • Plate onto dishes and garnish with cilantro leaves, the rest of the scallions and the rest of the ground peanuts. Serve with lime wedges.
with love, Ali

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Recipe Rating




comments

  • Can't wait to try this!
  • Love pad thai, so I can't wait to try this! What's a vegetable you would consider most closely comparable to daikon? I have difficulties finding that where I go grocery shopping, and the zucchini selection has been not as great lately there, either (much to my chagrin!).
  • LOVE pad thai, and I love every single variation on it! I've got to try the spiralized daikon noodles, so creative!
  • Another pad thai lover here. I'll be making it with zucchini, broccoli or kohlrabi noodles because my husband does not like radishes. Ever. When do we get to see Lu's zebra onesie????? :-)
  • Is there an acceptable substitute for fish sauce? The last time I tried using it to make a pad thai, the smell and taste were so powerful that it completely overwhelmed the dish. I am not sure if it was the brand but I have not attempted to do anything with fish sauce since. Any recommendations??
    • I simply leave it out or use approximately half of what the recipe calls for!
  • I totally believe it that changing up the noodles can drastically change the flavor since they bring so much flavor to the mix themselves! I never thought to zoodle daikon...but it sounds perfect in this! And LOVE the halloween costume!! I think with the headpiece, I totally would have gotten it.
  • OMG I was dying for pad thai yesterday and all I had was carrots- they worked surprisingly well! In fact I'm making it again today!! Love your page btw. Keep up the good work!
  • This was SO yummy. I doubled the recipe so that we could have it for lunch the next day too but my husband gobbled up the WHOLE THING. He kept saying, "THIS is healthy?!" The only think I would do is up the amount of Daikon. I used the whole bag (about 5 radishes) and then added a large zucchini and it still wasn't enough to make it into four full sized servings. There would have been more than enough sauce to cover another bag of daikon. Will definitely be making again :)
  • Hi, thanks for the recipe! I've never had daikon before but recently bought once so I could try this recipe. Can you replace coconut flour with normal flour in this recipe? I don't have any at home and am a little hesitant to buy it since I don't know anything else I can use it in. Do you have any suggestions for coconut flour recipes (aside from the other two on the website)?
  • I can't wait to make this tomorrow. I am a little skeptical about the nutritional info listed. How can 4 oz of chicken plus an egg be only 15 grams of protein?
  • Thank you so much for this suggestion! We love Pad Thai and had become pretty proficient at making it at home. I recently got my hubby to use spiralized turnip and zucchini instead of the rice noodles and it's totally AWESOME!!! I'm addicted to the spiralizer :D
  • This was delicious!! I used shrimp instead of chicken and cashews instead of peanuts. I will double it for leftovers next time I make it.
  • I just tried this recipe but made it with zucchini! Wow, so delish! Love your website :)
  • Made this tonight - it was unbelievably good. Perfect Monday night fare. Satisfying, delicious and the daikon noodles were a revelation. Used dark soy so the finished dish wasn't as pretty as yours but the taste was sensational. Another one we will definitely repeat.
  • Had this tonight with swoodles - swede noodles. Amazing, thanks so much for Inspiralized and congratulations from England on your upcoming wedding. Jx
  • I know this recipe is from a while ago but I was thinking about trying it as I have a daikon radish in my fridge and have been craving pad thai! Do you have any info on the weight of "1 medium daikon" would be? At my grocery they tend to be anywhere from 6 inches long but 4 inches in diameter to 14 inches long and 2-3 inches in diameter. I was also wondering if this would keep to take for lunch next day? I haven't tried that yet with spiralized recipes and don't want to waste any of it if it just wouldn't work. Thanks!
  • This was too saltey for me to eat. It smelled so good! But I had to throw it out, and I even used a low sodium soy sauce UnU. I need to try this again and cut it with water.
  • Absolutely loved this recipe. I have been a fan of the cookbook for a long time and this was the first website recipe that we tried. Thank you for posting it and I hope that everyone is able to find daikon. We cooked with a mix of olive oil and a little bit of sesame oil and I think that took the bite out of the daikon too. Also added some leftover sugar snap peas and spiralized carrots at the end to stretch the recipe and add more color. It was hard to have leftovers!! Thanks again.
    • Thank you so much for your support and love, Nicole. We are so happy to hear that you loved this recipe and so many more!
  • I bought your Inspiralizer recently and would like to find a vegetable to spiralized that would go with a Thai inspired chicken dish I want to use a little of the green marinade as a sauce for the noodles. Could you recommend a noodle that is quite neutral yet sturdy. I would use zucchini but I need to freeze the whole meal after it is cooked and the zucchini would turn to mush. I am disabled and have someone cook my meals and freeze them so all I need to do is warm them. I'm excited about using the Inspiralizer. Love your website. Thanks for sharing your creativity.
  • Just made this tonight. It is delicious!! I'm trying to resist eating the other half! :)
  • I'm wondering about a substitute for the coconut flour since I'm allergic.
    • I didn't have coconut flour, so I used tapioca flour. It worked great!
  • I just made this... Absolutely perfect! I also added shredded carrot noodles. Thank you for this recipe!
  • Hi! Are you supposed to cook the scrambled eggs at the beginning? Or do you add them scrambled and raw at the end? Thanks!
    • Hi, Betsy! Scramble the eggs and set aside at the start - the instructions should help!!
      • Of course I read the instructions; I made the dish. My question is whether or not they were supposed to be COOKED at the beginning or left raw to cook at the end, since scrambling only means mixing. 30 seconds didn't sound like enough time to fully cook raw eggs at the end (and indeed it wasn't), especially if mixed with other ingredients. Also the photo seemed to suggest that already cooked eggs were used. If you would simply answer the question that would be great.
        • Sorry for any confusion - I did answer the question but again, I think the word "scrambled" was misunderstood, just scramble them (here we mean cooking them following the scrambled egg method) at the start and add in the scrambled eggs at the end to heat them back up for 30 seconds. You're correct, 30 seconds isn't enough time to scramble an egg.
          • Ok thanks; I see your point. It might be that other readers will also take the instructions to simply scramble (mix up) and set aside literally, as I did. So that's just a thought. But thank you for the clarification.