Red Curry Chicken Noodle Soup-Kapoon

This red curry chicken noodle soup is called khaub poob in Hmong, pronounced kapoon. It’s a savory red curry soup with creamy coconut milk, shredded chicken, and loaded with cabbage and delicious herbs such as cilantro and mint. Undoubtedly, it’s perfect for the cold winter months; however, in my household, we have this soup all year-round. I really do hope you give it a try. Enjoy!

(A little background about this amazing soup: Kapoon is originally from Laos and its popularity has spread throughout southeast Asia. There are many different versions of this red curry noodle soup and it has many names depending on where you’re from.)

Ingredients for red curry chicken noodle soup:

• Rice vermicelli noodles
• Chicken breast with bone-in
• 1 stalk of lemongrass
• Better Than Bouillon- Roasted Chicken concentrated base
• Salt
• Vegetable oil
• Red curry paste
• Thai noodle sauce
• Minced garlic
• Chili bamboo shoots in soybean oil
• Kaffir lime leaf
• Coconut cream
• 2 small tomatoes, diced
• pork meatballs – you can leave the meatballs whole or cut them in halves if serving to children.
• Sugar

• This noodle comes in different thickness, fine and thick. I prefer FINE noodles.
• This is a 32.5 oz bag of vermicelli rice noodles. It’s a bigger bag of noodles, where the noodles come in bundles. For this recipe, I use 5- 6 bundles and save the rest for later.

Toppings for the soup:

• Roughly chopped cilantro
• Thinly sliced green or red cabbage
• Mint
• Lime slices
• Other options: shredded carrots, bean sprouts, diced green onions, shredded lettuce, and sliced banana blossom.

Condiments:

• Fish sauce
• Sriracha sauce

Step-by Step Instructions:

In a medium-sized pot, add about 12-14 cups of water. This water will be used to create the base stock for the soup. Bring the water to a boil and place chicken breast, lemongrass, salt, and chicken concentrated base in it.

Let the soup boil on medium-high for about 20- 30 minutes while skimming off any fat or impurities that come from the chicken. This will ensure a clean broth.

Once the chicken is cooked, take the chicken breast out, shred the meat, and discard the bones. Set aside the soup.

Next, in a big pot add water a little more than halfway. Bring the water to a boil and add your noodles. Give the noodles a good stir so they don’t stick to each other.

The noodles should take about 15-20 minutes to cook. Make sure to check the readiness of the noodles. Once the noodles go from transparent to white and it’s soft to the bite, get it off the heat immediately. Take the pot of noodles to the sink and pour out the hot water. Add cold water to the pot to cool the noodles. Keep the noodles in the pot with cool water and start to portion the noodles into small bundles and place them in a strainer.

Once the noodles have all been bundled and placed in a strainer, dump out the water and give the pot a good rinse. Dry it, and we’ll use the same pot to make the red curry soup.

In the pot, you just dried add the vegetable oil, along with the red curry paste and Thai noodle sauce, and put it on medium-low heat to prevent the curry paste from burning. Cook this for 2 minutes. Now add the minced garlic and cook for another minute.

* * If you want to make this a little more spicy, you can add more red curry paste. In this recipe, the curry soup is not too spicy. I have little ones ages 2-11 years and they all can eat this.

Now, turn the heat up to medium-high and add the bamboo in chili oil, tomatoes, kaffir lime leaf, sugar, and salt to the pot. Cook this for 2 minutes, allowing the tomatoes to soften.

Add the coconut cream and cook for another 2 minutes.

At this point, add your chicken soup from earlier, to the curry pot. Also, add your shredded chicken and pork meatballs. Now, let this come to a boil for about 10-12 minutes. We want everything to have a chance to get to know each other and develop flavors.

Now, give the soup a taste. The soup shouldn’t be too salty because you will have a chance to add fish sauce to give it an umami flavor with a bit of saltiness.

Once you are satisfied with the taste, turn off the heat and let’s put together the bowl of soup.

Assembling the red curry noodle soup

In a medium-sized bowl, place about 3-4 bundles of noodles at the bottom (depends on how much you want to eat).

Now, pour about 2 -3 cups of the red curry soup over noodles and don’t forget to grab some bamboo shoots, meatballs and shredded chicken.

Add the topping with a handful of cabbage, cilantro, mint, and a squeeze of lime juice. It’s really about what you want in your soup. My husband bowl is usually half soup and half toppings. I like to add a little bit of everything. Just do you.

