This recipe has been in my ‘Must Try’ file for some time. It has been sitting there waiting until I felt it was the right time to introduce it to the family. I am confident that I would have received thumbs up from two of the kids some time ago, but it wasn’t until now that I felt I would have my other two (the picky eaters) give it a try. I’m happy to report that everyone enjoyed it, and I will be adding it to our menu rotation!
- 12 oz. wide, flat rice noodles, medium width
- 8 medium dried black mushrooms, soaked in hot water 15 minutes until soft, or 1 cup canned straw mushrooms, drained
- 4 cups canned chicken broth, plus 1 cup water
- 2 (13-1/2 ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk
- 8 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into thin strips
- 5 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
- 4 Tbsp fish sauce
- 4 tsp chili-garlic sauce, or more to taste
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 20 snow peas, ends snapped off and strings removed and cut on the diagonal into thin shreds, or 8 ounce spinach leaves
- 6 Tbsp chopped cilantro
- 4 Tbsp thinly sliced scallions
- 4 sprigs Thai basil or sweet basil
Soak the noodles in hot tap water for about 20 minutes, or until soft and pliable. Drain, rinse in cold water, and drain again. Drain the black mushrooms and squeeze dry. Cut off the stems with scissors and discard. Shred the caps.
In a medium saucepan, combine the chicken broth mixture, and coconut milk and slowly bring to just boiling over medium-high heat. Cook and stir gently to prevent the coconut milk from curdling. Add the chicken and mushrooms and simmer gently until the chicken is cooked through, about 1 minute.
Stir in the lime juice, fish sauce, chili-garlic sauce, and sugar. Remove from the heat.
Plunge the noodles in a pot of boiling water and cook, stirring gently to keep the noodles from sticking together, for 1 minute. Drain and immediately portion the noodles into 4 large bowls. Scatter the snow peas, cilantro, scallions, and basil over each bowl. Bring the coconut soup back to a boil. (If using spinach instead of snow peas, add it to the hot soup and cook until wilted, about 30 seconds.) Ladle the hot soup over the noodles, dividing the solid ingredients evenly among the four bowls. Serve immediately.
Serves 4
Source: Easy Asian Noodles, by Helen Chen. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
