Khao Soi is Chiang Mai’s most famous dish, and that’s quite a statement as there are so many tantalizing North Thai dishes on offer there. You can read about the Chiang Mai amazing food in this post.
Typically, Khao Soi is prepared with chicken, egg noodles and a rich curry flavored sauce, topped with crispy fried egg noodles, and served with lime wedges, chopped shallots, sliced pickled mustard green and fresh chilis. Yes, it’s like a flavor party in your mouth!
There are many Khao Soi variations with different types of protein, such as beef, pork, meat balls or seafood. The curry flavored broth should be thick and rich tasting.
This version is made with prawns and crab and is really mouth watering!
If you prefer the traditional Chicken Khao Soi, you can use the same recipe (omit the crab paste) and substitute the crab and prawns with 2 whole chicken legs. Poach the chicken legs for 20-25 minutes, check doneness by inserting a chop stick into the chicken thigh and juices should run clear. Remove the chicken to a cutting board. When cool, debone the chicken legs and slice the chicken into bite-size pieces. Serve the sliced chicken pieces over the noodles, with the rich curry soup and the garnishes, just like the below recipe.
Seafood Khao Soi
Ingredients
- 1 large Dungeness Crab or 4 Crab quarters
- 12 Large prawns
Curry Paste
- 2 Thai chilis
- 5 cloves Garlic
- 1 tbsp Minced Lemongrass
- 3 Shallots
- 1 inch Turmeric, sliced or 1 teaspoon Turmeric powder
- 1 inch Galangal, sliced or 1/2 teaspoon Galangal powder
- 1 tbsp Coriander stems, sliced
- 1 tbsp Coriander Seeds
- 1 pinch Fennel Seeds
- 1 small Cinnamon stick
- 1 Star anise
- 1 Cardamon pod
Soup Base
- 1 cup Coconut milk
- 1/2 cup Coconut cream
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 2 Shallots, chopped
- 4 cloves Garlic, chopped
- 3 cups Chicken broth
- 1 tspn Curry Powder
- 1 Kaffir Lime Zest
- 1 tbsp Crab Paste
- 1 tspn Thai Chili Paste
- 1 tspn Fish Sauce, to taste
- 1 tspn Palm sugar or brown sugar, to taste
Noodles
- 10 to 12 oz Dry Wide Egg Noodles (6 servings), divided into 1/4 and 3/4..
- 1 cup Oil to deep fry
Garnish
- 4 Shallots, chopped
- 4 to 6 Kaffir Lime wedges
- 2 cups Sliced Pickled Mustard Green
- Chopped coriander
Instructions
- Wash the crab well, remove the shell and discard the feathery gills. Cut the crab into quarters.
- Wash the prawns, remove the shell and de-vein the prawns.
- Put all the current ingredients into a foil packet, put in the toaster oven, broil function, and heat for around 5 to 8 minutes until fragrant. Remove and open the foil packet and put in a mortar and pestle and pound until a paste forms. Alternatively, you can put the ingredients in a food processor or Magic Bullet and grind to form a paste.
- In a pot, heat the oil, fry the shallots, garlic and curry paste till fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth to the pot and heat to boiling. Add the crab pieces and prawns and poach until just cooked (around 4-5 minutes for the prawns and 10 minutes for the crab). Remove the prawns and crab and set aside.
- Lower the heat to medium. Add the coconut, coconut cream and remaining soup base ingredients (except for the kaffir lime zest), heat till simmering (but not boiling). Taste and adjust accordingly by adding fish sauce or sugar if necessary.
- In the meantime, boil water in a large pot with a pinch of salt. Add 3/4 of the dry egg noodles and cook according to package instructions, remove and drain. Divide the noodles into 4 large bowls.
- Heat 1-1/2 inch oil in a saucepan, when dipping a wooden chopstick bubbles should form, then the oil is ready. Deep fry the 1/4 remaining noodles, they would immediately puff up and become crispy (if you don't want to use too much oil, use a smaller sauce pan, and deep fry in small batches). Remove the noodles and set on a kitchen towel lined plate to drain the oil.
- Prepare the garnish: Slice the shallots, coriander, pickled mustard green, lime and chili and set in a serving plate.
- When ready to serve, dip the prawns and crab into the hot soup to reheat them. Add the hot soup over the bowls of noodles, put the prawns and crab on top. Sprinkle the crispy fried noodles and coriander on top.
- To eat, squeeze some lime over the noodles soup, add the shallots, pickled mustard green to bowl of noodles and enjoy.
Squeeze some lime, add the chopped shallots, pickled mustard green, and enjoy! If you prefer, you could also use crab meat instead of crab quarters, but the fun is to make a mess while savoring the dish!
We hope this dish would become your family’s favorite noodles soup dish!
Most ingredients can be found in any Asian supermarkets, or you could order them via Amazon.
To buy click here.
To buy click here
To buy click here
For Khao Soi, it’s more common to use wide egg noodles which are widely available in Asian supermarkets. But you can’t find an Asian store near you, you could use the medium egg noodles available via Amazon. This pack comes with 6 nests of dry noodles. You could boil 4 nests for the soup noodles, and deep fry 2 nests to sprinkle on top.
To buy click here
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[…] My daughter-in-law makes the best Chicken Khao Soi. I have also prepared Khao Soi at home, and here’s my delicious recipe for Crab and Prawn Khao Soi. […]