Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup
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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
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.
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I would likw tto make this today, but we can’t have a bunch of processed sugar. Could I substitute another sweetener? Honey or coconut sugar or something else??
I substituted with agave and it came out divine!
I was out of brown sugar last time I made it so used coconut sugar instead. Worked great. I’ve made it MANY times – so delicious!
This was delicious!! I decreased the chicken broth to 4c, added tofu instead of chicken, and added a couple of Thai peppers for some added heat! My husband, who isn’t a big fan of any curry dish, loved it!! Will definitely be made again and again in this house!
I’m wanting to do mine with tofu as well, I always order fried tofu at Thai restaurants, but I’ve never actually made it my self, any suggestions on how to cook the tofu?
I use firm or extra firm tofu, cube it, then sandwich it between paper towels or clean kitchen towels. Then I put a heavy pot it and wait about 30 mns.
I toss the cubes in corn starch, then I fry them in a bit of ool until golden. I let them drain on a cookie rack or paper towels and sprinkle with salt.
Changes – 4 C broth, shrimp instead of chicken, orange bell pepper- bc that’s what I had, added curry powder, cumin, turmeric, 1 shake nutmeg, 1 tsp red chili paste, curry powder. End result was delicious!
Also cook noodles separate and add to bowl pouring soup over
Soup tastes amazing!
Thank you for sharing it!
There are few things that’s to be adjust…
1) And MOST important – COOK NOODLES SEPARATELY! (If you will not eat this soup right away and don’t want it to become a jelly mess after reheating)
2) Add Coconut milk at the same time as fish sauce, this way it will not crumble up. (This is optional)
Oh my, this is amazing. Definitely restaurant quality. We don’t eat meat, so I subbed mushrooms and cauliflower for the chicken. I think it would also taste great with carrots, bok choi or broccoli. My 7 year old was eating it too so I only added 2 TBSP of red curry paste and it was still nicely flavoured but not too spicy. Definitely a keeper!
Outstanding flavor! I ended up using a full 10.5 oz package of rice noodles, which was way too much. I wasn’t sure if the recipe was calling for 8oz or 4oz. Next time, I’ll use closer to 4! I did use pre-cooked rotisserie chicken I had on hand and lite coconut milk, but I can’t imagine it took away from the flavor. I may try with shrimp as my protein next time, too. Thank you for a great recipe!
Oh, yeah! This soup is the best. It is delicious. I followed the recipe and made brown rice noodles separately. We love it!
I want to take a bath in this broth! Definitely added to the soup season rotation!
OMG How easy and delicious. The family loved it also. I am glad I have some leftover for lunch tomorrow. Thanks.
Delicious
Oh my this is good! I kept getting compliments from my family throughout the meal. Followed the recipe as presented except for the basil, and that’s only because I forgot to put it on my shopping list. Though some people noted the spiciness of the soup, the brand of curry paste I used (Thai Kitchen) gave the soup just a hint of warmth, but I would not call it spicy. I really enjoyed the slight tang of the lime juice in the broth. The only thing I will do differently next time is add more noodles. Thanks for a great recipe.
I added grated carrots and used whole box of rice noodles to thicken and it was delicious!
Use to make Red Curry Chicken all the time. Never tried making it with noodles before but after doing so I found a new favorite way of making it. We ate the entire pot, only thing I did to the recipe was I used Thai Basil from my garden since the recipe did not state what type of basil to use and I found regular sweet basil may not be the correct type. It was absolutely delicious and it will be added to my permanent recipe collection!
Made this tonight and it was delicious! The only thing I changed was that I added shredded chicken instead. Also added jalapeño slices to garnish.
Fantastic recipe!! Fans of Asian cuisine will adore this one! Tasty! Thank you for this recipe!! Made it twice in a week
Heaven❣️ The only thing I would change is to skip the lime juice at the end. And this time, since I had no chicken, I added cauliflower for a vegetarian meal.
This soup is great! I usually add mushrooms and will occasionally swap the chicken for shrimp and add it at the very end.
My husband said this was his favorite thing I’ve ever made him! Delicious 🙂
This has become a weekly staple. My husband who is a meat snd potatoes guy LOVES this soup. Although I do have to adjust the heat level to 2TB. My chicken comes out dry and suggestions? I’ve tried to cut into chunks and tried thin slices both ways comes out dry tough.
Hi Pam! Try using boneless, skinless THIGHS instead. Or you could just poach some chopped up tenderloins in the broth as it’s reducing instead of cooking ahead. Good luck!
made this tonight just delicious! another winner! i LOVE your recipes!
Very good, but very spicy! Way too much for kids.