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?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Love this disb. Quickly became one on the weekly rotation. Everyone I have made it for wants the recipe. I do make minor tweaks, like omit sugar and fish sauce. Add some jalapeño or other hot pepper, and mushrooms.
Have made this dish twice now and it is a perfect match to any I’ve had in fine dining
Zingy, spicy, coconut creamy. As nice as any I’ve had from a Thai restaurant.
Super delicious! I’ve been burned in the past by Asian-inspired dishes, so I wasn’t expecting this one to taste that good, but I’m so glad I was wrong. My husband also loved it and enjoyed helping me make it. 10/10 will be making again!!
can the stock be frozen ?
i know it dosent take to long to cook but can i make a big pot of stock and freeze it ?
Can I freeze the soup?
This is damn delicious! I had to do a modification due to not having the red curry paste available. I used 2 tbsp of yellow curry paste and 1.5 tbsp of spicy red pepper paste. I also used mung bean vermicelli for the noodles. I topped each bowl with additional fresh cilantro. My husband and I loved this and I’ll definitely make it again.
This soup is so delicious! My husband is not a soup person but he can have 2 huge bowls of this!! It’s soooo good.
Excellent- really easy and very tasty
This is a regular in our house! After I cook the veggies, I toss the chicken breast in along with the chicken broth and cook it for 20-30 minutes. Then I shred the chicken, toss it back in, add the coconut milk and follow the rest of the directions. I cook my noodles separately, only as much as I need for one meal. Once cooked, I put them in the bowls, pour the soup over and garnish. This prevents soggy noodles in your leftover soup.
3 tablespoons of red curry paste seem a lot. I use Mae Poly brand. I guess it depends how spicy you want. Thank you for this recipe.
This was so good!
This was a delicious dish! I cooked the noodles separately and decreased the amount of cilantro to taste but I highly recommend this.
Soo good .. I used mushrooms instead of peppers and left out the onions and garlic ..but it was still delicious! thank you for sharing
Love the depth of flavor! The only minor thing I changed, used 4c of pho broth and 2c unsalted chx stock, because I had it on hand. Honestly, this is one of the best soups I’ve made, thanks to your recipe! Damn deelish!
I made this tonight. No chicken, added a ton of veggies, used veg broth so it was all vegan. Soooo delicious. I cooked up some ramen noodles to eat with it, for individual servings, didn’t add it to the soup in general. Very easy, versatile and delicious dish. Even my picky 9 year old said ‘it’s ACTUALLY good’ yaaayyy preteen attitude! I will make this again.
Delicious! I love the spice and creaminess of this soup. I added some bok choy that I needed to us up. So good.
So delicious! I made it vegan by adding lots more veggies & chickpeas. I couldn’t stop eating this soup!
Love it!
I added cauliflower and lemon grass to mine. Felt like it was missing a vegetable.
I also cut the amount of fish oil as I found it overwhelming the first time I made it.
My husband and I aren’t red curry fans so I just excluded that but it is phenomenal easy to make quick and a wonderful week night dinner when it’s cold out thanks for the recipes they’re always great
If you’re not a red curry fan don’t leave a review on a recipe where you leave out the main ingredient.
I thought the same thing!!! LOL That’s like saying you like chocolate milk, but I don’t like milk so I’m just going to omit that.