Chicken and Noodle Laksa
Recipe by Ben O'Donoghue
This is one of our favourite cold-weather recipes that requires very little cooking. The Thai chillies give it a wonderful zing.
Serves 4
Ingredients
For curry paste
- 5 long fresh chillies
- 5 red Thai shallots, or ordinary shallots
- 4 garlic cloves
- 3 coriander roots
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon good-quality curry powder
For the laksa
- 500ml coconut cream
- 2 tablespoons thick soy sauce
- 500g boneless, skinless chicken thigh meat
- 700ml chicken stock
- 1-2 teaspoons Thai fish sauce, to taste
To garnish
- 500g dried ho fun noodles
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
- 4 garlic cloves, sliced
- 4 red Thai shallots, sliced
- 4 long dried chillies
- ΒΌ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon caster sugar
- 1-2 limes, halved
- 1 small head of chicory, roughly chopped
- 100g beansprouts
- 4 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
Method
- Blitz all the curry powder ingredients together to form a coarse paste.
- Pour the coconut cream into a large saucepan. Boil it over a medium heat until it separates.
- Add the curry paste and fry for 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Stir in the soy sauce and chicken and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Season to taste with fish sauce and keep warm.
- Arrange the noodles in a large bowl and pour over the boiling water to cover. Leave to stand for four minutes, then drain. Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan and fry the sliced garlic. Separately fry the shallots and chillies for about 30 seconds until crispy and golden brown. Strain and cool. Pound together in a pestle and mortar with salt and sugar.
- Divide the drained noodles between four serving bowls. Top with fish curry sauce. Serve with a garnish of limes, scatter with the garlic, shallot and chilli mix, chicory, bean-sprouts and coriander.
