Coconut Curry Chicken Noodle Soup

Coconut Curry Chicken Noodle Soup
Michael Kraus for The New York Times
Total Time
45 minutes
Rating
5(2,009)
Notes
Read community notes

This sweet, spicy and fragrant chicken soup, called curry mee, is a happy contrast of hot broth, springy noodles and a madness of garnishes. Coconut milk has a particular weighty creaminess, called lemak, that can make some curries and soups too rich. Here, a combination of coconut milk and half-and-half is used to balance the broth.

Featured in: From Asia, Rapture in a Bowl

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Ingredients

Yield:4 main-course servings
  • 2tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1small onion, minced
  • 1tablespoon minced ginger
  • 1tablespoon minced lemongrass or pale green cilantro roots
  • 2garlic cloves, minced
  • 1teaspoon dark red chili paste, such as sambal, more for serving
  • ¾pound boneless, skinless chicken thigh or breast meat, thinly sliced and cut into bite-size pieces
  • 3tablespoons curry powder, preferably Malaysian, Thai or Vietnamese
  • ½teaspoon paprika
  • 1(14-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
  • ½cup half-and-half
  • 4cups chicken stock
  • ¼teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 2tablespoons fish sauce
  • 1tablespoon sugar, more to taste
  • About 12 makrut lime leaves or curry leaves, fresh or frozen (optional)
  • 8ounces dried thin rice noodles (bun or vermicelli), or other Asian noodles such as udon or lai fun
  • Salt to taste
  • 1cup bean sprouts
  • 3tablespoons chopped cilantro
  • 2scallions, cut into thin rings
  • 2shallots, thinly sliced and deep fried in vegetable oil until brown (optional)
  • Quartered limes for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

778 calories; 40 grams fat; 23 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 73 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams dietary fiber; 15 grams sugars; 37 grams protein; 1486 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add onion, ginger and lemon grass and cook, stirring, until softened, about 10 minutes. Do not brown; reduce heat if necessary. Add garlic and chili paste and stir until fragrant. Raise heat, add chicken and stir-fry one minute. Add curry powder and paprika and stir to coat. Then add coconut milk, half-and-half, chicken stock, turmeric, fish sauce, sugar and lime or curry leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 7 minutes.

  2. Step 2

    Meanwhile, cook rice noodles in boiling water according to package directions (about 4 minutes). Rinse and drain.

  3. Step 3

    Taste broth and adjust seasonings with salt and sugar. Divide noodles into large soup bowls. Bring broth to a boil, then ladle over noodles. Top with bean sprouts, cilantro, scallions and fried shallots, if using. Pass limes and sambal at the table.

Tip
  • To make this rich soup more substantial, boiled potatoes are sometimes added to the simmering broth and cooked until very soft.

Ratings

5 out of 5
2,009 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

Can't ever find kaffir leaves so I just substituted some lime juice. In my opinion, extra lime juice is critical to this recipe. While it comes out much more like a soup and less like a heavy bowl of curry, I found that adding the half cup of half/half was largely unnecessary if you go with standard coconut milk (vs. low fat).

What an amazing recipe! We have been making this since it first appeared in the Times-- in fact, it is ALWAYS the dish I request on my birthday. A flavor explosion in your mouth. I highly recommend adding the potatoes, though I prefer them firmer than the recipe recommends. It goes quite quickly once the ingredients are prepped.

Excellent, but do have a few comments/suggestions. Mince lemon grass? No way. Hard work it never softens 1T not enough. Easy way. Cut off ends, hit stalk w/back of knife and tie stalk into bundle using coarse outer leaves. Remove before serving. Can use cooked chicken. Works fine. I used low fat coconut milk and no 1/2n1/2. Fewer calories lighter taste. Subbed sliced Bok Choy for bean sprouts. Used Massamam curry paste for darker color and tamarind taste. Upped turmeric for color. Lovely.

excellent. I added some bok choy for a bitter kick. Great easy meal.

Was best next day, allowing flavors to blend. Defiantly add the potatoes and cook in broth before adding the chicken. A hardier noodle the rice noodles may make this a more substantial dish.

Curry powder can vary. If you make your own, I found this online recipe for Thai curry powder. (This is half the original and I used all of these amounts in the curry.) I'm very interested in other recipes for Asian curries. Constantly stir in med-high dry cast iron pan. Don't burn: 1/2 T Tumeric 2 Bayleaves 1 1/2 T Coriander seeds 1 T Cumin seeds 1 T ground Ginger 1 T White pepper 1 t Chili flakes 1 Whole Cloves Pound w/ mortar and pestle or grind in grinder.

