Equipment
For this part of the recipe you are going to need the following kitchen equipment in order to prepare the dish:
- Heavy pot for boiling water
- Soup pot with lid
- Spatula or chop sticks
- Spoon
- Spaghetti strainer
- Measuring cup
- Two heat sources
Ingredients
While the videos show the ingredients for one serving, I'm listing everything out as I were making it for two, so please take note of what you'll need
- Vegetable oil, 1 Tbsp
- Coconut milk, 1 12oz. can
- Your curry paste from Part 1
- Chicken, 2 deboned thighs, sliced
- Broth, 1 cup
- Fish sauce, to taste
- Palm sugar, 1 Tbsp
- Water
- Salt
Preparation
This process can be divided into three distinct steps in order to help you with your timing and flow.
1. Cooking
Heat up your heavy pot with water until boiling. You'll need to do this first as it can be combersome to serve your Khao Soi right away if the noodles are cooked. I've learned this the hard way. Once the water has come to a boil, add salt and lower the heat to medium. You can do this step in tandem while cooking the Khao Soi, but remember to start it first.
Next, heat your soup pot and add the vegetable oil. Once hot but not smoking, add the creamy part of the coconut milk. This should be the semi-solid part that comes in the can. If your brand is all liquid, just add about one half of the can to the soup pot on just enough heat that it will bubbler and begin to reduce, but not burn.
Stir the boiling coconut cream until the point where it has reduced by at least half or the oil begins to separate from the cream. Not all brands will do this, so don't alwats wait for the separation.
Once you're satisfied with the reduction, add your curry paste to the pot and fold in with the cream. Your heat should be at medium high but stir constantly to avoid burning as the paste will absorb the liquid very quickly and burn if you don't keep an eye on it.
When the curry and coconut mix has cooked for a couple of minutes, add your chicken and coat it with the mix, cooking it enough so that the outside of the chicken slices has changed color and is coated with the curry mixture.
2. Simmering
Now, add the remaining coconut milk from the can and stir the chicken stock in slowly to avoid cooling the process down. Return the mixture to a slow boil and reduce the heat to low so that you can simmer the Khao Soi for about ten minutes. I use thigh meat but breast meat takes less time to cook, so take a peek every couple of minutes or so to ensure the proper cooking time for you meat. Beef will also not take as long as chicken thighs, depending on the width of yor slices. It would also be a good time to start the prep that you'll need for Part 3: Plating the Khao Soi Gai.
3. Seasoning
If you followed the two previous steps as I've explained them, you should now have two servings of cooked Khao Soi Gai. However, there's one last step to completing Part 2 and that is the seasoning.
First, take a spoon and taste the Khao Soi to get a sense of the base tatse. Next, add your palm sugar to the mix and stir until completely desolved. Taste again ti determine the sweetness and then begin to add a little bit of fish sauce at a time, stirring and tasting as you go until you reach the point where you're satisfied with both the saltiness and the smell. Adding too much fish sauce will ruin it for you. Adding some later isn't a big deal.
Once you're satisfied with the seasoning, head over to Part 3. Plating the Khao Soi Gai.
