Alyssa's Soup Recipe: Khao Soi Gai

The Hubby and I spent some time in Thailand for our honeymoon, with our first leg of the trip in the northern province of Chiang Mai.  One of the regional specialties there is called khao soi gai.  It's a rich, spicy coconut milk broth with chewy noodles and tender braised chicken.  You personalize it with your favorite combination of toppings: tart lime wedges, crunchy fried noodles, bracing raw shallots, salty pickled greens.

Khao soi gai in Thailand.

We discovered khao soi gai by simply stepping out of our amazing hotel on our first day in town and trying the first food we saw.  It was in a small, open-air stall on the side of the road, about 20 yards from our hotel.  A very friendly Thai woman acted as the owner, waitress, cook, and dishwasher.  We went back every day while we were in Chiang Mai, and we probably would have visited her twice a day if she didn't close at 5 pm.  We tried the same dish at other restaurants in Chiang Mai, but it simply wasn't as good as hers!

The very sweet Thai woman who owned the roadside stand where we discovered khao soi.

Now that I'm back in Tokyo, I dream about big bowls of creamy khao soi gai.  But I haven't been able to find a Thai restaurant that serves it.  My normal approach to not being able to find the food I want is to just make it myself, but there's something intimidating about Thai food that stops me from making it at home.  Maybe it's the fact that there are usually so many ingredients involved?  But I took a cooking course while we were in Thailand, and decided it was time to put that knowledge to use and try my hand at khao soi.

Coconut cream and coconut milk.

The first issue came from finding the ingredients.  It's surprisingly difficult to find ingredients to cook non-Japanese Asian food (Thai, Filipino, Korean, even Chinese!).  After searching import stores, I had to make a few substitutions to the traditional recipe.  But I think they'll make this recipe more accessible to someone who might not have a ton of Asian ingredients available to them, as well as make it less intimidating to someone who may not cook much Thai food (or has never tried khao soi gai before).

Pickled greens.  I am not sure what kind of greens these are, but they did the trick!

The few recipes that I was able to find for khao soi call for Thai curry powder in addition to Thai curry paste.  I was unable to find the curry powder, so I just used extra curry paste.  I couldn't find store-bought curry paste either, but I had the ingredients on hand to make my own (through a recent fortuitous grocery store trip and smuggling a few things in from Thailand!).  I won't bore you with how to make your own curry paste, as it calls for some ingredients are are fairly obscure in much of the world (galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass).  But let me know if you are interested and I can always provide the recipe!

Some curry paste ingredients: lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, dried chilis, ginger, shallots and shrimp paste.

The second issue came from finding the correct way to make the crispy noodle toppings.  I adore the ones served by the vendor in Chiang Mai (which you can see in the first image).  They are thick enough that they managed to absorb some of the delicious broth while still maintaining their crunch.  They're just a thick, deep fried noodle, but I can't figure out how to make them properly!  The recipes I found said to use Chinese Ba Mee noodles, but I couldn't find them here (Surprise! Are you noticing a theme?).  I experimented with several different noodles to try to find a substitute (fresh linguine, dried linguine, fresh Japanese egg noodles) and never got the right texture.  Some restaurants used a thinner fried noodle, so I settled for some of the store-bought ones.  Besides, who wants to have to deal with deep-frying noodles for a garnish? Too much work!

Crispy noodle toppings.

There are two ways to handle the chicken part of the soup.  The khao soi gai that I ate in Thailand had slowly-braised chicken legs in it.  It was so tender that the meat fell off the bone, and you could easily eat it with chopsticks.  The Hubby preferred the soup with chicken meatballs, but I found them to be a bit spongy and tough.  For a quick meal, I use a version of the meatballs that is easily available in Japan.  You can buy small, pre-made chicken meatballs for hot pots in any grocery store.  It's simply a mixture of ground chicken and green onions, but it's delicious and tender.  I simmer them in the broth for about 15 minutes and they were perfect.  You can make your own easy version of that, but if you have time to plan ahead and braise chicken legs for an hour or so in the covered pot, you'll be delighted with the results!

Thai fish sauce.

With all of the substitutions and tweaks that I made to make this taste more like what we ate in Thailand, this no longer resembles any of the source recipes I used.  If you're interested in comparing different versions of the recipe, I found some good ones here and here.  There's also a thicker version of khao soi that is more of a curry and less of a soup, but I was trying to replicate the soup version.  You should adjust flavors to your own liking, since I suspect that there are as many different ways to make this dish as there are ways to make chicken noodle soup (perhaps even more ways, as there are so many variations on Thai curry paste which forms the basic flavor foundation of this soup!).

Check back later this week for Carla's soup recipe. I won't give away the subject, but it's also an Asian soup (albeit from a different part of Asia) and it has it's own fried component! 

The finished product.

Khao Soi Gai (Chicken Curry Soup from Northern Thailand)
serves 4

For the soup:
4 tablespoons of Thai curry paste
1 tablespoon of turmeric
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 can chicken stock
1 can coconut milk
2 cups of water (just fill one of the empty cans with water)
1 small container of coconut cream
1 1/2 tablespoons of fish sauce (see note below)
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 boullion cube (chicken or beef)
Chicken legs or chicken meatballs
1 large handful of cooked, thick egg noodles per person.  Fettuccine will do just fine if you can't find Asian noodles.

For the garnish, which are all optional but make the soup extra fun:
Fried noodles (like these)
Sliced shallots
Lime wedges
Pickled greens (mustard greens are traditional)
Thai bird chilis (for added kick, if your curry paste isn't spicy enough)

Note: You may wish to start with just 1 tablespoon; we happen to like fish sauce but I recognize that it's not for everyone!  I wouldn't recommend omitting it entirely, as it does add a slightly funky saltiness that is important to this dish.

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot or dutch oven.  Sautee the curry paste for about 30 seconds in the vegetable oil, or until fragrant.  Add the turmeric and sautee for a few seconds.  Add the chicken stock, coconut milk, water and coconut cream, whisking to combine. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Add fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar and boullion cube, whisking to dissolve the sugar and the boullion.  Taste and adjust seasonings to your taste.  Add the chicken at this point and simmer, covered, until meat is cooked through (regardless of whether you're using the leg or meatballs).  Taste again and make any final adjustments.  Sometimes I'll add some dried ginger if it's not coming through from the curry paste (I don't use fresh ginger because it won't incorporate into the broth at this point, and I don't usually know whether it's necessary until it's too late).  I'll also adjust the soy, sugar, and fish sauce until the broth is rich and complex.

Put a handful of noodles in each bowl.  Divide the meat among the bowls.  Add the broth and top with crunchy noodles.  Arrange the shallot, lime and greens on a plate to pass around at the table.

Lime, shallots and pickled greens for garnish.