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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It is ridiculous how good this soup is, feels like comfort food but is healthy to boot!
This is the most flavorful soup I’ve ever made. I will only eat that soup at meals until it’s gone!!!
Made this for the first time last night and it was so full of flavor!! I used chicken thighs and low fat coconut milk because that is what I had. It was really good and I plan to make it again. We actually ended up having some naan bread with it because it felt like it needed something to soak up all the yummy sauce. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
This was easy and delicious. The whole family enjoyed it, and this will definitely be in our dinner rotations.
Can you add more curry after you add the noodles?
I found it could have used a smidge more curry too, but I would recommend adding your curry to a little oil and “frying” it before adding it into your soup. Bring outs the flavour of the curry.
This was so good! Added Fresno peppers with the curry for a little spice. Also added some lime zest.
This is delicious, will definitely make again. Thankyou .
so much flavor, so easy to make. It was a hit. Will definitely make again.
Delicious and easy to make. I will make again.
I can’t find the nutritional info? Also – do you use full fat coconut milk or would light work okay? Thanks!
full fat
Can you make and freeze
I make this all the time and freeze it. Freezes and that’s out well.
We love going to the local Asian market and buying a small tub of panang curry paste- to obviously make panang curry. We have loved making this soup and substitute 1/3 of the red curry for panang curry. Definitely gives it a little more kick. Highly recommend! The recipe is great as is though!
This is a great recipe I’ve made it several times with raw and leftover chicken and I think shrimp as well and it turns out wonderful every time. I don’t have any red curry paste right now but I have green. Has anybody tried it with green curry paste?
Delicious love the texture and family was all happy with it
I’ve made this a few times, it’s always a winner!! Everyone in the family loves it!!
This was so good!!! Made with ground chicken instead. Yum yum. Thanks for the recipe!!!
This is one of my favorite meals. It’s also my girlfriend’s favorite. we make it regularly. At her suggestion we added about half a carton of presliced mushrooms… which I don’t really enjoy…I tried it throughout the cooking process and at first it tasted overwhelming. When I got to adding the fish sauce and brown sugar, the mushroom taste had diminished and started to play off the umami from the fish sauce and turned out really nice.
I recommend giving it a try.
Also shared this with my mom who loves shrimp. She highly recommends using shrimp instead of chicken.
This was amazing. Only thing was its a bit too spicy for my family. My toddler could not eat it.
Can you freeze this?
Personally I have frozen this soup and it was OK when reheated. Thaw in refrigerator before low to medium heat. I don’t recommend the microwave for reheated this soup.
A great recipe for comfort food