Khao Soi Recipe: Northern Thai Coconut Curry Noodle Soup, and 7 Recipes Compared

Recipe

Khao Soi (Northern Thai Curry Noodle Soup)

Chicken drumsticks simmered in a homemade curry paste and coconut milk, served over egg noodles with crispy fried noodles and the classic condiments.

Heat: Hot

Prep

40 min

Cook

1 hr

Makes

4 bowls

1x2x4x USMetric Print recipe

Ingredients

Curry paste

• 2 black cardamom pods
• 1½ tbsp coriander seeds
• ¾ oz ginger, thinly sliced
• 5 g fresh turmeric, thinly sliced, about 1½ inches, or 1 tsp ground
• ½ cup shallots, sliced ¼ inch thick
• ¾ oz mild dried chilies, such as guajillo or puya
• 1 tsp coarse salt

Soup

• 1½ cups coconut milk, plus 1 to 2 tbsp per bowl to drizzle
• 8 chicken drumsticks
• 3 cups water
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp black soy sauce
• 2 tsp fish sauce, optional; up to 3 tsp
• 1 tbsp palm sugar, finely chopped, or brown sugar
• 12 oz flat fresh egg noodles (wonton noodles), divided
• oil for frying
• chopped cilantro or green onion, optional

Condiments

• 1 lime, in wedges
• ¼ cup chopped shallots or red onion
• ½ cup chopped pickled mustard greens
• fried chili flakes, to taste

Equipment

• Mortar and pestle
• Spice grinder
• Skillet
• Pot for frying

Steps

1. Toast the spices. Take the seeds out of the cardamom pods. Toast them with the coriander seeds in a dry skillet over high heat until the coriander darkens slightly.
2. Char the aromatics. In the same skillet, sear the ginger and turmeric slices 2 to 3 minutes a side, until slightly charred, then char the shallots briefly.
3. Make the paste. Stem the chilies and shake out most of the seeds. Grind them with the cardamom and coriander to a powder. Pound the ginger and turmeric to a fine paste, add the shallots and salt and pound fine, then pound in the ground spices.
4. Fry the paste. Bring ½ cup of the coconut milk to a boil over medium heat, add the paste and stir until it's very thick and coconut oil sizzles around the edges.
5. Simmer the chicken. Add the rest of the coconut milk, the water, soy sauce, black soy sauce, sugar and drumsticks. Simmer gently for about 40 minutes, until the drumsticks are fork-tender and reach 165°F (74°C). Season with fish sauce or salt: make it strong, since the noodles dilute it.
6. Fry the noodles. Cut 3 oz (85 g) of the noodles to about 4 inches. Fry small handfuls in 2 inches of oil at 350°F (175°C) until golden and the bubbling has almost stopped.
7. Serve. Boil the rest of the noodles, about 3 minutes, and toss with a little oil. Divide among bowls, add 1 or 2 drumsticks, ladle in the broth and drizzle on some coconut milk. Top with the crispy noodles and serve with the condiments.

Notes

• Recipe from Pailin Chongchitnant, Hot Thai Kitchen.
• Fried chili flakes: stir chili flakes with just enough oil to look like wet sand over medium-low heat until dark and smoky (Hot Thai Kitchen).
• Other meats: boneless dark meat works with low-sodium stock; skip chicken breast. Beef shank or chuck needs longer (Hot Thai Kitchen). Made with beef, it's khao soi nuea (NYT Cooking).
• Vegan: use vegetable stock, mushrooms and tofu, simmered 15 to 20 minutes (Hot Thai Kitchen).
• Shortcut: Rachel Cooks Thai builds on 4 tablespoons of store-bought red curry paste with toasted ginger, turmeric, curry powder, coriander and black cardamom.

happyspicyhour.com

What khao soi is

Khao soi is a curry noodle soup from northern Thailand: a coconut broth somewhat like yellow or massaman curry but thinner, over egg noodles, topped with crispy fried ones (Wikipedia). It’s often tied to Chiang Mai, but it didn’t start there and isn’t unique to it (Hot Thai Kitchen, Rachel Cooks Thai).

It’s believed to have come with the Chin Haw, Chinese Muslims from Yunnan who traded by caravan through Myanmar’s Shan State, Laos and northern Thailand from the 18th to the early 20th century. Because of those Muslim roots it was originally halal, and it’s still most often made with chicken or beef rather than pork (Wikipedia). The name is debated: khao is rice and soi means to cut (Hot Thai Kitchen, Rachel Cooks Thai), but both cooks think the likelier story is that it’s borrowed from the Burmese dish ohn no khao swè.

