Singapore-Style Chicken Curry Laksa Recipe

Some soups feel like a starting point for a meal. They are meant to awaken your appetite and get you excited for the food to come. Other soups are a whole affair in and of themselves. Full of layers of flavor, competing textures, and finishing notes that hit you at the back of the throat, some soups are complex and hearty enough to leave you satisfied. This Singapore-style chicken curry laksa recipe falls firmly in the latter camp.

Recipe developer Ksenia Prints from At the Immigrant's Table starts this laksa with a homemade curry paste that is aromatic with lemongrass and galangal. This is transformed into a chicken soup that is rich and creamy, with hits of fish broth and palm sugar. Finally, we load up our laksa with all the classic toppings, starting with tofu, and continuing with rice noodles, bean sprouts, and hard-boiled eggs, and culminating with a hit of freshness from mint, thinly sliced shallots, and fresh Thai bird's eye chiles. The tofu and hard-boiled eggs are not strictly mandatory (or customary), but we feel that serving laksa without them feels somehow incomplete, so we included them in our recipe.

What you end up with is a loaded soup bowl that makes for a complete meal. It's aromatic, fresh, and filled with umami flavors and citrus notes. Don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients, because none of the steps are particularly difficult, and the end result is more than worth the effort. 

For the spice paste that forms the base of the laksa, you will need soaked and deseeded dried Thai chiles, shallots, garlic cloves, lemongrass stalks, galangal root, turmeric root, belacan, which is a type of shrimp paste, and candlenuts or macadamia nuts. If you don't have a fresh turmeric root, you can also use ground turmeric powder. This paste is very fragrant and powerful, so if you have extra left, you can use it as a base for a yellow curry or a noodle stir fry. For the broth itself, start with cooking oil, and add to it bone-in chicken thighs, chicken stock, coconut milk, fish sauce, and palm sugar, though light brown sugar will do as a substitute. For the toppings and flavorings of the laksa, we recommend adding fried tofu or tofu puffs, rice noodles, bean sprouts, Vietnamese mint leaves, fresh thinly sliced shallots, and hard-boiled eggs. Limes and fresh Thai bird's eye chiles can also be served on the side, though they are optional.

In a high-speed blender, blend the spice paste ingredients to a fine paste.

Bring a large pot with oil to medium heat.

Fry the paste 10-15 minutes until it's fragrant and the oil separates.

Add the chicken.

Brown for 5 minutes.

Pour the stock into the pot.

Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked.

Remove the chicken from the pot, shred the meat, and discard the bones.

Return the meat to the broth.

Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, and palm sugar, and let everything simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the tofu. Simmer 2 minutes.

Prepare the noodles according to the package instructions.

To assemble layer the noodles, broth, chicken, tofu, bean sprouts, mint, fresh shallots, and egg halves.

Serve immediately with lime wedges and sliced fresh Thai chiles, if desired.

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We fully recognize that the shopping list for this recipe may seem long, or that you may not always be able to find all the specialty ingredients you need to make this Singapore-style laksa. In that case, we wanted to offer some easy and more readily available subs for some of the more elusive items on our list.

For the dried Thai chiles, you can use fresh chiles or even some chile flakes. Mexican dried chiles like guajillo or ancho will also do in a pinch. Galangal can be substituted with ginger. A teaspoon of turmeric powder is less fragrant, but a perfectly suitable replacement for turmeric root. And for the nuts, candlenuts are known for their ability to thicken creams and curries, but macadamia nuts offer a similar texture and flavor.

Belacan, or shrimp paste, gives this laksa its umami depth, but fermented soybean paste or miso are good, less pungent alternatives, especially if you're looking to make this soup vegetarian. You can also use lemongrass paste or zest from lemon combined with a bit of ginger in place of the lemongrass stalks.

This laksa can easily be made vegetarian or even vegan. The main components you'll need to replace are chicken, stock, shrimp paste, and fish sauce, all of which help build up the umami flavor of the dish. 

To make the broth vegetarian, use a good miso soup or a homemade broth like our shiitake and herb broth recipe. Skip the chicken thighs and add some enoki or shimeji mushrooms and some kombu (the Japanese name for kelp) or tofu skin to give the broth texture. You can also add baby corn or zucchini for freshness, crunch, and a little sweetness. In place of the shrimp paste, use red miso paste or fermented soybean paste. And in place of fish sauce, a splash of soy or tamari sauce will do the trick.

The rest of the soup is already vegetarian, but if you're vegan you should, of course, skip the hard-boiled egg topping. This soup is so versatile, it will serve as a memorable meal, whatever your dietary preferences.

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