Thai chicken noodle soup is a healthy, spicy dish which is surprisingly cheap and easy to make, it can also be make in bulk quite easily if you have a few mouths to feed.Once the chicken noodle soup is cooking, you should regularly taste test and remember the following; if its not quite to your taste; too hot – add more coconut milk, too sweet – add fish sauce, too salty – add lime/lemon juice and if its too mild add another chopped and de-seeded chilli.Thai cuisine is a blend of four flavours – salty/unami, sweet, sour, and spicy. Almost every Thai dish combines all four tastes; which is also why brown sugar accompanies some dishes made with nam pla fish sauce. Thai cuisine places a great emphasis on using fresh produce; so this tastes much more authentic with fresh, crunchy vegetables and fresh herbs and spices.
Ingredients
- 1½ pints chicken stock
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 300 g chicken (roughly chopped)
- 150 g noodles
- 160 g sweetcorn
- 100 g shiitake mushrooms (sliced)
- 3 shallots (finely chopped)
- 3 green chillies (finely chopped)
- 3 tbsp (nam pla) fish sauce
- 2 tbsp groundnut oil
- 3 tbsp peanuts (crushed)
- 2 kaffir lime leaves (minced)
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 cm cube ginger (minced)
- 1 green bell pepper (diced)
- 1 handful fresh coriander ( chopped)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
Instructions
Preparation
- De-stalk the Shiitake mushrooms, as the stems are quite tough, and I always slice the peppers nice and thin (Juliene) and the mushrooms a bit thicker as along with the chicken they add the bulk to the dish.
Method
- In a medium pan add the; shallots, ginger, minced garlic cloves and green chillies with a little groundnut oil and cook together for a minute.
- Pour in half the chicken stock, add the chicken pieces, bring to the boil, and simmer until the chicken turns white.
- Add the remaining chicken stock, bell pepper, sweetcorn, brown sugar, coconut milk, fish sauce and two kaffir lime leaves to the pan and simmer for a few minutes.
- Add the mushrooms to the pan and simmer.
- The soup should now be piping hot, continue to simmer for 20 minutes over a medium heat until all the vegetables go soft and the sauce becomes a glorious creamy emulsion. If you let it sit for a minute or two before serving it will thicken up a little.
- Add the noodles, a generous pinch of chopped coriander and simmer in the soup until the noodles are cooked.
- Serve hot, sprinkled with fresh coriander and the crushed peanuts.
- This soup will be just as tasty if re-heated within a day or two – just remember to keep it covered and always to serve it hot.
