Recipe

Curry Laksa: The Coconut Noodle Soup That Clears Your Whole Schedule

Name: Curry Laksa: The Coconut Noodle Soup That Clears Your Whole Schedule
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 6 shallots, roughly chopped; 4 cloves garlic; 1-inch piece fresh galangal, peeled and sliced, or ginger if galangal is not available; 1-inch piece fresh turmeric, peeled, or 1 tsp ground turmeric; 10 dried red chiles, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes and drained; 2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, sliced; 1 tsp ground coriander; 1 tsp shrimp paste; 2 tbsp water, as needed to blend; 2 tbsp neutral oil; 5 cups low sodium chicken stock; 1 can (13.5 oz) full fat coconut milk; 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs; 12 oz large shrimp, peeled and deveined; 8 tofu puffs, halved; 2 tbsp fish sauce, plus more to taste; 1 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar; 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste; 14 oz dried rice vermicelli noodles; 4 large eggs; 2 cups fresh bean sprouts; 1/2 English cucumber, cut into thin matchsticks; 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves or Vietnamese coriander leaves, roughly torn; 1 lime, cut into wedges; Sambal oelek, for the table

25 min prep 30 min cook Serves 4 October 17, 2026

A bowl of curry laksa with shrimp, shredded chicken, egg, and noodles in orange coconut broth

Laksa is the bowl I order when I want everything at once. Heat, coconut, noodles, shrimp, chicken, a broth you keep going back to with the spoon long after the noodles are gone. It comes out of the Peranakan kitchens of Malaysia and Singapore, where Chinese noodle soups met Malay spice pastes and coconut milk, and nobody in that meeting made a bad decision.

The broth is the whole show here, and the broth starts with a paste. Shallots, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, and dried chiles get blended up, then fried in oil until the raw edge cooks off and the color deepens. That fry is the difference between a soup that tastes fine and a soup that tastes like laksa. Give it the full five minutes. Your kitchen will smell incredible, and your neighbors will have questions.

From there it moves fast. Chicken poaches right in the broth and gets shredded. Shrimp go in at the end so they stay snappy. Tofu puffs soak up the broth like little sponges built for exactly this job. Pile it over noodles with bean sprouts, egg, and herbs, hit it with lime and sambal, and eat it hot, loud, and without any kind of table manners. Slurping is not rude with laksa. Slurping is participation.

Star ingredients Sambal Coconut Milk Turmeric Shrimp

Ingredients

For the spice paste

6 shallots, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic
1-inch piece fresh galangal, peeled and sliced, or ginger if galangal is not available
1-inch piece fresh turmeric, peeled, or 1 tsp ground turmeric
10 dried red chiles, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes and drained
2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, sliced
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp shrimp paste
2 tbsp water, as needed to blend

For the broth and proteins

2 tbsp neutral oil
5 cups low sodium chicken stock
1 can (13.5 oz) full fat coconut milk
1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
12 oz large shrimp, peeled and deveined
8 tofu puffs, halved
2 tbsp fish sauce, plus more to taste
1 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste

For the bowls

14 oz dried rice vermicelli noodles
4 large eggs
2 cups fresh bean sprouts
1/2 English cucumber, cut into thin matchsticks
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves or Vietnamese coriander leaves, roughly torn
1 lime, cut into wedges
Sambal oelek, for the table

Instructions

Put the eggs in a small pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. As soon as the water boils, take the pot off the heat, cover it, and let the eggs sit for 9 minutes. Move the eggs to cold water, peel them once they are cool enough to handle, and cut each one in half. Set them aside.

Put all the spice paste ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, adding the water a spoonful at a time and scraping down the sides as needed. The paste should be thick and deep orange.

Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the spice paste and fry it, stirring often, for 5 to 6 minutes until it darkens a shade, thickens, and smells rich and cooked. Oil should start to show around the edges of the paste.

Pour in the chicken stock and stir well, scraping the bottom of the pot. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar, and salt, then stir again. Bring the broth to a gentle simmer. Do not let it hit a hard boil, or the coconut milk can split.

Add the chicken thighs to the simmering broth. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Lift the chicken out with tongs, shred it with two forks into bite size strips, and set it aside. Keep the broth at a low simmer.

While the chicken cooks, cook the rice vermicelli following the package directions, then drain and rinse it under cold water to stop the cooking. Drain it well and divide it among four large bowls.

Add the tofu puffs to the broth and simmer for 2 minutes so they soak up the broth. Add the shrimp and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, just until they turn pink and curl. Taste the broth and adjust it now: more fish sauce for salt, more sugar if the heat needs rounding out, a squeeze of lime if it tastes heavy.

Blanch the bean sprouts in the hot broth for 30 seconds using a strainer, then lift them out. Keep a handful raw if you like the crunch both ways.

Divide the shredded chicken, shrimp, and tofu puffs among the bowls, on top of the noodles. Ladle the hot broth over each bowl until the noodles are just covered. The broth should be generous. This is soup, not a garnish.

Top each bowl with bean sprouts, cucumber matchsticks, two egg halves, and a scatter of mint or Vietnamese coriander. Serve right away with lime wedges and sambal oelek on the table so everyone can set their own heat level.

Moe Train's tip:

Fry the paste longer than you think you should. Five full minutes is the floor, not the ceiling. Raw paste gives you a broth that tastes sharp and thin. Paste fried until the oil separates gives you a broth with real depth, and that one step does more for this soup than any extra ingredient you could throw in at the end.