Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup
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Yes, you can have Thai takeout right at home! This soup is packed with so much flavor with bites of tender chicken, rice noodles, cilantro, basil and lime juice!
It’s been about 6 weeks since our Thailand trip.
And yes, I needed a teeny tiny break from Thai food. But let’s be real. That only lasted like 0.2345 seconds.
So I’m back on the Thai food binge for the foreseeable future, starting with this noodle soup.
Now you know I love a red curry. But I love it even more with rice noodles.
It’s so cozy, it’s so comforting, and it’s so fragrant with all the cilantro, basil and lime juice. Although I always add a little bit of extra lime juice to my bowl for that extra zesty kick!
Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 6 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
- 4 ounces rice noodles
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
Equipment
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Add chicken to the stockpot and cook until golden, about 2-3 minutes; set aside.
- Add garlic, bell pepper and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in red curry paste and ginger until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in chicken broth and coconut milk, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
- Stir in chicken. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in rice noodles, fish sauce and brown sugar until noodles are tender, about 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat; stir in green onions, cilantro, basil and lime juice; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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This was very good! As are most of Damned Delicious’ recipes. I made half of the recipe because I was the only one home tonight. It was a bit bland at first for my taste, so I added extra curry paste, another pinch of brown sugar, more lime and more cilantro. I also added some soy sauce and drizzle of toasted sesame oil. Probably not authentic additions, but it added more flavor. I think for my taste, it needed more coconut milk, but as a starting point (for each person’s personal taste), it was delicious! I will get more coconut milk and broth and add that before I freeze the leftovers. Very good, and I will make again with some modifications for my personal taste!
Used this recipe as inspiration as wanted a more mild flavor. Used green curry paste, and also soba noodles as that’s what I had on hand. Missed the step on removing chicken (also used chicken thighs), and used a jar of roasted red pepper (added at end with herbs) diced, and also added fresh spinach. Served to two of my guys who were thrilled that is wasn’t all spice but had good flavor. Will continue to use this recipe as a jumping off point to use towards our liking. Would love some tips on fresh ginger as I always find it time consuming and dangerous to peel and grate! Thank you for sharing recipe.
Freeze your ginger and just grate as you need it. Skin and all
This was delicious and easy to make. I will definitely be making this again!
This was a great recipe. It’s delicious and easy to make. I used extra firm tofu instead of chicken which I suspect wouldn’t keep as well in leftovers, but tasted just as good. The broth is excellent but definitely needed the cilantro and lime juice so I wouldn’t be afraid to add those heavily and pack on the basil. Next time I will add some cayenne and more curry paste.
Amazing! This recipie can easily be customized for individual preference. Added sliced mushrooms to give it more texture. Also agree with the other reviews that the curry paste can be tweaked. I added more for a saturated flavor. Will definitely be making again with bok choy and other veggies.
This soup is so good! But I highly recommend doing half of the red curry paste as it was very spicy! But still so good!
This was so delicious! I’m glad we have leftovers for today!!! I cut down the broth per other reviews but with the noodles soaking up some of the sauce, I would leave it at the full amount next time. We used lo Mein noodles and they also work well in this recipe. Added kale, water chestnuts, mushrooms and shredded carrots for even more veggies!! Will definitely make again.
This is by far the best soup I have made in my culinary (25 year) life! My family loves this soup and is amazed that I made it because it reminds us of a soup we get from a restaurant. Thank you for posting this recipe.
This was really good, I think I’ll decrease the chicken stock next time, the way the current recipe is written has me wanting more coconut flavor to shine through. I used tofu instead of chicken (which was phenomenal) I will try shrimp next time. Also, I think I’ll try some kale and mushrooms with it as well.
I made this soup today for the second time, and it was even better than the first time! This recipe is A-1! Thank you to the commenters who suggested adding lemongrass. I made that addition today and it really kicked up an already awesome recipe!
I love this recipe! Honestly I want this every. single. day.
I’ve made it with the flat pad thai noodles when that’s all I’ve had on hand and it also freezes well. We also discovered different red thai pastes have a very different kick! Add a little at a time, you can always add more!
Really helpful to know it freezes well, thank you!
I made this soup close to the recipe but added 1/8 tsp of Cayenne pepper (ground) and 1/4 tsp of Huoy Fong to get a nice kick. I used olive oil when cooking the veggies but I think it made it too oily so next time I plan to use coconut oil and a bit less. The flavour was very good. I didn’t use chicken since my husband is vegetarian, so we used “seasoned vegetable bouillon”. Next time I’ll prob add some firm tofu to give it more umph and use glass noodles instead of rice noodles so leftovers keep better.
I dont often type reviews for dishes that I try, however this was one dish that was too good and deserved the extra rating. Honestly a great meal for any day. There’s such a mix of herbs and flavors in this dish and you just have to trust that it will come together in the end. Some key differences in my version:
I used palm sugar instead of brown sugar and eyeballed the amount, one bunch of basil from the grocery store herb section (eyeballs again but maybe a smidge more than recipe), used ginger paste in tube (make sure you read the ingredients to ensure its 100%), and only about a 1/2 tbsp of cilantro paste (from tube again). Don’t forget to soak your noodles according to package directions and cut them in half, use quality coconut milk, and don’t skimp on the good quality fish sauce! This recipe is a keeper. I ate it with rice and made a filling meal.
This was absolutely delicious!!! I made it just as you directed!!!easy and wonderful!!!
Damn delicious! You could also throw in some pineapple cubes.
I continue to make this recipe at the repeated requests from my family. I don’t use chicken but rather a nice firm white fish such as Cod or Turbot. I first Sautéd a small amount of the fish instead of chicken to get the wonderful brown bits into the broth but the fish for the bowls of soup is baked separately and added to each bowl. Today I baked Cod for this recipe and it was a really big hit! I recommend this recipe wholeheartedly!
Phenomenal!!!! I followed another user’s suggestion and used 4 cups of chicken broth instead of 6. Also, I increased the amount of red curry paste to 4 tbs. Perfection.
Love this recipe! I skipped on the chicken and added some bouillon to augment the flavor. I also added cherry tomatoes, baby corn and shrimp. Yum!
I added thin egg noodles, but my hubby said it was better with rice.
Perfect recipe! I made it exactly as is except I only had light coconut milk, ugh! BUT! It’s still tasted absolutely fantastic! I can’t wait to make it again!
Amazing soup! I added a tbs more of the curry paste and chilling oil because we love our soups hot and spicy.
I didn’t have rice noodles so I used glass noodles and it was just perfect.
The glass noodles don’t get soggy and they don’t absorb all the liquid so the left over was just as perfect as on the day I made it.