Chiang Mai Noodles (Thai Chicken Khao Soi)

Feature image shows a big white noodle soup bowl with curry chicken, noodles, lime, and cilantro in a creamy coconut red curry milk broth

5 from 3 votes

Chiang Mai Noodles (Thai Chicken Khao Soi)

Chiang Mai Noodles (Thai Chicken Khao Soi) with tender chicken, simmered in coconut milk cream broth. This Thai-inspired curry noodles taste creamy, rich, savory, zesty, and little spicy. Use my tips to make the best Kao Soi at home easy and taste amazing!

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine Thai

Keyword Chiang mai curry, Chiang mai curry noodles, Chiang mai noodles, Chicken kaho soi, kaho soi thai, Kao soi, kao soy, khao soi, Khao soi chiang mai, Khao soi gai, khao soi recipe, Khao soy, Kow soi, Thai khao soi

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings serving

Calories 587kcal

Author ChihYu

Ingredients

3-4 tbsp Thai Kitchen red curry paste
4 tbsp avocado oil
4 oz. shallot finely chopped, 2 large
0.5 oz ginger finely chopped
1 tsp EACH coriander, turmeric, cumin, and garam masala powder
14 oz. Full fat coconut cream
2 lbs chicken drumsticks or thighs (skin-on and bone-in)
2.5-3 cups water or chicken stock
1-2 tsp fish sauce or to taste
2 tbsp coconut sugar or to taste
4 pieces kaffir lime leaves fresh or dry, optional
Rice noodles

Toppings of choice:

1 whole lime juice plus extra for serving
Coriander leaves chopped, optional
Fried onion store-bought, optional
Chinese pickled mustard greens diced, optional
Bean sprouts optional

US - Metric

Instructions

Preheat a Dutch oven or 4-quart (or larger) heavy soup pot over medium-low heat until it feels warm. Add the curry paste, oil, shallot, ginger, and dry spice seasonings - coriander, turmeric, cumin, and garam masala powder. Saute over medium-low heat for 1 minute.
Add ½ cup coconut cream and keep sauteing over medium-low heat until you can see the oil starts surfacing to the top and is separated from the paste, about 3 minutes or longer. Stir often with a wooden spoon so that the paste won’t get burnt.
Add the chicken and gently stir to coat the curry paste over the drumsticks. Add the remaining coconut cream, water, fish sauce, sugar, and lime leaves, if using. Give it a stir then cover the pot and bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat, about 5 minutes. Then, lower the heat to simmer and cook for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, cook the noodles in a separate pot, following the package instructions.
Once the chicken has fallen off the bone tender, taste and start seasoning the broth further with fish sauce, sugar, and lime juice to taste. The flavor should be savory, sweet, a little spicy, and zesty sour flavor.
To serve, you can shred the chicken or serve a whole drumstick as people do in Thailand. Add the boiled noodles to individual serving bowls with chicken and a few spoonfuls of hot broth. Garnish with fried shallots, pickled chinese mustard greens, sliced shallots, and bean sprouts, if using. Serve with extra lime wedges on the side. Serve hot.

Video

Notes

What are some must-have ingredients to make Kao Soi?

Out of all the ingredients to make Chiang Mai noodles, the must-haves are Thai red curry paste, ginger, shallot, coriander powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, chicken, stock or water, coconut sugar, fish sauce, noodles, and lime juice.

Can I use boneless chicken?

I don’t recommend it. You can use a combination of bone-in and skin-on chicken drumsticks or thighs along with boneless chicken. You need bones to create a flavorful broth.

Slow Cooker

Set it on high for 4 hours or low for 6-7 hours.

Storage and Reheat

Store the noodles separately from the curry soup in an airtight container in the fridge for 4 days. Reheat over a stovetop. The broth will gelatinize so more water to thin the broth if it becomes too thick.

Substitute ingredients

You can substitute lime and lemon zest for kaffir lime leaves. Use about 1 whole lime zest and half of one whole lemon zest.
The same dish also works for beef or pork. The cook time might be longer to cook the meat tender.

Avoid letting the soup come to a boil so that the coconut milk cream won’t curdle. It won’t affect the taste but you might see white flaky bits in the broth.
For Thai soups and curry, always finish seasoning with fish sauce, sugar, and lime juice to taste.
Cook the noodles separately so they don’t interfere with the coconut chicken broth.
If use fresh kaffir lime leaves, squeeze the leaves in your palm to release the fragrance before adding them to the broth.
For a thinner broth, add more water or stock.
The nutritional label is estimated with 35g of rice noodles per serving without the toppings (except lime juice). If without the rice noodles, it has 13g of carbs, 2g of fiber, 11g of net carb.

Nutrition