Prepare this easy recipe for chicken noodle soup so you will enjoy a warm filling meal with very little work and hardly any dishes. It becomes almost an instant dish when you have your chicken stock already made in advance: just heat the stock, soak the noodles and you are ready to eat.
Noodle soup used to be my typical breakfast here in Malaysia and it comes in lots of flavors and variations. The most simple ones contain a clear chicken broth, flat rice noodles (keoy teow), some shredded chicken, a few beansprouts and some fresh green herb(s). Add to that some homemade red chili sauce dip, and your breakfast is ready (less than 1 USD in Taiping, about double the price in Kuala Lumpur).
A simple yet delicious variation is when add some coconut milk and stir in some curry paste – to taste – in the soup, like it is served in the White Curry House in Penang.
The recipe below ads a Thai twist to the soup with some lime, chili and fresh coriander. However, with an organic chicken you can’t go wrong as it will make a delicious broth.
Do you use hot or cold water for making chicken stock? 2 options:
- use cold water when you want as much taste as possible in your stock
- use boiling water to submerge your chicken when you want a bit more taste in the chicken meat.
We will use cold water for the best stock, as at the end of the day, this is a recipe for chicken noodle soup. Nothing worse than a delicious chicken and noodles floating around in something that looks like water and tastes like … water with pepper and salt.
Easy recipe for chicken noodle soup
- 1 organic free range chicken
- 7 oz (200 gram) dry tamarind, broken up (you can also use fresh tamarind)
- 1 big piece of ginger root, sliced in thick slices of 1/4th inch (0.5cm)
- 2 red chilies, sliced
- 1 red onion, peeled and sliced
- 2 sticks lemon grass, bashed and bruised
- 1 bulb garlic, skin on, cut horizontally in half
- 1 bunch fresh coriander
- 1 can of about 13 fluid ounce (400 ml) coconut milk
- 8 oz (225 gram) rice noodles (you can use any noodles for this recipe, just follow the instructions on the package for preparation)
- Thai Fish Sauce (nam plah)
Garnishes:
- a bit of soy sauce with freshly cut garlic and chili as a dip
- the leaves of the bunch of fresh coriander + 1 red long chili, seeds removed, finely chopped
- when available and your stock isn’t oily itself: a drizzle of sesame oil
- fresh lime
How to make homemade chicken noodle soup
- Place the chicken in a huge pot, so the chicken wont stick out. Add tamarind, ginger, chopped chili, onion, lemon grass, garlic and coriander stalks. Cover with cold water.
- Push with your hands on the chicken until the back breaks, so the chicken gets deeper under water. Take a plate, smaller than the pot and put on the chicken. Add something heavy on the plate (like a stone pestle): like this the chicken will always be submerged in the water during boiling.
- Bring to the boil and slowly simmer for at least 1 hour: your chicken is cooked when the meat can be removed easily.
- Once the chicken has cooked, take it out of the pot. With a fork, remove the meat from the chicken and cut or shred the meat in bite size pieces.
- Add the coconut milk and some fish sauce to the stock in the pot. Taste before adding in more fish sauce, as fish sauce can be pretty salty if you are not used to it.
- Prepare the rice noodles as indicated on the package, i.e. put the rice noodles in a big bowl, add boiling water and leave for 3 minutes.
- After soaking the noodles, drain them.
- Meanwhile, chop coriander leaves with chili for garnish.
- Time to dish up a bowl of soup: put some noodles in a soup bowl.
- Put some of the chicken meat on top of the noodles, use a sieve and poor the soup in the sieve over the noodles and chicken.
- Garnish with fresh coriander and fresh chili on top.
- If your chicken noodle soup isn’t oily, you could drizzle a few drops of sesame oil in your bowl. Serve with a deep spoon and chop sticks and put a piece of fresh lime on the table for those who want their soup more sour.
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