Khao soi

Chicken broth:

• Soup chicken (or bone) 1.2-1.5 kg
• Carrot 1 large piece
• Leek 1 piece
• Whole garlic 1 piece
• Spring onion 2-3 pieces
• Small ginger 1 piece
• Large onion 1 piece
• Peppercorns 1-2 tablespoon(s)
• Cloves 2 pieces
• Chicken broth cube 1 piece
• 3.5 liters of water
• Salt & pepper

Curry paste & soup:

• 1 kg chicken drumsticks
• Coconut milk, full fat 800 ml
• Ginger 3 cm
• Dried peppers 2/3 cup
• Lemon grass 2-3 stalks
• Tumeric 2 tsp or fresh 3 cm
• Coriander seeds 1 tblsp
• Black cardamon pods 5 pieces
• Shallot 1 large
• Corse salt 1/2 tsp
• Soy sauce 45 ml
• Fish sauce 15 ml
• Palm sugar 30 grams
• Deep frying oil

Toppings:

• (Spanish) pepper 1 piece
• Fresh bean sprouts 150 grams
• Spring onion 5 pieces
• Coriander leaves 5 grams
• Red onion small 1 piece
• Lime 2 pieces
• Egg noodles (preferablyfresh) 5 portions
• Pickled mustard greens (optional)

Making the broth:

1. Prepare the chicken for the oven by rubbing it with salt and pepper.
2. Grill the chicken in the oven/grill until it’s golden brown, roughly 30 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. Juices will come out, so use a tray to capture the juices.
3. Peel the onion and carrot and cut away the stems. Half the onion, cut the carrot in large chunks. Half the whole garlic clove so the garlic is parted and exposed, do not peel it. Remove the stem of the leek, chop a large chunk of the greens off, not all, take off the first layer and cut it lengthwise. Clean the leek thoroughly as it contains sand. Chop 2-3 slices from the ginger. Clean the spring onion. Chop the sellery into similar sized pieces as the carrot.
4. Add all the vegetables, chicken including the juices, spices & herbs, chicken broth cube and water to the pot. Let this simmer for 3-5 hours.
5. Strain all the solids from the broth, make sure to squeeze all the juices out of the solids.
6. Let it cool down and refrigerate overnight, the next day you can scoop off the fat if needed.

Making the curry paste:

7. Crack open the black cardamon pods and extract the black seeds.
8. Toast the coriander and cardamon seeds in a pan.
9. Use a pesle and mortar or a spice grinder to grind the coriander and cardamon seeds.
10. Deveil and extract as much pepper seeds from the dried peppers.
11. Add these to the spice mix to grind down. Make sure to grind as fine as posible, if these parts are not as fine as posible the soup will end up grainy!
12. Finely chop the shallot, grate the ginger, grate the tumeric if fresh, grate the lemongrass and zest the lemons.
13. Add the fresh ingredients and salt to the spice mix and pounds/grind until completely fine and mixed.
14. Add the tumeric if you use powder.

Making the soup:

15. Add about 200 ml of coconut oil in the pot and let it cook down until the oil seperates a bit on medium heat.
16. Add the curry paste to the pot and fry until the chili oils start to apear. Add coconut milk if needed, only in tiny batches to hydrate.
17. If red chili oils start to apear slowly increase the amount of coconut milk and incorperate.
18. Add 1-2 L of the chicken broth to the pan, depending on how thick you want to soup to be.
19. Finely chop the palmsugar, add the sugar, soy sauce and fish sauce to the pot.
20. Add the chicken drumsticks and simmer on low heat for about 40 min. Occasionally stir. Make sure to not boil the soup or it will start foam.
21. Pre-heat a small pot with a low level of high smoke point oil to around 180-200 degrees Celsius.
22. Finely chop the coriander leaves, make thin red onion slices, half the limes, chop the red pepper, finely chop the mustard greens and finely chop the spring onion. Set aside for garnish.
23. If you use fresh noodles, you can deep fry them right away. If you use dehydrated noodles, pre-cook them. Make sure to properly dry the noodles otherwise the oil might overflow or catch fire! Deep fry the 1/4 of a portion at a time until crispy.
24. Plate the soup by adding the cooked noodles in the bowl and add the soup. Plate with toppings!
25. Eat!