Spicy Thai Noodle Bowls

Thai food.

Thhhaaaiiiii fooooodddd. IT’S SO GOOD. And so, so, so, soooo flavorful. You will never have a bland bowl of Thai food.

And this Spicy Thai Noodle Bowl…I could pretty much eat it for every meal. You know a few days ago when I posted this Single Serving Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate and was talking about how my fridge is always overflowing with food? Since I still have to consistently cook blog recipes, but my food vacuum aka husband is deployed?

Well that was not an issue with these Thai noodle bowls. I have had them at least once a day since I made them last week. If I don’t eat them for lunch at work, I eat them for dinner at home. And soooometimes both. Lunch and dinner. Variety is not the spice of life when it comes to this recipe….These Thai noodles are the spice of life. Variety, take a vacation for a week.

Alright…let me just break this down for you. The reasons why these noodle bowls make me so happy.

1. The broth. The broth. It is PURE flavor. The perfect balance between savory, salty, spicy, and a teeny-tiny bit sweet. Garlic, scallions, ginger are sauteed as the aromatics for the broth. Throw some curry paste and chicken stock in there and let everything simmer for half an hour. Add in a touch of fish sauce, brown sugar, and soy sauce…go to Thai food heaven.
2. The rice noodles! Seriously…rice noodles. I am so so so obsessed with rice noodles. I love everything about them. Especially the texture. If you have never had them before, they are different than regular noodles. They are softer…but they aren’t mushy (unless you overcook them). They are just wonderful! Massive fork fulls of rice noodles followed by a few unladylike slurps of broth = my happy place.
3. The garnishes. I have had these noodle bowls a few times with no garnishes, and they are still yummy, but the garnishes add so much to the final dish. My two favorite staple garnishes are cilantro and bean sprouts. Cilantro brings brightness and extra yummy flavor to the noodle bowls, and the bean sprouts give you a wonderful, fresh crunch. The extra flavor and texture that these two garnishes bring make all the difference!

Let’s just stop writing/reading this post, throw our stuff in a suitcase, and move to Thailand right now. Sound good? LET’S DO IT.

Orrrrr we can just make these Thai noodle bowls every day for the rest of our lives and pretend that we live in Thailand? I’m good with that plan too.

I briefly mentioned slurping up this delicious broth in my #2 of noodle awesomeness above, but I think we should talk about it a little more. You know in college when we all bought a billion packages of ramen noodles and ate them every day because we were broke? For me, there was always the fork vs. spoon debate I went through each time I made a pack of ramen. They are clearly noodles…which shouldn’t be eaten with a spoon…but there is also clearly broth…which shouldn’t be eaten with a fork.

I always ended up going with the fork and doing the bite and slurp routine. I find that this is what works best with these noodle bowls too. It’s the same situation…lots of noodles, lots of broth. We need to implement a spork here and all our problems will be solved.

Here is my recommendation for consumption: stir all garnishes into your hot, steamy, spicy, flavorful noodle bowls. Collect a big fork full of noodles, put in mouth, lift bowl unceremoniously to face, slurp at least one slurp of brothy goodness…maybe two, continue until bowl is empty.

It is mildly possible that I am bite-slurping a bowl of these noodles right now as I write this post.

And by mildly possible I mean it’s happening. 100%.

Yay for Thai food and noodle bowls and slurping delicious broth!

Spicy Thai Noodle Bowls

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Annie Chesson
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins
• Total Time: 50 mins
• Yield: 5 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 tablespoon freshly grated (or finely minced) ginger
• 1 bunch green onions (scallions), thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken (you can use breasts or thighs, it doesn’t matter)
• 1 teaspoon red curry paste
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (Tamari if you want gluten free)
• 7 oz of rice noodles (can be a little more or less)
• Cilantro, bean sprouts, and thin sliced spicy peppers (if you want it REALLY hot) for garnish

Instructions

1. Heat a pan to medium high heat with some coconut oil (vegetable or canola will also work)
2. Season your chicken with salt and pepper
3. Brown your chicken in the pan (it doesn’t have to be cooked through) and set aside onto a plate
4. Add your ginger, garlic, and scallions to the same pot and stir for a few minutes, until the veggies have softened
5. Add the curry paste and stir together, let this cook for another minute
6. Add the chicken stock and, using a wooden spoon, scrape the bits off the bottom of the pot that have stuck from the chicken and vegetables
7. Bring this mixture to a boil and reduce to a simmer
8. Add the chicken back into the pot, and simmer for 25 minutes
9. Meanwhile, bring a separate pot of water to a boil
10. When boiling, add your rice noodles and cook for 5 or so minutes, until soft but not mushy (follow package instructions if it tells you differently)
11. When your broth is finished simmering, add your fish sauce, brown sugar, and soy sauce
12. Remove the chicken to a plate and shred using 2 forks. Add it back into the broth
13. When your noodles are done cooking, drain them in a colander and add them to the broth (to have more control over the amount noodles to broth, you can add plain noodles into each bowl and ladle broth on top of that.)
14. Garnish with cilantro and bean sprouts. If you want to kick the heat up another notch, also top with thinly sliced spicy peppers (red jalapeno is what’s photographed).

*This recipe is gluten free*

If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!

In the mood for more Thai recipes? Head over and check out my Thai Meatball Lettuce Wraps ?.