Thai Style Chicken Noodle Soup
One of my ultimate favourite meals. I could eat this just about every night, I love it so much; the divine mix of spicy flavours, smooth comforting noodles and hot soup mmm mmmmm.
Serves 2 - 4 (depending on size of servings).
Ingredients:
|
2 skinless chicken breast fillets |
200 g char siu (Chinese BBQ) pork (optional) |
|
8 medium sized white mushrooms |
3 cloves garlic, peeled |
|
2 inch piece green ginger, peeled |
1 large or 2 small red chillies |
|
2 litres chicken stock |
3 bunches (thin) rice noodles |
|
3 bunches bok choy or similar Asian greens |
a couple handfuls of bean sprouts |
|
2 tbspn soy sauce |
1 tbspn fish sauce |
|
1 tbspn chilli sauce |
1 tbspn lemon or lime juice |
|
salt and pepper |
additional soy sauce and chilli sauce |
Method:
Slice chicken finely. Slice char siu pork in similar sized pieces if using. Peel mushrooms if they look a bit manky, otherwise just wipe them with a piece of damp paper towel; slice finely. Separate leaves of bok choy and rinse well, shake dry and slice cross-wise in inch wide strips. Rinse bean sprouts, pinch off straggly bits on the ends. Crush garlic, shred ginger and chillies finely.
Fill small saucepan ¾ full of water, put in a tspn of salt and bring to a rolling boil. Add rice noodles and simmer for about 10 minutes or until cooked but not soggy – do a taste test every now and then because cooking time depends a lot on type and thickness of noodle. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop them cooking further.
Pour chicken stock into the large saucepan and bring to boil.
While you are cooking the noodles and heating stock, you can cook the meat and vegetable mixture – or if you can’t cope with several tasks going on at once, wait! Confusion and panic in the kitchen are not of the good *grin*
OK, now for the meat and vegetable bit. Heat a tbspn or so of canola oil in the wok and when it starts to smoke toss in chicken strips and stir fry until they are white with a few golden brown bits. Add the garlic, ginger and chillies and stir fry for a minutes. Add mushrooms and continue to stir fry. Add fish sauce (a little goes a looooong way), lemon juice and soy sauce. It’s a good idea to put in a few tbspns of the chicken stock too to prevent the mixture drying out.
When stock is simmering, add bok choy and bean sprouts and cha siu pork if using to the chicken in the wok. Stir fry a couple more minutes until bok choy starts to wilt a little and turn a brighter green.
Divide noodles between bowls. Top with chicken and vegetable mixture. Pour hot stock over. Put pepper, salt, soy sauce and chilli sauce on the table for diners to add extra if they like.
Enjoy. Slurping and a certain amount of splashing is not only unavoidable, but encouraged.