🇱🇦 Lao People's Democratic Republic · Laos (Luang Prabang and across the country)
Khao piak senLao chicken noodle soup
A Lao noodle soup of thick, chewy, hand-cut noodles of rice flour and tapioca starch in a chicken broth with galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime, topped with shredded chicken, fried garlic, herbs and lime.
Origin and history
Khao piak sen is a Lao chicken noodle soup with hand-cut rice and tapioca noodles. It is eaten as a breakfast or lunch dish across Laos, with stalls in Vientiane and the Luang Prabang morning market among the places to find it, and noodle shops often sell out before noon. The sources give no origin, so none is stated.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 5 servings
- Total time
- 2 h
- Hands-on
- 50 min
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg3.3 lb whole chicken, or bone-in thighs and drumsticks
- 3 litres12 cups water
- 1 yellow onion, charred whole
- 5 cm2 in fresh ginger, charred, then crushed
- 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised
- 4 slices galangal
- 10 kaffir lime leaves, crumpled
- 1 handful cilantro stems and roots
- 3 tbsp fish sauce, to taste
- 15 g1/2 oz rock sugar, a small nub
- 1 tsp salt, to taste
- 150 g1 cup rice flour, jasmine rice flour, plus extra for dusting
- 120 g1 cup tapioca starch
- 1/4 tsp salt, for the dough
- 150 ml2/3 cup boiling water, a little more if the dough is crumbly
- 8 cloves garlic, minced and fried golden in 5 tbsp oil
- bean sprouts, green onions, cilantro, lime, chili oil, to serve
Method
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1. Fry the garlic in the oil over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes until golden, then strain and keep both garlic and oil.
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2. Char the onion and ginger in a dry pan over medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes, until blackened in spots.
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3. Put the chicken in a stockpot with the water, garlic oil, onion, ginger, lemongrass, galangal, lime leaves and cilantro. Bring to a boil, skim, then simmer gently with the lid ajar for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.
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4. Lift out the chicken, cool a little, and shred the meat. Strain the broth and season with fish sauce, rock sugar and salt.
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5. Stir the rice flour, tapioca starch and salt together, add the boiling water and mix with a spoon until cool enough to handle. Knead until smooth and firm, adding hot water a spoonful at a time if crumbly, then rest 15 minutes.
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6. Roll the dough out thin on a rice-flour-dusted surface, since it swells when cooked, and cut into thick strips about 1 cm (1/2 in) wide. Toss with flour and cover with a damp cloth.
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7. For the traditional thick, velvety soup, cook the noodles in the pot of simmering broth for 2 to 3 minutes until they float and the broth thickens slightly.
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8. Ladle noodles and broth into bowls, top with chicken, fried garlic, sprouts, green onion and cilantro. Serve with lime and chili oil.
Notes
- The noodles are the point: hand-cut and chewy, from rice flour and tapioca starch. More tapioca makes them chewier; more rice flour makes them softer. Use regular (jasmine) rice flour, not glutinous.
- Cooking the noodles in the soup thickens it. For a lighter, clearer broth, boil the noodles separately in salted water and add them to the bowls.
- Use bone-in chicken for a richer broth. Udon is a shortcut if you do not want to make dough, but it is not the same.
- A popular breakfast and lunch dish, with noodle shops that often sell out before noon; locals also eat it when someone is unwell and needs a hearty meal.
- Make ahead: the broth keeps 3 days; make the noodles and cook them fresh.
Adapted from Feed the Pudge, Khao piak sen, Saeng's Kitchen, Khao piak sen, and Seni World, Khao piak sen.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.