At this point, you can taste your soup and add fish sauce to give a bit of saltiness, and/or if you like it sourer, add more lime juice. Also, don’t forget the sriracha sauce if you want to add some spice. Oh, this bowl of kapoon is going to be so good. Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Red Curry Chicken Noodle Soup-Kapoon

(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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Dinner – Asian

By Kalu Lor – Serves: 5-6 people

Prep Time: 20 minutes – Cooking Time: 40 minutes – Total Time: 1 hour

A savory red curry soup with creamy coconut milk, shredded chicken, and loaded with cabbage and delicious herbs such as cilantro and mint

Ingredients

• 2-3 lb of chicken breast with bone-in
• 1 stalk of lemongrass-wash lemongrass and cut into three smaller pieces
• 3 heaping Tbsp of Better Than Bouillon- Roasted Chicken concentrated base
• 4 Tbsp salt
• 32.5 oz rice vermicelli noodles - For this recipe, I will usually use 6 bundles and save the rest for later.
• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2-4 Tbsp red curry paste-just depending on how hot you want your curry soup
• 2 Tbsp Thai noodles sauce- you can freeze the rest of the curry paste in a bag for later use
• 1/2 Tbsp of minced garlic ( about 2-3 medium cloves)
• 12 oz. jar of chili bamboo shoots in soybean oil-*make sure to drain about 95% of the oil from the jar before adding to curry soup.
• 2 small tomatoes cut into big chucks
• 4-6 kaffir lime leaf
• 1 Tbsp of sugar
• 19 fl. oz. can of coconut cream
• 11 oz. pork meatballs - you can keep the meatballs whole or cut them into halves if serving to small children.
• Vegetable and Herbs-toppings
• Roughly chopped cilantro
• Thinly sliced green or red cabbage
• Mint
• Lime slices
• Other options: shredded carrots, bean sprouts, diced green onions, shredded lettuce, and sliced banana blossom
• Condiments
• Fish Sauce
• Siracha

Instructions

1

In a medium-sized pot add about 12-14 cups of water. This water will be used to create the base stock for the soup. Bring water to a boil and place chicken breast, lemongrass, 2 Tbsp of salt, and chicken concentrated base in. Let this boil on medium-high for about 20- 30 minutes, while skimming off any fat or impurities that come from the chicken. This will ensure a clean both. Once the chicken is cooked, take the chicken breast out, shred the meat, and discard the bones. Set aside the soup.

2

Next, in a big pot add water a little more than halfway. When cooking these noodles you want a lot of water. Bring water to a boil and then add your noodles and give the noodles a good stir so they don't stick to each other.

3

The noodles should take about 15-20 minutes to cook. Make sure to check the readiness of the noodles. Once the noodles go from transparent to white and it's soft to the bite, get it off the heat immediately. Take the pot of noodles to the sink and pour out the hot water. Add cold water to the pot to cool the noodles. Keep the noodles in the pot with cool water and start to portion the noodles into small bundles and place them in a strainer. Set them aside until you're ready to eat.

4

Once the noodles have all been bundled and placed in a strainer, dump out the water and give the pot a good rinse. Dry it, and we'll use the same pot to make the red curry soup.

5

In the pot, you just dried add the vegetable oil, along with the red curry paste and Thai noodle sauce, and put it on medium-low heat to prevent the curry paste from burning. Cook this for 2 minutes.

6

Now add the minced garlic and cook for another minute.

7

Turn the heat up to medium-high and add the bamboo in chili oil(make sure to drain at least 95% of the oil before adding to curry), tomatoes, kaffir lime leaf, sugar, and 2 more Tbsp of salt to the pot. Cook this for 2 minutes allowing the tomatoes to soften.

8

Add the coconut cream and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

9

At this point add your chicken soup from earlier to the curry pot. You can also add your shredded chicken and pork meatballs. Now let this come to a boil for about 10-12 minutes. We want everything to have a chance to get to know each other and develop flavors.

10

Now give the soup a taste. The soup shouldn't be too salty because you will have a chance to add fish sauce to give it an umami flavor with a bit of saltiness.

11

Once you are satisfied with the taste, turn off the heat, and let's put together the bowl of soup.

Assembling the soup

12

In a medium-sized bowl, place about 3-4 bundles of noodles at the bottom (depends on how much you want to eat).

13

Now, pour about 2 -3 cups of the red curry soup over noodles, and don't forget to grab some bamboo shoots, meatballs, and shredded chicken.

14

Add toppings with a handful of cabbage, cilantro, mint, and a squeeze of lime juice.

15

At this point, you can taste your soup and add fish sauce to give a bit of saltiness, and/or if you like it sourer, add more lime juice. Also, don't forget the sriracha sauce if you want to add some spice.

16

Oh, this bowl of kapoon is going to be so good. Enjoy!

Notes

This soup is great to freeze. Just pour leftovers in a freezer bag and place the bag in the freezer laying flat down. The next time when you want some more just thawed for 30-40 minutes and reheat in a pot.