Chiang Mai Noodles
This is our household standby. I am sure it is far from traditional but it certainly is yummy. I happen to like one dish meals but you could serve it as a strictly chicken dish with a veg on the side just as you could serve it over plain rice in lieu of rice noodles. Enjoy!
This is our household standby. I am sure it is far from traditional but it certainly is yummy. I happen to like one dish meals but you could serve it as a strictly chicken dish with a veg on the side just as you could serve it over plain rice in lieu of rice noodles. Enjoy!
- 1 clove garlic minced
- garnish:
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 tbsp veg. oil
- 4 chicken thighs skinned, de-boned and cut up
- 2 tbsp thai red curry paste
- 1 tsp ginger (bottled or fresh...optional)
- 1/2 tsp sambol olek (if you want to spice it up)
- 8 slices leek quartered
- 1 can coconut milk seperated (do not shake)
- 1 tbsp curry powder or ground turmeric
- 2 tbsp tamari or dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp fish sauce (optional)
- 1 dash fresh ground black pepper
- 1/2 crown of broccoli chopped
- 3 medium carrots coarsly chopped
- 1 red pepper de-seeded and coarsly chopped
- 1 pkg rice noodles
- 1 lime sliced
- 2 green onion sliced
- 5 cloves garlic sliced and fried (absolute must!)
- bragg or light soy sauce (or dark if that’s all you have)
- Carbohydrate 120.74519 g
- Cholesterol 78.96 mg
- Fat 52.57576 g
- Fiber 7.66302490854263 g
- Protein 27.0155075 g
- Saturated Fat 31.346059 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (590g)
- Sodium 1124.53125 mg
- Sugar 113.082165091457 g
- Trans Fat 3.39772125 g
- Calories 1043 calories
Step-by-step
- Heat the oil in a wok or large saucepan on medium-high heat.
- Add the chicken and brown, when almost cooked through, add the curry paste and mash it all around with a wooden spoon .
- Add the onion, leek and garlic (ginger and sambol if you are using it – bear in mind the sambol gets hotter as it cooks so you don’t need a whole lot).
- When your onions are softened add the creamy top of the separated coconut milk, stir and let the mixture become quite bubbly, add the watery part of the coconut milk.
- Add the chicken broth, you can always add more if you want the dish more soup-like.
- Add curry powder, soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice and fish sauce (if using).
- Flavour with pepper, corriander a pinch of salt (and whatever other spice you want to throw in).
- At this point I usually taste it and see if I want to add any more curry paste or powder...or anything else.
- Reduce heat to simmer, add broccoli and carrots and stir, throw the cover on.
- At this point I start the water to cook the noodles and fry the garlic garnish until golden brown on each side.
- Add the red pepper to the curry dish.
- Cook the noodles according to package (8 minutes or so).
- After rinsing the noodles I like to toss them with a dash of oil (olive or whatever) to keep them from sticking horribly.
- Some type of bowl is usually best for serving otherwise it can get extraordinarily messy.
- Divide noodles into individual serving bowls then ladle yummy Chiang Mai over top.
- Let everyone garnish as to their desires.
Standard yellow curry noodle soups rely on boiled aromatics, but this preparation builds flavor by frying curry paste directly in rendered fat. Understanding these structural divergences allows home cooks to adapt the bowl successfully while maintaining balance.
Pasting and Frying Technique
Dry spices and wet aromatics behave differently when exposed to high heat. Incorporating Thai red curry paste directly into the browned chicken fat rather than liquid breaks down encapsulated chili oils and releases fat-soluble flavor compounds. Frying this paste for sixty seconds transforms raw, sharp notes into a rounded, savory base. When substituting commercial curry powders, increase the fat ratio slightly because powders lack the moisture content found in wet pastes, preventing scorching in the pan.Coconut Milk Emulsions
Canned coconut milk separates naturally during storage into a dense cream and translucent liquid. Skimming the solid cream layer into the sautéed aromatics and reducing it until bubbly allows the coconut fats to break, separating the oil from the solids for deeper frying. Adding the watery liquid afterward creates the broth base. Whole milk or standard carton coconut milk will not separate effectively, yielding a thin sauce that fails to cling to the noodles.Noodle Handling and Starch Management
Boiling rice noodles beyond their structural threshold creates a gummy matrix that absorbs excessive broth. Cooking them precisely to package instructions—usually seven to eight minutes—and rinsing them immediately under cold water stops the cooking process by removing surface starches. Tossing the drained noodles with a neutral oil coats each strand, preventing agglomeration while sitting in bowls before the hot broth is ladled over them.