Khao soi (northern Thailand)Ohn no khao swè (Myanmar)

Noodles Boiled and deep-fried egg noodles Wheat noodles, crispy noodles on top

Broth Coconut curry, thinner than yellow or massaman curry Chicken curry and coconut milk, thickened with chickpea flour

On the side Pickled mustard greens, shallots, lime, fried chilies Fritters, boiled egg, raw onion, chili, fish sauce, lime

From Wikipedia, which calls ohn no khao swè the most likely forerunner of khao soi.

happyspicyhour.com

How the recipes compare

RecipePaste and coconut milkChickenServes and time

Hot Thai KitchenOur base Homemade, with black cardamom; 1½ cups coconut milk and 3 cups water Chicken: 8 drumsticks, about 40 min Serves and time: 4; 1 hr 40 min

Serious Eats Homemade, charred, with shrimp paste; 2 cans Chicken: 4 legs, about 30 min Serves and time: 4; 1 hr 30 min

NYT Cooking (Noree Pla) Homemade; 2 cans Chicken: 8 drumsticks, 20–⁠30 min Serves and time: 4; 1 hr 15 min

NYT Cooking (Pim Techamuanvivit) Red curry paste plus curry powder, turmeric, cardamom; 3 cups Chicken: A whole chicken in 6 pieces Serves and time: 4; 1 hr

Rachel Cooks Thai Red curry paste, doctored; 2½ cups Chicken: 4 drumsticks, 45 min to 1 hr Serves and time: 4; 3 hr

Marion's Kitchen Homemade, or red curry paste; 6 cups Chicken: 600 g thighs, 30 min Serves and time: 4; 1 hr 10 min

Bon Appétit (Long Grain) Homemade, with New Mexico chiles; 2 cans Chicken: 1½ lb boneless thighs, 20–⁠25 min Serves and time: 6 to 8

Five of the seven use bone-in chicken, and four add black or brown cardamom. Most fry the noodle topping at 325 to 350°F (165 to 180°C).

happyspicyhour.com

Our base, from Hot Thai Kitchen, makes its paste from scratch with charred ginger, turmeric and shallot and mild guajillo or puya chilies. Serious Eats chars its aromatics too and adds shrimp paste. If you’re short on time, Rachel Cooks Thai and Marion’s Kitchen start from store-bought red curry paste; Pailin Chongchitnant says that shortcut doesn’t taste the same.

The four condiments

Pailin Chongchitnant says khao soi isn’t complete without them. The pickled greens, shallot and lime are there for gae lien, “to counter the richness” (Hot Thai Kitchen).

• Lime wedges: a little acid to brighten the broth.
• Shallots or red onion: freshness; red onion is sweeter and milder.
• Pickled mustard greens: tart and crunchy, against the rich broth. Look for ones made in Thailand. Rachel Cooks Thai rinses them to take off some of the sourness.
• Fried chili flakes: optional heat, chili flakes fried in oil until dark and smoky.

All from Hot Thai Kitchen, except where noted.

Khao soi, Lao khao soi and laksa

Dish	Noodles	Broth	Toppings
Northern Thai khao soi	Egg, boiled and fried	Coconut curry	Pickled greens, shallot, lime, fried chili
Lao khao soi	Wide rice noodles	Clear broth	Tomato and minced pork sauce, herbs
Ohn no khao swè	Wheat	Coconut chicken curry	Fritters, egg, onion, crispy noodles
Curry laksa	Egg noodles or rice vermicelli	Coconut curry	Fried tofu, cockles, long beans, mint

From Wikipedia. Lao khao soi has no relation to the Thai dish. In northern Thailand there are also versions with no coconut milk and wide rice noodles, mostly in the east, plus khao soi Mae Sai, with minced pork and blood (Wikipedia). Hot Thai Kitchen thinks the coconut-free Yunnanese khao soi may be closest to the original.

Make it ahead

Hot Thai Kitchen pounds the paste a day or two ahead or freezes it for a few months, and keeps fried noodles airtight for up to a week; NYT Cooking keeps paste up to 2 weeks in the fridge. Once the chicken is in, follow the 3-to-4-day rule above.

How we checked this

We compared 7 recipes: Hot Thai Kitchen, Serious Eats, two from NYT Cooking, Rachel Cooks Thai, Marion’s Kitchen and Bon Appétit. We read Wikipedia on khao soi, ohn no khao swè and laksa, and USDA FSIS on safe temperatures and leftovers.

We said	Now
Bone-in chicken: 20–⁠25 minutes	About 40 minutes
Fry noodles 2–⁠3 minutes	30–⁠60 seconds, until golden
Never pork	Mostly chicken or beef; pork versions exist
400–⁠690 calories a bowl	Serious Eats: 953

More Thai curries and noodles

Another Thai curry with coconut milk is our massaman curry recipe, made in one pot. For a Lao and Thai minced pork salad, try our larb recipe, or a clear, sour soup in our tom yum recipe. If noodles in a curry sauce are what you like most, our curry noodles recipe is a quicker one-pot version.

Sources

1. Hot Thai Kitchen: Khao soi (Pailin Chongchitnant, 2026)
2. Rachel Cooks Thai: Northern Thai curry noodles (2025)
3. Marion's Kitchen: Chiang Mai noodle soup
4. Serious Eats: Khao soi gai (J. Kenji López-Alt, 2025)
5. Bon Appétit: Chicken khao soi (2013)
6. NYT Cooking: Khao soi gai (Noree Pla, 2020)
7. NYT Cooking: Khao soi (Pim Techamuanvivit, 2006)
8. Wikipedia: Khao soi
9. Wikipedia: Ohn no khao swè
10. Wikipedia: Laksa
11. USDA FSIS: Safe temperature chart (2025)
12. USDA FSIS: Leftovers and food safety