Great light Sunday lunch! Added 2 large boiled potatoes and a head of chopped bok choy. Made my own curry powder off a recipe I Googled, took like 5 mins (https://www.google.com/amp/s/ganga108.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/malay-cur... Fried shallots are a must! Might add a couple more of the traditional 'khao suey' garnishes next time: minced green chillies, red pepper flakes, peanuts, sliced hard boiled eggs...

I always add sweet potatoes to this soup because they truly do steal the spotlight in this already excellent dish. As written and careful tasting, it's really good!

AMAZING ! my husband and I were blown away at how fabulous this is ! He had mouth surgery and I didn't add the chicken but it was still out of the ball park !

Outstanding! I only used 3 cups of chicken stock to make a thicker soup. It's perfection

This was amazing. I added a soft boiled egg.

This is one of the most flavorful dishes I've ever tried! If you haven't tried this recipe yet, you're absolutely missing out on something very special!!!

This was really great and fast. I didn't have any half-and-half, so used whole milk instead, which worked fine. I really like the idea of adding potatoes and will try that the next time I make this.

I had trouble finding fresh lemongrass or lime leaves. I used about 1/2 tsp of lime zest instead as well as the juice of a full lime. I also was able to find a curry 'base' in a jar that was turmeric and lemongrass flavored, so I added this in place of the lemongrass! I chose to add snow peas for some additional heartiness. This was so fun to make and tasted delicious!

I put this together using leftover roasted chicken which I added at the end after the vermicelli. I started with the onion and a diced carrot, sadly had no fresh ginger but used plenty of garlic. I didn't use half & half, but put a dollop of sour cream on top when serving. My sambal was quite spicy so I'm glad I didn't use the full teaspoon. It worked as a somewhat improvised dish, and adding basil was great, and green veggies would also be delicious.

I made this a second time this week. Lime leaves add so much flavor. I love it.I used fresh lemon grass first time and the flavor amazing. Use frozen lemon grass second time and good but prefer fresh. This is an amazing recipe and simple but you need the fresh ginger, garlic, lemon grass and lime leaves. These make it sing.

Great with sweet potatoes... they just add something extra, as well as making it more hardy.

Forgiving and delicious! Doubled the recipe last night with present pantry items subbed for some ingredients: cilantro stems & leaves for lemon grass, Sambal oelek for sambal, 8oz evap milk for H&H, McCormick curry powder coriander and turmeric for Thai/Malaysian curry, standard lime for makrut/curry. Added: garlic, a leek, cubed sweet potato, and, accidentally, all the chopped scallions & 1/2 a shallot. Cooked the liquid down a bit. All 6 of us, ages 14-94, loved it.

1.5 tablespoons curry powder 3 cups chicken broth

Didn’t change a thing. Didn’t have Thai curry, used a Caribbean mild on hand combined with Madras. Go to MilkStreet and buy their ginger confit. Saves that hassle of fresh ginger. Use in amount called for. Lemongrass hard to find for me so always keep a tube of the paste in frig. Prepped Pho noodles and added at end. This is a spicy, hearty flavor bomb. Do it!

Bean sprout hack. Buy fresh crisp ones. Rinse and put in container with plenty of room with icy cold water in frig. Change water daily or every other day at least. Replace icy cold water. They will keep for weeks. No slime. No waste.

Double this recipe or at least double the liquid

Flavorful and warming on a chilly evening. Added snap peas which were perfect, and next time I'll add potatoes too.

I pre-made a chicken broth and boiled the chicken with roasted celery / carrots/ onion and lemongrass extra step but it makes the flavour so much more layered. I also replaced the onions with leeks which added a really great flavour. I used milk instead of half and half and it worked just great!

double garlic lemongrass and ginger and lime ! ended up much thinner than desired. added a cornstarch slurry and ended up with the perfect consistency

Really delicious. Great recipe if you want to make good curry, quickly and simply. I recommend skipping the half&half. Just make sure you use full fat coconut milk and it’ll be creamy enough.

I’ve been using this app for 3 years but, until now, haven’t felt compelled to leave a review. This recipe is absolutely fantastic. I added a diced carrot, tripled the garlic and added a half cup of ramen broth I happened to have on hand. Wow!

Explosion of YUM! Yet the proportions were off. I thought there were too many noodles to broth, so I added more broth, as well as a red pepper and green beans. Next time I may add some carrot, baby bok choy, and/or mushrooms. Great base of flavors to experiment with.

Very nice recipe.

Had to riff a little bit based on what I had in the fridge, but wow this is a great base recipe. I just threw the rice noodles in for the last few minutes to cook with the soup-- one less dish to wash and no need to drain. I didn't add the half-and-half and didn't miss it.

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