Skip the takeout! This delicious Thai Chicken Noodle Soup is easy to make at home with ingredients you can find in your local supermarket. If you love Thai food, you need to try this recipe!
Every few months I participate in a group recipe swap, Freaky Friday, organized by Michaela from An Affair from the Heart. We are each assigned another blogger’s blog, where we choose a recipe to make and then we all share them on our own blogs on the same day. For our Fall Edition, I’m cooking from PicNic’s blog. Nicole doesn’t know I have her, and won’t until I hit publish today!
Nicole’s blog is packed with fabulous baked goods. When I found out I had been assigned her blog, I was a little worried, because as many of you know, baking is not my favorite thing to do. I find it a little intimidating, to be honest. When I do bake, I tend to stick to variations of things I know have worked well for me. Of course, this might have been a good opportunity to expand my baking horizons, but then I discovered all these delicious looking Asian recipes on Nicole’s blog!
A while back we got a Thai restaurant in town and on the recommendation of a friend who has spent quite a bit of time in Thailand, I tried it out. I discovered that I really like Thai food! So when I saw that Nicole had some Thai recipes on her blog, I decided I was going to make one of those.
I’m so glad I did!
THAI CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
We eat a lot of soup in this house. I make soup several times a week, so when I saw Nicole’s Spicy Thai Noodle Soup, I knew right away that was what I’d be making!
I did adapt her recipe slightly to adjust to my family’s taste buds. Nicole uses coconut cream in her recipe; I used coconut milk because I knew my husband would like that better. Coconut cream has a richer sweeter flavor and a thicker consistency, and we’ve had soups with coconut cream in it. I like it; my husband, not so much. I like cooking with coconut milk as well though, and was comfortable making that switch. I used ginger paste in place of fresh ginger (mostly because I hate to chop ginger), and cilantro paste instead of coriander paste. I also added a couple cups of shredded chicken, which Nicole mentions you can definitely do. I’ll be trying it with shrimp as well.
I was a little nervous because we had my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and her husband over to eat the night I made it. It’s always a bit stressful when you try out a new recipe for company! But every single one of them loved it, including my husband! And both my mother-in-law AND sister-in-law asked for the recipe.
The biggest test for me though was when I gave the friend who has traveled so much in Thailand some of our leftovers. She loved the soup as well. SUCCESS!
HOW TO MAKE THAI CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
This Thai Chicken Noodle Soup is such an easy recipe to make. And it takes less than 30 minutes as well!
Don’t let the ingredient list intimidate you. I found everything I didn’t have right at my regular grocery store. I actually had ginger paste, lemongrass paste and cilantro paste from Gourmet Garden in the house already. They also make a red chili paste. Check the refrigerated section in your grocery store’s produce department…Gourmet Garden’s pastes come in handy for me in cooking all the time.
First you make a paste using the garlic, onion, red pepper, ginger paste, lemongrass paste, red curry paste, cilantro paste, red chili paste and coconut oil. Just place all of these ingredients in your food processor and process until a paste forms.
While you are making your paste, start boiling water for the rice noodles.
Add the paste to a medium pot and fry it for a couple of minutes, just until it’s fragrant. Then add the coconut milk and chicken broth. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. In the last couple of minutes, add your shredded chicken. This is a great way to use up some leftover chicken!
While your soup is simmering, cook your rice noodles according to package directions and drain.
Add your fish sauce, lime juice and zest and rice noodles to the soup.
Garnish with chopped cilantro, green onion and green and red chilies. DONE!
It should take you about twenty five minutes from start to finish to make this Thai Chicken Noodle Soup. Doesn’t it look delicious?!
Spicy Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

Skip the takeout! This Thai Chicken Noodle Soup is easy to make at home with ingredients you can find in your local supermarket. If you love Thai food, you need to try this recipe!
Ingredients
- 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 2 tablespoons ginger paste or fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon lemongrass paste
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon cilantro paste
- 1 tablespoon red chili paste (can also used 2 red chilies, chopped)
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 lime, zested and juiced
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 can (13.5 fl oz) coconut milk
- 2 cups shredded chicken
- 7 oz rice noodles
- For garnish:
- 1 bunch of cilantro, leaves chopped
- 4-5 green onions, thinly sliced, both white and green parts
- 1 green chili, sliced, seeds removed
- 1 red chili, sliced, seeds removed
- To serve:
- roughly chopped coriander, sliced red chili, sliced green onion
Instructions
- Combine garlic, onion, red pepper, ginger paste, lemongrass paste, red curry paste, cilantro paste, red chili paste and coconut oil in a food processor, and process until a paste forms.
- While you are making your paste, start boiling water for the rice noodles.
- Add the paste to a medium pot and fry it for a couple of minutes, just until it's fragrant.
- Add the chicken stock and coconut milk and bring to a boil, Reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- In the last couple of minutes, add your shredded chicken.
- While the soup is simmering, cook your noodles according to the package directions and drain.
- Add your fish sauce, lime juice and zest and rice noodles to the soup.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro, green onion and green and red chilies.
Notes
If you plan on making enough for leftovers, add the rest of your noodles when you're heating the leftovers or they'll soak up a lot of the liquid!
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 410Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 3gSodium: 39mgCarbohydrates: 91gSugar: 38gProtein: 11g

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Johna
Wednesday 13th of March 2019
This is such an EXCELLENT recipe I have made it Several times. However, I feel like your prep time is way off it is a lot of work!
Anisha
Monday 31st of December 2018
OMG SOOOOO GOOOOD, Amazing vegan recipe when you omit the chicken and fish sauce and use tofu and soy sauce instead!
Laura A
Monday 26th of November 2018
Hi there! I really want to make this soup. My husband is allergic to bell peppers. Is there something else you can think of to substitute? He can have poblano, would that work? I know I can just omit it as well, I'm hoping that won't impact the overall bulk or quality of the soup. Any advice you have would be appreciated. Thanks!
Michelle Nahom
Thursday 29th of November 2018
I would leave them out or add a pepper he can have. Poblano would change the spice level, but let me know if you try it. :)
Things That Inspire
Monday 24th of April 2017
Made this tonight, and it was a home run. My youngest doesn't like spice so I halved the red pepper paste, but I think I could have done the full tablespoon.
Christine
Tuesday 4th of April 2017
Made this yesterday and it was delicious, hubby loved it! I didn't have lemongrass paste so I grated fresh lemongrass. I definitely second the advice to store the rice noodles separately from the soup if you are planning to save leftovers, or else the noodles will soak up all the broth! I was too lazy to store my noodles separately so I just used fewer noodles, and they still soaked up a TON!
Michelle Nahom
Tuesday 4th of April 2017
Thanks Christine! It's always so nice to hear back from people when they've made a recipe. I'm so glad you stopped back by and let me know that you enjoyed it! You made my day!