Name: Pad Khao Pord Orn (Stir-Fried Baby Corn)
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: Serves 2
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 200g Prawns, peeled and deveined (กุ้งขาว); 150g Baby corn, halved on the diagonal (ข้าวโพดอ่อน); 100g Straw mushrooms, halved (เห็ดฟาง); 1/2 Carrot, sliced (แครอท); 4-5 cloves Garlic, chopped (กระเทียม); 3 Spring onions, cut into lengths (ต้นหอม); 1-2 tbsp Oyster sauce (ซอสหอยนางรม); 1 tbsp Seasoning or light soy sauce (ซอสปรุงรส); 1/2 tsp Sugar (น้ำตาลทราย); to taste Ground white pepper (พริกไทยป่น); 2 tbsp Vegetable oil (น้ำมันพืช); 2-4 Red chillies, sliced, for the hot version (พริกแดง)

ผัดข้าวโพดอ่อน

Pad khao pord orn is the workhorse of Thai home cooking — baby corn, a little protein, a quick oyster-soy glaze, five minutes over high heat. It is not a famous dish and no one photographs it, but it is on nearly every UK Thai menu because it is fast, cheap, and reliably good.

The dish is really a template. Thai cooks run it with prawns (kung), pork belly (sam chan), chicken or mushrooms, and the seasoning barely changes: oyster sauce, a splash of seasoning sauce, sugar, white pepper, garlic, spring onion.

The Recipe (serves 2 · ~15 min)

Allergens: shellfish, soy, gluten · Suitable for: dairy-free

For the stir-fry (prawn version)

Thai	English	Amount
กุ้งขาว	Prawns, peeled and deveined	200g
ข้าวโพดอ่อน	Baby corn, halved on the diagonal	150g
เห็ดฟาง	Straw mushrooms, halved	100g
แครอท	Carrot, sliced	1/2
กระเทียม	Garlic, chopped	4-5 cloves
ต้นหอม	Spring onions, cut into lengths	3
ซอสหอยนางรม	Oyster sauce	1-2 tbsp
ซอสปรุงรส	Seasoning or light soy sauce	1 tbsp
น้ำตาลทราย	Sugar	1/2 tsp
พริกไทยป่น	Ground white pepper	to taste
น้ำมันพืช	Vegetable oil	2 tbsp

Optional

Thai	English	Amount
พริกแดง	Red chillies, sliced, for the hot version	2-4

The Method

Prep. Blanch the prawns for one minute in boiling water if you want them plump rather than curled — or keep them raw for more flavour in the wok. Halve the baby corn on the diagonal and have everything else cut and ready before the wok goes on.
Stir-fry. Heat the oil over medium-high. Fry the garlic until golden, then add the prawns and stir-fry until almost cooked. Add the baby corn, mushrooms and carrot. Season with oyster sauce, soy, sugar and pepper, with a splash of water to help the sauce coat. Keep the heat high and the vegetables moving — baby corn should stay crunchy, never steamed soft.
Finish. Add the spring onions (and chillies if using) in the last thirty seconds. Serve immediately with steamed rice.

Crunch is the point

Baby corn is eaten for its snap. The entire cooking time is two or three minutes over high heat — enough to heat it through and glaze it, not enough to soften it. The moment it stops crunching, the dish has failed, which is why everything must be cut and ready before the wok gets hot.

The 1:1 rule

Across the Thai sources the sauce ratio repeats: oyster sauce and seasoning sauce one-to-one, plus sugar to round the salt. Everything else is negotiable; that balance is not.

Serving

Rice: Steamed jasmine rice
Extra: Squeeze of lime or prik nam pla for the table

Cook's Tips

Baby corn is done the moment it is hot through. Overcooking turns it from crunchy to squeaky to soft.
The sauce ratio that keeps repeating across Thai sources is oyster sauce to seasoning sauce at 1:1 — build from there.
This is a template stir-fry: swap the prawns for pork belly, chicken, squid or tofu and keep everything else the same.

Variations

Pork belly version. Wongnai's sam chan phat khao pod orn fries sliced pork belly until golden first, then stir-fries the corn in the rendered fat with fish sauce.
Vegetarian version. No meat at all — baby corn braised in a glossy mushroom-soy sauce thickened with tapioca starch.

Sources

This recipe is translated from the following Thai-language sources. Where they disagree, we've said so.

1. Cookpad — kung phat khao pod orn by Kru Pi Khan — https://cookpad.com/th/recipes/16590585

2. Cookpad — kung phat khao pod orn by Fiat — https://cookpad.com/th/recipes/15051970

3. Wongnai — sam chan phat khao pod orn by chubbylawyer — https://www.wongnai.com/recipes/ugc/9348b1b36f2d4dc89e3d8a97824dd1d5

4. Wongnai — khao pod orn song krueng je by Euston — https://www.wongnai.com/recipes/ugc/1f11a313fcd04d898da44f9321d5030e

Johnny Tiger

Johnny researches and translates Thai recipes from Thai-language sources — chefs, restaurants and home cooks in Thailand — and publishes them with their sources cited. No westernised shortcuts, no invented steps.