Khao Piek Sen Recipe
Lao Chicken/ Pork Rice Noodle Soup Recipe
If you’re craving a bowl of comfort, Khao Piek Sen is like a warm hug from a Laotian kitchen. This cozy, chicken noodle soup features chewy hand-cut noodles swimming in a rich, peppery broth. I grew up with this dish, and every bite brings back memories of family, rainy days, and second helpings.
Homemade Broth
The heart of Khao Piek Sen is a rich, savory broth. Once you’ve mastered a good homemade broth, the possibilities are endless—from customizing the protein to layering in your favorite toppings. It’s the soul of the dish and absolutely worth the effort. However, do not feel bad if you choose to use store bought broth or chicken bouillon. You do not need to be a hero everyday!
How to Fresh Khao Piek Noodle
Making fresh, hand-cut noodles is faster and more satisfying than using store-bought ones. They come together in under 10 minutes and cook in just a few more. These noodles stay fresh in the fridge for up to a week, but they rarely last that long in our home. Once you try them, you’ll understand why!
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- Mix flour with hot water until a dough forms.
- Knead the dough for a few minutes until smooth.
- Roll the dough out into a thin sheet.
- Fold the sheet and cut into strips to form noodles.
Related Quick and Easy Thai – Lao Recipes
- Mee Ka Tee : Red Curry Noodle Soup
- Laab : Minced meat salad
- Nam Tok : Thai Steak Salad
- Weeping Tiger : Thai steak with spicy tamarind based dipping sauce
Khao Piek Sen Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
For the broth (Skip this part if you are buying the store bought chicken broth)
- 2 yellow onion
- 2 carrots
- 2 stalks celery
- 1 handful Dried or fresh Shitake mushrooms
- 1/2 tbsp black pepper
- 8 -10 cloves peeled garlic
- 8-10 cilantro stems
- 2 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp rock sugar or sweetener of your choice
- 4 litres water
- 2 lbs pork short ribs or 2-3 chicken leg quaters
For the fresh rice noodle
- 1 tbsp glutinous rice flour (optional)
- 1 cup rice flour
- 1 cup tapioca flour
- 1 cup hot water (must use the same cup that you used to measure the flour)
The sides and extra seasonings (Optional)
- 2 tbsp fresh bean sprouts
- 1 tbsp chopped spring onion
- 1 tsp fried shallots
- 1-2 tsp chili oil
- 1 tsp lime juice
Instructions
Make the Broth
- Chop carrots, onions, celery, and cilantro stems in halves or in fourths.
- Use the cheese cloth or a cloth bag to wrap onion, garlic, carrots, celery and cilantro stems together.
- In a slow cooker, drop the vegetable bag that you prepared earlier, along with the Shitake mushrooms, salt, sugar, and the short ribs.
- Add 4 liters of water.
- Slow cook 6-8 hours. You'll get a clear golden broth, the meat, cooked vegetable. It's healthy and delicious!
Make the Fresh Rice Noodle (Khao Piak Sen)
- Boil water.
- Mix the glutinous rice flour, tapioca flour, and rice flour together.
- Add 1 cup of boiling water in the flour mixture. Stir quickly. After the flour and water starts to come together, knead with your hand to form a dough ball for about 2 minutes.
- Roll the dough out to flatten it as much as you can. Don't worry if it is not very thin. These noodles aren't supposed to be very thin like spaghetti noodles in the first place. Having it a little thick is actually the better texture for this type of noodle.
- Cut the noodles. I usually dust the dough heavily with the tapioca flour. Then, I fold the dough into thirds or fourths and cut it into strips then unfold it to make noodles. You can use a knife or a scraper to cut it. I just use a scraper. If you have a noodle maker and want to use it for this recipe, you really have to make sure that you dust the dough heavily before letting your pasta machine flatten and cutting the dough into noodles. For me, using your hands and a scraper is easier and more and faster.
- Cook the noodles with boiling water or broth or keep it fresh in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. You just have to again make sure to sprinkle a lot of tapioca flour then put the noodles in the ziplock and put it in the fridge. So you see that you can make these noodles fresh while the broth is cooking. Really the entire process of making the fresh Khao Piek Noodle is less than 10 minutes!
Assemble the noodles
- Boil the noodles. Shake off the excess tapioca dust and boil the noodles in hot boiling water until part of the noodles become translucent. This should take about 3 – 5 minutes. Make sure to use medium heat.
- Put the noodles in the bowl and add the broth, meat, and vegetables from cooking broth or leave it out if you don't like them. Usually, you will the vegetables out but then add bean sprouts, spring onions, sometimes cilantro, fried shallots and add more seasoning the way you like it. I like my sliced Shitake mushroom from the broth so I'd like to make my own broth and use the meat and vegetables from it too.
Cheat Method # 1
- Instead of making your own broth. Use cans chicken broth and store bought rotisserie chicken.
Cheat Method #2
- Take the meat out of the rotisserie chicken. Set the meat aside. Use the bones to make broth with the same measurement of water and ingredients of the recipe. However, you must soak the dried Shitake mushrooms before start deboning the chicken so that they are soft enough and will not take more than 15 minutes of cooking time.
Notes
- Now some of us are big eaters but some are not. If you make about 5 bowls of this noodle using all of the broth and meat. The calories of each bowl is about 765 calories while the macro value is at 668 calories.
