Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup
by Chungah
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An easy one pot dinner! Thai red curry noodles deliver on flavor and convenience. With tender chicken, rice noodles, cilantro, basil + lime!
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Why you’ll love this thai red curry noodle soup recipe
- Restaurant-quality. Now you can make your favorite takeout dish right at home for half the cost with better quality ingredients using your favorite protein.
- Packed with flavor. This noodle soup is simply downright fragrant, flavorful, cold weather comfort food, full of bold Thai flavors.
- One pot dinner. This no-fuss, one pot dinner means less dishes, less clean up, making it so effortless for busy weeknights, but also fancy enough for weekend company.
- Clean-out-the-fridge meal. And of course this makes for the best clean-out-the-fridge dinner, adding in any lingering veggies that need to be used up.
what is red curry paste and where can i find it?
Commonly used in Thai dishes, red curry paste is made from a blend of red chili pepper, garlic, lemongrass, Thai ginger, and various spices.
Red curry paste is typically used for stir-fry, soups or mixed with coconut milk for curry. It is readily available in most grocery store chains, particularly the Thai Kitchen brand, and online, with some brands containing shellfish (shrimp paste).
How to make thai red curry noodle soup
- Sear the chicken. First, season the chicken with salt and pepper, searing until golden brown in a Dutch oven over medium heat.
- Cook the aromatics. Cook the garlic, bell pepper, and onion until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add the red curry paste. Stir in the red curry paste, adjusting the amount of curry paste to your (or your family’s) spice levels.
- Deglaze the pan. Add the chicken broth and coconut milk, deglazing by scraping the prized caramelized brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pot (fond).
- Simmer. Simmer until slightly reduced and the flavors have blended, about 10 minutes. The longer it simmers, the more it reduces.
- Cook the noodles. Stir in the rice noodles (or desired noodles), fish sauce, and brown sugar. Rice noodles will cook quickly, about 5 minutes.
- Add the finishing touches. Add the green onions, cilantro, basil and lime juice, seasoning with salt and pepper, if needed.
- Serve. Serve warm, keeping the noodles and broth separately if preparing for leftovers.
what to serve with thai red curry noodle soup
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! Shrimp or tofu are both great options.
I personally love Mae Ploy (contains shrimp paste). But Thai Kitchen is also great with mild heat and more readily available at most grocery stores.
Rice noodles are my go-to, coming in various sizes (wide, medium and thin). Rice vermicelli is used here, the thinnest rice noodles. But udon or soba noodles are also solid options.
Fish sauce has a strong, pungent “fishy” smell but when cooked, it brings in savory, salty, umami goodness.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days, separating the rice noodles from the broth.
Unfortunately freezing is not recommended as coconut milk tends to separate when frozen.
Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup
Video
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
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.
Equipment
Notes
- Use your favorite protein. This recipe will work well with chicken thighs, chicken breasts, shrimp or tofu.
- Full fat coconut milk will be more rich. Although lite coconut milk can certainly be used, full fat coconut milk will yield a much more rich and creamy broth.
- Fish sauce is a hero. Fish sauce is a key ingredient here, balancing out the flavors, and adding saltiness and umami without overpowering it. A little bit goes a long way.
- Mix it up. Swap out the red curry paste for green, add in more veggies (cabbage, zucchini, mushrooms or bok choy) or use your favorite noodles (vermicelli, udon or soba noodles).
- Divide and conquer. When storing leftovers, separate the noodles and broth. This will help the noodles retain its texture.
Did you make this recipe?
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Unbelievably delicious soup! I’ve made it 4 or 5 times in the last month. Definitely recommend this recipe!
I made this three weeks ago for the first time and have made it 3 times since and again tonight. I’ve made it for both sets of parents (steps included) and my boyfriend on separate occasions and it is a HIT. One of the best things I’ve ever made and so surprisingly simple. I boiled the noodle on the side cause the first time most of my soup got absorbed but still delicious! Thank you 🙂
Hey! Thanks for this recipe, I really like it. It turned out more brownish than on your photos, but I guess that’s on me for really browning the onion. x)
One question though: The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons curry paste. I used 4 teaspoons, and it fits my taste, but is waaaay to hot for the rest of my family — even though we are used to spicy stuff. Did you maybe mean 3 teaspoons? Or are we sissys? 😀
Oh my gosh, it DOES say 3 tablespoons. I thought I was bumping up the spice a little when I added 4 OUNCES, which turns out to be about 8 tablespoons worth. I guess that explains why tonight’s recipe was good, but also straight-up FIRE!
