Chicken Pad Thai

Justine Schofield's home-made pad thai sauce of lime, brown sugar, oyster and fish sauce tossed through rice noodles with chicken, peanuts and bean sprouts. The Thai street standard, weeknight-friendly when the sauce is mixed ahead. Wok-hot, served immediately.

Pad thai is the Thai national dish, surprisingly young in the broader Thai culinary repertoire (developed in the 1930s as part of a government nation-branding campaign by Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram, who wanted a signature street food that would represent modern Thailand). The dish has spread globally since the 1980s as the standard Thai-restaurant entry point for Western diners; the home version is more straightforward than the proper street-stall recipe.

The sauce mix-ahead technique is the weeknight efficiency move. Lime juice, brown sugar, oyster sauce and fish sauce all whisked together in a small bowl while the wok heats; the sauce poured into the wok in a single addition during the cooking, rather than measured out ingredient by ingredient as the dish stir-fries. The mixed sauce coats the noodles evenly in seconds and reduces to a glossy coat without needing additional cornflour.

The pre-soaked rice noodles are the structural carbohydrate. Soaked according to packet instructions (warm water for around twenty minutes, drained well) until pliable but still slightly firm; finishing the cook in the wok with the sauce. Over-soaked noodles fall apart in the wok; under-soaked noodles stay too firm. Crushed roasted peanuts, bean sprouts, sliced spring onion and lime wedges to serve. A cold Singha alongside; eat with chopsticks from a single big bowl.