Thai cooking lesson – Khao Soi (ข้าวซอย)
Khao soi is a dish of the northern Thai cuisine massively popular in the area of Chiang Mai. It originates from Yunnan, the southern province of China, whose people migrated from there via Myanmar and Laos to Thailand at the end of the 19th century. Those people, as well called the “Chin Ho” were predominately muslim, which is the reason it’s mostly served with chicken or beef.
The version of the dish shown here is with egg noodles and coconut milk like eaten in the western half of Northern Thailand and very similar in the cuisine of the Shan People who primarily live in Myanmar.
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Ingredients
Khao Soi
- chicken batter
- chicken legs or thighs
- Coconut milk
- Bean Sprouts
- cilantro / coriander
- Lime
- yellow noodles dried or fresh egg noodles
- Fish sauce
- chilli powder if you like it spicy
- sugar
- salt
Ingredients
Khao Soi
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Instructions
Khao Soi Curry Paste
- Ingredients for Khao Soi Curry paste in about the right amounts for a badge which lasts for several times cooking Khao Soi. From the yellow curry powder shown in the glass you will need about 2 table spoons. The dried red chilis are soaked in water.
- Roast the dry spices (coriander, cumin and cardamon seeds, black pepper) in a pan / wok.
- Grind up the roasted dry spices with pestle and mortar or a blender and put aside.
- Grind up the rest of the ingredients (garlic, soaked red chilis, ginger, onions, galangal, lemon grass, tumeric, salt) with pestle and mortar or in a blender.
- Add the ground up dry spices and grind it up all together
- Add a good amount of oil to a pan and fry the contents of the mortar or blender until the color changes to a darker hue and a fragrant smell develops. Turn off the heat and put it aside. The paste is ready.
Khao Soi
- Put water in a pan or pot and bring to boil. Add the chicken legs and boil them for about 5 minutes and turn them around during the process. This is done to keep the skin intact in the further cooking process. Keep the water you boiled the chicken in.
- Here the ingredients with the quick boiled chicken
- Add curry paste to your liking (depending on how spicy you like the Khao Soi to be) to a pan big enough for all ingredients. Heat it up and add 4 tea spoons of yellow curry powder.
- The next step is adding the chicken to the pan
- Fry the curry paste together with thhttps://www.thaicookingkohtao.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-ultimate-recipe/img/arrows.pnge chicken. In this case we added some onions, which is a variation of the dish. You can as well leave them away.
- Add about 150ml of coconut milk and add some of the water from boiling the chicken until the chicken in the pan is just covered. Add salt.
- Boil it on medium heat until the chicken is cooked (about 15 to 20 minutes). During that time you can prepare the egg noodles like described in the following 2 steps.
- Meanwhile boil the main part of the egg noodles in a different pot until cooked.
- Deep https://www.thaicookingkohtao.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-ultimate-recipe/img/arrows.pngfry the smaller part of the egg noodles
- ...and remove them and let the oil drip off.
- Add sugar, another 250ml of coconut milk and taste it. If it's not spicy enough for you, add some more curry paste. Season it to your taste. Originally it should be a balance between sweet, salty and spicy. At the end a tea spoon of fish sauce.
- Serve: Put the boiled noodles first in the bowl, followed by the chicken with the curry sauce. Add the red onions and spring onions, coriander and lime.