This Khao Soi recipe will give you a taste of possibly the very best meal in the world…

Khao Soi is the very best traditional Thai food dish there is.

Yes, there’s the Thai Green Curry, Hinlay Curry, Tom Yum Goong, and another favorite of mine we haven’t made yet called, “Gaeng Ped.” But as much as I love all of these delicious traditional Thai food recipes, Khao Soi Gai tops them all (when you find a good one).

This recipe is for a pork Khao Soi, and it’s amazing. However, my usual go-to is chicken. Beef Khao Soi is common and a great version of it also. With pork belly and no noodles, this recipe is a low carb high-fat version.

Chicken khao soi the only dish I’ve eaten almost every day for years. Ling tells me I’m crazy, but I’m a creature of habit and don’t like to think too much about my next meal. 

Here’s the last one we made:

Where Khao Soi Comes From

Just like the Hinlay Curry, Khao Soi was introduced to Thai cuisine via northern Thai/Burmese mountain trade routes during the mid-19th century. As the story goes, Chinese and Muslim traders would use these ancient jungle routes to carry exotic spices, opium and many flavorful cooking traditions between India and China. It’s the Yunannese which are said to have introduced this glorious coconut curry soup to Thailand, along these routes, to feed traders en route. But I’ve seen people mention Burmese Thai food. So I’m not sure if it’s more from the Burmese or from the Yunannese (Kunming is a great city BTW).

My Khao Soi Explorations

I often go on explorations around the city of Chiang Mai on my little motorbike in search of a new top khao soi spot. 9/10 times I’m disappointed. It will either be loaded with MSG, be too watery, or just not taste good. A real khao soi should fill you up. Not from the egg noodles, but from the hearty curry broth.

One time I had a “khao soi” that had zero coconut milk. Ling couldn’t believe it either, and she’s Thai. I’ll never forget it. It was bland, watery and had so much MSG in it, I could feel my brain, eyes, and temples burning up from the inside after a single bite.

In Thailand, there are hundreds or thousands of “khao soi spots.” They either do only khao soi, or they do khao soi and “quetello” (spelling is totally off on that one I think). It’s another clear broth rice noodle soup traditional Thai food.

I Eat Khao Soi Everyday

What I look forward to every morning. #kaosoigai #best #thai #food #ever

A post shared by John Manning (@johnrmanningjr) on Jan 7, 2015 at 7:22pm PST

My local khao soi spot just outside of Chiang Mai city makes the best one I’ve had in my 5 years of living here. And it’s walking distance from me! On Sundays when it’s closed, I give my body a break from the luscious khao soi she makes over there. They only cater to the neighborhood. I’m very lucky to be able to live so close. I can’t reveal the location because it’s my secret spot, but if you come to Chiang Mai and want to take a little bike ride outside the city, I’d be happy to introduce you to it.

Traditional Khao Soi Recipes Are Intense

Khao Soi is NOT an easy recipe to make from scratch. We’ve done it, and we’re still perfecting the from-scratch version. This one here is just as good and a million times easier to make. 

I was always of the mindset that khao soi is impossible to make. I watch my local spot make it. They use a lot of ingredients and also cook the chicken drumsticks from raw inside the Khao Suey curry to make an extra hearty broth base (something many other local spots don’t do). The meat usually slides right off the bone. You can even eat half the bone itself.

Want to cook a Khao Soi from scratch? I wish you the very best of luck and highly recommend you see the Thai Food Master’s awe-inspiring from-scratch Kao Soi Gai recipe. Just so you can see the difference…

Luckily, it doesn’t have to be so intense.

Our Easy Version

Using our recipe here, you can replicate a from-scratch traditional Khao Soi flavor. The resulting taste is right up there with an authentic one made from scratch (as long as you get a high-quality paste like this Mae Pranom brand one). This is what the final result looks like with the pork belly, and no noodles because low carb..

Instead of using the long list of ingredients that an authentic khao soi recipe calls for, this easy to make khao soi uses a curry powder, red Thai chili paste, and coconut milk.

The spices used in red Thai chili paste, combined with curry powder, replicate what you can do with all those ingredients from scratch. It really is just as good if you cook it right (just follow along and you will…).

How to make Khao Soi

Ok, that was far too long of an introduction to a recipe post, but I’m obsessed with khao soi, so not too surprised about it. Let us finally get on with the recipe…

Step 1. Lay Out Your Ingredients

Let me list out the ingredients again here:

• 300g Pork Belly
• 50g Red Thai Chili Paste
• 50g Curry Powder
• 10g Fish Sauce
• 2g Coriander
• 1g Coconut Oil
• 12mL Aroy-D Coconut Milk

Step 2. Prep The Ingredients

At least 50 minutes before serving.

First, cut the pork belly into cubes. If you’re using chicken or beef, you can instead prepare those at this step.

Next, chop the coriander (we also used green onion in this recipe, but that’s not in a kao soi usually).

Like so:

Step 3. Start Cooking

At least 40 minutes before serving.

Next, over medium heat in a wok or saucepan, heat the coconut oil.

Then, place the red Thai curry paste in the heating oil.

Mix these together in the saute pan a bit..

Then add your meat of choice.

(pork belly for this recipe)

Next, sprinkle in the curry powder soon after adding the meat.

This creates a vibrant mix of red and orange color from all the spices.

Cook for a couple minutes,

Then add the fish sauce.

Immediately after adding the sauce,

Add the coconut milk.

Bring to a simmer,

Then stir occasionally over low to medium heat for the next 20 minutes.

This is the entire recipe.

After so minutes or so it will be ready.

Step 4. The Crispy Egg Noodles

If you’re going for a keto khao soi, then you’ll want to skip the egg noodles.

To make the crispy egg noodles, over medium heat place the coconut oil in your pan and cook them until they’re crispy. You can discard the oil and sprinkle crispy yellow noodles on top of the Khao Soi.

Step 5. The Khao Soi Side Plate

Kao Soi is always served with a side plate consisting of a little mound of fermented vegetables or sour pickled salad, chopped shallots and a couple lime wedges. Sometimes it is served with roasted red chilis.

Step 6. Putting It All Together

Sprinkle the deep fried yellow egg noodles on top and serve with its side plate.

I included the egg noodles here so you can see, but left them off because I ate it without them.

By the way, a freshly squeezed lime wedge is needed. Without the touch of lime, it’s still great, but not the best it can be.

Shallots and pickled cabbage are something I used to use sparingly, but now enjoy dumping the whole side plate in with the rest.

And that’s it.

Let me show off one more picture,

The printable recipe card is below.

Actually,

One more picture:)

It looks better when all the garnishes are inside, but I forgot to take a picture with them in it before I devoured this.

Alternative Spellings: There are many other ways I’ve seen this dish spelled when researching it online. I wanted to list them out below in hopes of reaching others searching for this.

• khow soi
• soi thai
• khao suey recipe
• khow suey recipe
• chiang mai noodles
• curry noodle recipe
• kao soi (I used to spell it like this)
• kao soy
• burmese khow suey
• burmese khao suey
• khao soi thai
• khao soi noodles
• kow soi
• khao suay (“suay” means beautiful)
• khow suey (Or maybe beautiful is spelled “suey”?)
• khao suey

If you’re like me and feared making this dish in the past… you really don’t have to!

It’s so easy and quick.

Ling and I hope you enjoy this recipe!

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