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Paleo Chicken Pad Thai combines butternut squash noodles, tons of vegetables for texture and flavor, and is drizzled with the most delicious creamy lime almond butter sauce! This kid-friendly variation is not spicy, but full of flavor. You’ll love this for an easy and healthy weeknight dinner!
A delicious and light way to enjoy Pad Thai!
Pad Thai Chicken will forever be one of our favorite meals to order off a menu at a restaurant. It doesn’t get much better than crunchy veggies, chicken, a peanut sauce, and noodles to slurp! But in typical Wholesomelicious form, I have to find ways to lighten up traditional Pad Thai.
As a nutritionist, I am always on the lookout for ways to add in more veggies and fiber. With this particular Pad Thai, we’re using butternut squash noodles! Butternut squash is loaded with fiber, and other nutrients like Vitamins A and C.
I am now obsessed with butternut squash noodles. They have this creamy nutty texture that is WAY better than pasta noodles. So how many times did I make them this week? Oh I’m glad you asked! Just 4 times. And this week, I have them on my list to make at least 5 more. From my Butternut Squash Noodles with Tomato Basil Sausage Cream Sauce, to my Greek Meatballs with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.
How to Make Paleo Chicken Pad Thai:
To start, we will need to prep butternut squash and spiralize it. My spiralizer is one of my favorite tools!
- Cook the butternut squash noodles and chicken at the same time on a baking sheet. This saves time!
- While it’s baking in the oven, make the sauce by combining in the food processor or blender.
- In a skillet, heat up oil and saute the carrots and bell pepper.
- Scramble an egg in the same skillet.
- Toss noodles, veggies, chicken, and sauce together.
- Top with cilantro, green onion, and almonds to serve.
Nut Butter Sauce:
Since we never seem to have peanut butter in the house anymore, I made an almond butter sauce. I changed it up a bit from my normal sauce, adding in some lime and making it creamy with some flax milk (any dairy free milk will work). The honey, nut butter, coconut aminos, ginger, and apple cider vinegar work also work so well together! And the result from my official taste testers?
AWESOMESAUCE!! Their word not mine, haha. You may have more sauce than you need, which you won’t mind at all. Just store any extra in the fridge for later use.
Variations and Adaptations:
- Noodles: feel free to use any noodle of choice. This is also delicious with zucchini noodles or sweet potatoes. If you want to use any kind of pasta, you can also substitute with a thin noodle!
- Veggies: I used carrots and bell pepper in here. Feel free to customize! Mushrooms and broccoli are also great options.
- Protein: Shrimp or beef would also make a great option.
Paleo Chicken Pad Thai
Ingredients
For the Pad Thai:
- 1 lb chicken breast or tenders*
- 2 butternut squash bulbs
- 2 tbsp avocado or olive oil
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped and de-seeded
- 2 carrots, chopped or julienned
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup chopped red cabbage
- 1/4 cup chopped green onion
- 1/2 cup chopped almonds or cashews
- 1/4 chopped fresh cilantro, optional
- Salt and pepper to taste
For the Sauce:
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/3 cup cashew milk, or your favorite dairy-free milk
- 3 tbsp raw honey
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos or soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- Juice of 1/2 lime
Instructions
- Begin by heating your oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and set aside. To use the stovetop variation, see the notes section below.
- Salt and pepper your chicken breasts (make sure they are roughly around the same size for even cooking). Place on the baking sheet.
- Now prepare your butternut squash. Remove the bulbous end of the squash (you can’t spiralize this end because of the seeds). Now peel the skin off the narrow end that you are going to spiralize. It’s easier to cut this part in half. Spiralize the sized/shape noodles you like.(note that thicker noodles require at least 20-25 minutes, thinner noodles might be done faster). Once noodles are made, drizzle with a tbsp of oil, add to the sheet pan. Salt and pepper both the chicken and the noodles. Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked all the way.
- Meanwhile make the sauce: in a blender or food processor, pulse together almond butter, honey, sesame oil, coconut aminos, garlic, lime, vinegar, and ginger. While motor is running, pour in cashew milk. Continue to pulse until sauce is creamy and well combined.
- Heat up skillet to medium heat. Spray with non-stick or use avocado oil. Saute carrots and bell pepper for 2-3 minutes. Whisk together eggs, and add them to the pan. Continue to cook another 2-3 minutes or until eggs are scrambled. Set aside.
- Remove chicken and butternut squash noodles from the oven. Cut chicken into small pieces. Toss chicken and noodles into a large bowl. Now add in eggs and carrot/pepper mixture. Add in cabbage, cilantro, and cashews or almonds. Continue to toss and pour the sauce on top of the mixture (you may not want to use the entire sauce). Mix around until well combine.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve!
For the sauce, I reduced the honey to 1 tablespoon, admittedly a tiny bit overflowing, and the sauce was amazing. Not too sweet. Also I used lentil spaghetti noodles along with zucchini noodles, cabbage, red onion, green beans and for the meat I cut up salmon into small bite sized pieces and sautéed in sesame oil because these were what I had on hand. Delicious
So glad you loved it!!
Just made this, and holy crap it is delicious!! We added some red pepper flakes, purple basil and chili paste to add some kick but otherwise it is perfection. Will definitely be making again!
I am looking for a use for spiralized carrot noodles (TJ’s frozen section). Do you think these would be a suitable substitute for the butternut squash zoodles?
Yes, I think that would work well!
I made this last night and it was delicious! My whole family loved it and even had seconds. Win Win for getting tons of veggies into the kids and they didnt even know it 😉
I tried this recipe, and it was awesome! The sauce was amazing. Thank you!
Wooohoo!!
I just searched for sheet pan pad Thai and this came up. Have to say it looks DELICIOUS and I’m definitely going to try it out! Thanks!!
Flavors were really great, but the dish came out like a clump and grainy. I was concerned when the directions said to cook the spiral cut butternut squash in the oven. Being so thin I expected the squash to cook quickly and it did. This lead to the dish getting mushy once all mixed together. I’ll make this again, but cook the squash separately in a frying pan. Thanks!
I made the recipe exactly as listed and it was great. The second time I used spaghetti squash and added some chili paste and it was awesome too. Thanks for the great recipe.
The flavor was really good and I would make this again. Gave 4 stars because: 1) It took me 45-50 minutes to make, and I had pre-spiralized squash and pre-cut cabbage; and 2) for my tastes, it needed salt and extra lime on top of individual serving; and 3) by the time I put everything together it was luke warm. I would put it all in the pan together when adding the sauce. I would definitely double the recipe next time so could have left-overs. My husband and I ate the whole thing! P.S. Don’t rate a recipe that you haven’t actually made.
I completely agree with you on rating a recipe that you haven’t even made, it’s not truthful and people like me are looking for people who have actually made it. I don’t want to try something everyone says oh how pretty, looks amazing, sounds good…all that may be true, but how does it turn out!?! I’m here bc all I was able to ascertain on my own. Your comment is the second comment of someone who actually made this recipe…smh. Thanks for your thorough comment! Cheers!!
Amy, I had to write you and tell you that I made this for my family for dinner tonight. It was seriously, SERIOUSLY one of the most delicious things I had ever made, Thank you so much!
Thank you, Millason!Just made my day 🙂