Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

The ultimate love child of Thai street food and comfort food. If you like pho, this is the Thai chicken version. Well balanced flavours with lots of textures and topped with crispy garlic...this is a chicken noodle soup unlike any other!

This is probably the easiest noodle soup you could make at home, and indeed if my grandma would make some type of noodle soup, it's this one. To make it taste exactly like how you would get it in Thailand, I recommend using this easy Thai style chicken stock as a base. Store bought stock is fine for a quick meal, as long as it's unsalted and has a pretty neutral flavour.

In Thai this dish is called guay tiew gai cheek ก๋วยเตี๋ยวไก่ฉีก which means noodles with pulled chicken, referring to cooking the chicken separately and pulling the meat into shreds.

Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients you'll need to make this recipe. It looks like a lot of stuff but once you glance through it you'll see it's all simple, basic stuff many of which probably already have. For amounts, check out the full recipe card below.

Broth

• Thai-style chicken stock, unsalted. For best flavour I recommend homemade version, but in a pinch, store bought unsalted stock will also work. Just make sure the store bought stock has a relatively neutral flavour so that it doesn't alter the flavour of the soup too much (some brands use quite a lot of herbs and aromatics that don't belong in Thai cuisine.)
• Soy sauce
• Fish sauce
• Sugar

Pulled Chicken

• Chicken breast, separate the tender, and cut the rest in half in way that divides the muscle fibers in half (see video if you don't know what I mean)
• Fish sauce
• Garlic oil (recipe below)

The Rest

• Head of garlic, chopped (for fried garlic)
• Neutral flavoured oil (for fried garlic)
• Asian style chicken meatballs. You can buy these at Asian grocery stores, either refrigerated or frozen.
• Dried rice noodles, size small, soaked in room temp for 20-30 minutes or until completely pliable. You can also use thin wonton noodles or another kinds of rice noodles, but because this is a light broth, smaller noodles will work better than thicker ones. See my post here on mastering rice noodles for how to prep different kinds of rice noodles.
• Bean sprouts
• Spinach, bok choy, water spinach or other mild, tender greens of your choice. You can also omit the greens and use only beansprouts.

Condiments, all optional

• Chili vinegar. This is a condiment that will add a touch of acidity and heat to your soup, and I highly recommend it! I've included a recipe here but you can also check out different variations at this in-depth post: Essential Thai Condiment: Chili Vinegar.
• Green onion and/or cilantro, chopped.
• "Tang chai" preserved cabbage (optional). Tang chai is chopped salted cabbage that will add little bits of salty crunchiness to your soup, imagine bacon bits, but cabbage! See my video to see what it looks like.
• Roasted chili flakes (optional, but highly recommended for those who like spicy). If you want to add a little smokey heat to your soup you can toast store bought chili flakes in a dry skillet just until it darkens slightly, or toast whole chilies in a dry skillet until charred spots form, then grind into small flakes.

Chili Vinegar (optional condiment)

• Spicy chili peppers of your choice, you can use Thai chilies, serranos, jalapenos, or habaneros.
• Cloves garlic
• White vinegar

How to Make Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

Here are all the steps to make this recipe. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success.

Make the fried garlic: 

1. Chop 1 head of garlic and add to a small pot or pan.
2. Add just enough of the neutral flavoured oil to cover the garlic, then fry on low heat (gentle bubbling) until the garlic is golden and the bubbling has subsided. Be careful not to let the garlic get too brown or it will become bitter.
3. Strain the garlic from the oil. You can keep them separately in the fridge in an airtight container for several weeks.

Make the chili vinegar: 

1. Cut the chilies in half and place on a foil-lined baking sheet, cut side down.
2. Place the whole garlic cloves on the sheet as well and broil on “high” until the chilies are charred in spots and the garlic cloves are browned. 
3. Transfer to a blender, add just enough of the vinegar to blend, and blend until there are no more big chunks. 

*For a quick visual of how to make chili vinegar, watch this video @ 7:13.

Broth and Chicken

1. Bring the chicken stock to a simmer, then add the soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar.
2. Add the chicken breast to the simmering broth and turn the heat down to medium low or low, trying to maintain a "still simmer", which means there should be lots of steam coming off the top but very little to no bubbling. The tender should take 3-5 minutes, and the rest 7-10 minutes. Remove the pieces as they finish cooking.
3. Let the chicken cool slightly and pull the chicken into strips. Sprinkle the fish sauce and some garlic oil and toss well. 

Assembly:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a full boil for blanching noodles.
2. Meanwhile, add the chicken balls to the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover and keep it hot until ready to use. Right before you're ready to cook the noodles, turn the heat up again slightly to make sure the broth is nice and hot for serving.
3. Divide the noodles into 4 equal portions, then place 1 serving of the noodles, bean sprouts and greens in a noodle strainer, or spider, or sieve...whatever you have that will fit into the blanching pot.
4. Dunk the noodles and veg into the boiling water and wiggle it about for 5 seconds (this timing only applies if you're using small size rice noodles, if using something else, adjust accordingly). Pull it out from the water and drain off as much water as you can and place into the serving bowl. Repeat with the remaining portions.
5. Ladle the broth and some of the chicken balls over the noodles. You should need no more than 1 cup of broth per bowl given the amount of noodles.
6. Top with the pulled chicken then all of the condiments as desired: fried garlic, garlic oil, chili vinegar, tang chai, green onion/cilantro and/or chili flakes. Enjoy!