I guess I’ll have to try this recipe again with a somewhat less lethal dose of curry paste.
Anja, maybe you used a hotter brand of curry paste than what others are using. I cook with Maesri Red Curry Paste (imported from Thailand) that I get from the local Asian food store in a little red tin. I packs a punch, but hasn’t put my wife or I under the table or anything, even when I grievously over-use the stuff like I did tonight.
Super tasty! Family loved the soup! Used about half the noodles called for in the recipe and didn’t add basil (didn’t have any). So good! I served with a chopped thai salad.
This is a great recipe. I used this recipe as a starter and used the ingredients I had. I first cut up 2 chicken breasts and cooked them. Then I cooked 1 onion, 1 red pepper and 3 cloves of garlic. I added 3 tablespoons of Vindaloo Curry. Added 1 box of vegetable broth. I added the cut up chicken breasts. Added 1 box of “Cut Spaghetti” to the mix. Let it cook a little while.
Put soup in bowl and added some chopped green onions and dried cilantro. Mmmmmm this is good. This recipe gave the idea to make my version of the soup. I would like to taste the original soup, but when you don’t have the ingredients, you can still make a delicious soup.
One of the best tasting soups I’ve ever made in my life, and I’m not exaggerating. This is such a showstopper. It’s as authentic as one can be. Can’t say enough about it. A must try, you won’t be disappointed.
So good! Added 2 tsp sambal and it gave it a nice kick if you like spice! Loved having leftovers for lunch the next day. I will be making this on the regular.
This was damn delicious!
Made it with prawns and fish, so jummy and full of flavour. Thank you for sharing!
Question for everyone who has made this. What brand/kinds of rice noodles Do you use? Thsnks
This is a wonderful recipe!!!
I added a few wild caught raw shrimp the last 10 minutes.
Super easy to make and delicious. Can’t wait to make it again
Recipe is soooooo good. Feels like we’re eating out in a Thai restaurant.
This recipe is fantastic! This is my second time making it and it does not disappoint. Definitely recommend this to anyone. There may be a fair number of ingredients, but is very easy to make.
Made this recipe and it was so very good. I infused the chicken stock ahead of time with lemon grass, galangal and a few dried chili peppers . Also bought a few trumpet mushrooms, fried them separately and put on top.
amazing!! Even better after I let it sit for 15 minutes to thicken up.
I made this for dinner. Delicious. Just what I was hoping for. Thank you. Tomorrow will be spicy noodles as they seemed to absorb most of the liquid. Next time less noodles.
Delicious!!! And easy to make!!
My husband and I really enjoyed this recipe. I made it primarily for the spice factor for myself, as I recently had COVID and can only taste really strong things. I used A Taste of Thai red curry paste, which is pretty mild. I probably ended up adding 4-5 Tbs of the curry, and while there was a nice amount of spice (not super spicy by any means though), my husband said that the curry taste was not very strong at all (and while I can currently taste some strong curry flavors, I did not taste any curry at all). I’ll definitely make it again, but I’m going to order some Mae Ploy curries online (my small town has basically no international options, sadly), which I’ve heard are stronger and more authentic.
My other substitutions included ground ginger, since I didn’t have any fresh on hand, bottled lime juice, and basil paste instead of fresh. I was also worried about the noodles becoming soggy for leftovers, so I only added enough for a couple servings, and then strategically fished them out of the broth for serving for dinner. For leftovers, I just break some uncooked rice noodles into the soup and microwave it for several minutes, and it works great.
I have all the ingredients on hand except for the red curry paste, I have green instead! Do you think I can do a straight substitution or do the different colored curries call for different flavor combos?
Excellent soup base! I have gotten into the habit of freezing the core of a pineapple, instead of throwing it out. Then the next time I make Thai curry, I take the frozen pineapple core out and put it into the soup as it cooks. This gives it subtle sweetness and tang without messying up the broth.
Delicious! Added some hot dried chili peppers with my serving and that took it to whole another level. Thank you!!
I used tofu instead of chicken, and vegetable broth – delicious dish! Thank you for sharing!
Did you simmer the tofu ? Kinda new with it and not sure if you also fry it first! Thank you 🙂
This is one of the best recipes I’ve found! We made it twice in 3 weeks and absolutely love it! It’s perfect. I don’t think we changed anything! Definitely going into our rotation!