Some blends begin in the test kitchen. This one began halfway around the world.
What is khao soi?
Khao Soi Curry(pronounced “kow soy”) is a northern Thai curry noodle soup most closely tied to Chiang Mai. Soft egg noodles sit in a rich coconut curry broth, and the bowl is finished with crispy fried noodles, pickled mustard greens, shallots, lime, and chile. Chicken khao soi, or khao soi gai, is the version you’ll see most often. Unlike the red and green curries many of us know, the broth leans on dried spices like coriander, turmeric, and black cardamom, which gives this northern Thai dish a warmth all its own.
Learning how to make Khao Soi in Chiang Mai
In the winter of 2019, Janet and I traveled to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand with our travel buddies and longtime friends, Dan and Suzanne. They were some of our first customers at our first shop on Platte Street back when we opened it in 2004. Having just moved from Chicago and in need of new friends, we asked them to join a gourmet club we were starting along with a few other customers-turned-friends. What a group of talented cooks it turned out to be. We became close with all of them, which is one of the best gifts Savory has given us. With Dan and Suzanne, we’ve been fortunate to take our culinary experiences to the next level, traveling the world together, always in search of our next food adventure.
Chiang Mai turned out to be one of those adventures.
We had heard it was something of a culinary mecca in Thailand, a place where we could go beyond the Thai dishes we already knew and loved back home and discover new flavors, local ingredients, and regional specialties. We weren’t looking to simply eat our way through the city, though there was certainly plenty of that. We wanted to learn while we were there, too.
While in Chiang Mai, we stayed with a local woman named Ae and her daughter, Mo, who welcomed us like family.
Ae was an incredible cook, and when she learned how interested we were in the local cuisine, she offered to teach us how to prepare some traditional dishes ourselves. We specifically asked to learn khao soi, the northern Thai curry noodle dish we’d heard so much about. But first, we needed ingredients, so Ae took us to a local market.
A morning at a Chiang Mai market
The market itself was an experience. Ae led us through stalls packed with ingredients that were completely new to us, stopping along the way to explain what things were and how they were used, and giving us a chance to taste some of them.
We picked up what we’d need for our cooking, but we also discovered plenty we didn’t, including white weaver ant eggs, a delicacy in northern Thailand.
I gave them a try, because when you’ve eaten a full meal at the Bug Cafe in Cambodia like I had the week before, what’s a few ant eggs? Thankfully, they weren’t on Ae’s ingredient list for khao soi.
Learning how to make Khao Soi in Ae’s kitchen
Back at Ae’s home, we got to work. Even the coconut milk started from scratch. We grated fresh coconut by hand and used it to make the coconut milk for the curry broth.
Ae walked us through building the dish layer by layer, teaching us not just what went into it but the whys behind it, like why the finished curry is topped with pickled mustard greens. Their salty, acidic bite cuts through the richness of the coconut curry broth, balancing the dish rather than simply garnishing it.
By the time we sat down to eat, we’d experienced khao soi in a completely different way. Cooking it ourselves with such a generous host gave me the confidence that this was something we could eventually recreate at home and share with you.
Why Black Cardamom is the key to Khao Soi
Seven years later, the time finally felt right to create our version. I’ve been seeing more and more local Thai restaurants offering khao soi, which tells me this once relatively unknown northern Thai dish is finding a wider audience.
So I went to work in the Savory test kitchen.
Most of the fresh ingredients were fairly easy to convert to dry, but one ingredient really mattered: cardamom. In Indian curries, or even similar Moroccan dishes, the cardamom we’re most familiar with comes from green pods. But to get the flavor of khao soi right, it had to be black cardamom. Unlike sweeter, more floral green cardamom, black cardamom has a deep, smoky, almost earthy character that gives the curry another layer of complexity.
With the seasoning right, it was on to the recipe for the finished dish, which is the fun part. Normally I go through several rounds of testing before a recipe is honed in, but with this one, likely because of our time cooking with Ae, I got it right on the first attempt. I felt pretty confident we’d nailed it when one of our toughest palates to please finished a bowl, smiled, and said, “I have no notes!”
How to Make Khao Soi at Home
Our Khao Soi Curry gives you the flavor base for the whole bowl. It combines coriander and guajillo chile with shallot, turmeric, ginger, and black cardamom. You’ll stir it with a little water, cook it in coconut oil for a minute or two until fragrant, then pour in coconut milk and broth and let the chicken simmer until tender. Soy sauce and a little brown sugar round out the broth, and a squeeze of lime at the end keeps it bright.
From there, it’s all about building the bowl. Our recipe walks you through every step, from the curry broth to the crispy noodle topping.
For Caribbean dishes that call for whole allspice berries and the smoke from allspice wood, there’s no real substitute. The whole-berry/wood combination is specific to that cooking tradition, and the flavor it produces is the flavor of authentic jerk.
Khao Soi Toppings and Why They Matter
Half the fun of khao soi happens on top of the bowl.
Crispy fried noodles add crunch against the soft noodles in the broth, so you get two textures from one ingredient. Pickled mustard greens bring salt and tang, shallots add a sharp bite, and fresh herbs and lime wake everything up.
For heat, we skip the traditional Thai chile condiment and spoon on ourGarlic Chili Crisp Oil, made with Garlic Chile Crunch and toasted sesame seeds. Store-bought crispy noodles work fine, but strips of fresh wonton noodles fried until golden are worth the extra few minutes.
How to Eat Khao Soi Curry
Khao soi is a bowl you eat with both hands: chopsticks or a fork for the noodles, chicken, and toppings, and a spoon for the broth. Every bite is a little different, and that’s the point.
More Curry Recipes to Try
If khao soi has you craving more curry, here are two good places to go next. Zanzibar Coconut Chicken Curry is another rich coconut curry, made with our Zanzibar Curry Powder and simmered with chicken and tomatoes.
For something brighter and more herbal, Thai Green Chicken Curry uses our Thai Green Curry with coconut milk and fresh vegetables, served over rice.
Find more in our curry recipes.
Khao Soi Curry is part of our Savory Reserve series of limited-release blends, available only while supplies last. We hope it brings a little of Chiang Mai to your kitchen.
