Experience the world with our travel recipes. Stefanie from The Hidden Coconut gives us the recipe to her favourite Thai dish.

By far, my favorite Thai dish is Khao Soi. It is a delicious creamy soup made with coconut that has a little kick to it. The dish originated from the Chinese Muslim community and spread throughout Laos, Burma, and Thailand. Each country has put their own little spin on it. Khao Soi is mostly found in the northern Thai region. It isn’t as common in the south or even in Bangkok!

This Khao Soi recipe is a little complicated. You’ll have to find the spices for the paste in an Asian market. They aren’t very common in local grocery stores. If you want to go the easy route, there are pre-made pastes available that you can find on Ebay.

I’m going to provide the complicated recipe, because I believe you can do it! Plus you’ll get to go on an adventure to your Asian supermarket.

Ingredients

This delicious Thai recipe makes 6-7 servings.

First you’ll need to find the ingredients for the paste.

• 5 Dry roasted black cardamom seeds
• 1 tbsp Sliced and dry roasted ginger
• 5 Dried New Mexican chilis
• 5-10 Dry roasted cayenne peppers
• 2 tbsp Dry roasted coriander seeds
• ½ cup Dry roasted and sliced shallot
• 1 tbsp Dry roasted and sliced turmeric

Next are the ingredients for the soup portion of Khao Soi.

• 1 lb of chicken drummettes (go veggie or vegan with tofu or your favourite meat replacement)
• Flat egg noodles (wonton noodles)
• Thin egg noodles (for frying)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp salt
• 1 large can of coconut milk (13.5 fl oz)
• 1-2 tbsp sugar
• 2 cups of half and half (milk with added cream, can also use plant based milks)
• 2 tbsp bouillon powder
• 1 cup water
• Optional chopped cilantro and green onion for garnish

If you want to make this delicious Khao Soi recipe vegan, vegetarian or gluten free it’s just a case of swapping out ingredients. You can use rice noodles instead of egg, and some recipes recommend sweet potato or pumpkin instead of chicken.

Method

Now that you have all your ingredients it’s time to get started.

First you are going to pound all the ingredients for the Khao Soi paste together.

In a large pot you’re going to put the paste, and half of the coconut milk inside while stirring together so that it becomes thicker. You can also add a little vegetable oil or coconut oil. Once it has thickened, add the chicken (or alternative), to coat in the paste. Then add the remaining coconut milk plus water, sugar, soy sauce, bouillon powder, stirring as necessary. Cover the pot to allow the chicken to cook. Then add the half and half and bring to a boil.

Now it’s time to make the crispy noodles. You’re going to use the thin egg noodles. 

Heat a pan on high heat with oil. Once it is hot, add the noodles and flip when golden brown.

Place aside for later.

In another pot you’re going to cook the flat egg noodles.

Once all the noodles are cooked, place a serving in a bowl and pour the soup over the noodles. Then put some crispy noodles over the soup. The higher, the better! You can serve with shallots, pickled mustard greens, lime and fried chilis.

Enjoy your homemade Khao Soi!

For more international travel recipes you can make at home head over to The Hidden Coconut where you can find dishes from Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and Greece.