Chicken laksa
40 min · 41 g protein · 463 cals / serving
A big, steaming bowl of spicy coconut broth, fragrant with laksa paste and lime, full of tender poached chicken, rice noodles, bok choy and crunchy bean sprouts, crowned with a jammy egg, fresh herbs and a hit of chilli. Takeaway-good, made at home.
Ingredients
- 1 tsp canola oil
- 70 g thai curry paste, laksa paste
- 1 litre chicken broth, salt-reduced chicken stock
- 120 ml water
- 1 can (400 ml) light coconut milk
- 500 g chicken breast
- 4 eggs
- 120 g dried rice noodles, thin rice vermicelli
- 2 bunches baby buk choy bok choy, halved or quartered
- 3 tsp fish sauce
- 30 ml lime juice, plus wedges to serve
- 1 tsp brown sugar
To serve
- 150 g bean sprouts
- a handful fresh cilantro
- a few sprigs fresh mint, Vietnamese mint if you can find it
- 1 long red red chili pepper, sliced
Steps
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and fry the laksa paste, stirring, for 2 minutes until it smells fragrant and starts to stick.
- Whisk in the stock, water and coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the whole chicken breasts and poach, barely simmering, for 12–15 minutes, until 165°F in the thickest part. Lift out and shred or slice.
- Meanwhile, lower the eggs into a small pan of boiling water and cook for 7 minutes, then cool in cold water, peel and halve.
- Put the noodles in a heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water and leave for 3–4 minutes until tender, then drain and divide between four deep bowls.
- Add the buk choy to the simmering broth for 2 minutes until just tender. Stir in the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar, then taste: it should be rich, hot, salty and a little sour.
- Top the noodles with the chicken and buk choy and ladle over the hot broth. Finish with the eggs, bean sprouts, herbs and chilli, with lime wedges on the side.
Good to know
Which laksa paste?
Supermarket laksa pastes vary a lot in heat and salt, so start with 70 g and add more once you have tasted the broth. If you only have Thai red curry paste, use it with an extra teaspoon of ground turmeric and a stalk of bruised lemongrass.
Why light coconut milk?
Laksa paste carries most of the flavour, so a can of light coconut milk plus good stock still gives a creamy, orange broth. Use full-fat if you want it richer; the bowl will be heavier, at about 62 instead of 76.
Tofu puffs?
A handful of tofu puffs, halved and simmered in the broth for a minute, soak it up like sponges and are traditional. Add them if you love them.
Alternatives
Per
- Calories
- 65
- Protein
- (36%)
- 6 g
- Fat
- (38%)
- 3 g
- Carbohydrates
- (26%)
- 4 g
- of which sugar
- 1 g
- Fiber
- <1 g
- Sodium
- 295 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 1854 kcal goes into the pot and 3120 g of ingredients comes out as about 2850 g of food: 65 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.