The construction of backstepping control input needs the derivative of the virtual controller to be available. However, this requirement usually makes the implementation of the controller very difficult and complicated. To overcome this problem, in this paper, an adaptive dynamic surface control (ADSC) is proposed for a class of strict-feedback nonlinear systems with parametric uncertainty and external disturbance. In each step of the backstepping control design, the virtual control input is estimated by an auxiliary signal which is generated by a proposed dynamic surface. This signal’s derivative is easy to obtain, so it is not necessary to achieve the derivative of the virtual control input. By using the Lyapunov stability theorem, an ADSC has been established to guarantee the boundedness of all signals and the convergence of the tracking errors. Finally, a simulation example is given to indicate the effectiveness of our control approach.