The star of these red curry noodles? Thai red curry paste. These little cans of magic can single-handedly pack a flavor punch in any meat, vegetable, or noodle dish you can dream up. Which is great, because you can get that delightfully exotic red curry flavor without the trouble of finding all of the obscure Southeast Asian ingredients needed to make it. Your local Asian grocery store may not have fresh kaffir lime, lemongrass, or galangal, but they are almost sure to have red curry paste in a can.
The red curry paste in my pantry usually goes towards making two main dishes: this red curry chicken and this coconut curry noodle soup. But recently, I’ve been expanding my red curry horizons, with this (vegan!) red curry tofu and now today’s red curry noodle stir-fry recipe.
Like many of my kitchen exploits, this red curry noodle recipe was the result of a desire to use up leftovers––odds and ends that I had at the end of a weekend blogging session. Half a can of red curry paste, a bit of leftover coconut milk, and some vegetables that we had in the fridge.
These “fridge cleanout” meals, as I call them, are often the ones I’m proudest of. Nothing says, “you are a pretty good cook” like taking a bunch of miscellaneous, perhaps even seemingly disparate items from your refrigerator or pantry and turning them into a dish that tastes oh so right.
To make these red curry noodles, you’ll need:
- 8 oz. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into thin strips
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- Vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
- ½ cup coconut milk
- 1 pound fresh cooked egg noodles
- ½ of a red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 2 cups bean sprouts
- 5 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths
- Lime wedges
- 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts
Combine the raw chicken with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
When you’re ready to cook, heat a wok over medium high heat, and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil, along with the chicken. Stir-fry the chicken until opaque, remove from the pan, and set aside.
Add the red curry paste.
Fry for one minute, and add the coconut milk. Add the noodles and stir-fry, loosening up the noodles as you go.
Add the red bell pepper and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the cooked chicken, bean sprouts and scallions and cook for another 2 minutes, until the scallions are wilted.
Serve with lime wedges, and garnish with chopped peanuts.
- 8 oz. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into thin strips
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- Vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
- ½ cup coconut milk
- 1 pound fresh cooked egg noodles
- ½ of a red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 2 cups bean sprouts
- 5 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths
- Lime wedges
- 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts
- Combine the raw chicken with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- When you’re ready to cook, heat a wok over medium high heat, and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil, along with the chicken. Stir-fry the chicken until opaque, remove from the pan, and set aside.
- Add the red curry paste. Fry for one minute, and add the coconut milk. Add the noodles and stir-fry, loosening up the noodles as you go.
- Add the red bell pepper and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the cooked chicken, bean sprouts and scallions and cook for another 2 minutes, until the scallions are wilted.
- Serve with lime wedges, and garnish with chopped peanuts.
Lau Ha Noi says
Oh Sarah, fantastic recipe!! I need this to refresh my breakfast noodles. It was boring to eat, not now haha.
Sarah says
Haha glad I could help!
George says
Just made the dish. It was very good. I added in bok choy to have one more vegetable in the dish.
Kate says
Your blog is amazing and your photos are just always so spectacular. I’ve been wondering for some time what kind of camera(s) you all use and what kind of editing (if any). You’ve probably addressed this before, so sorry to be redundant but I just feel like I need to crack this mystery!! How do you all take such flawless pics?!
Sara says
I have a jar of green curry lingering in the fridge. Do you think that would work as well for this recipe?
Sarah says
Hey Sarah, it would definitely be a different flavor, but I would give it a try! You can basically follow the same recipe here and just replace the red curry paste with green curry paste.
akekid says
Nice recipe. Kind of like a Pad Thai with curry paste instead of the Pad Thai sauce.
Sarah says
Yeah, it’s a bit like that! Except these noodles are lo mein egg noodles rather than rice noodles.
George says
I used fresh lo mein egg noodles that I usually use and they were just right for this recipe.
Sarah says
Yep, those are perfect!
Katherine Wong says
No doubt, you shared the easiest method of preparing red curry noodles with chicken. Though I love noodles in any form but, this Asian style noodles recipe was the tastiest noodles I ever had. SpiceThePlate (https://www.spicetheplate.com/) also has some great recipes about noodles and follow them too. Thank you Sarah for satisfying my taste buds!
J.C. says
Katherine Wong, has no other blogger ever told you that it’s extremely tacky to use the post of someone else to promote your own blog? You were ostensibly here to comment on THIS post, not use it as a way to try to get others to look at YOUR blog.
Sarah says
Thanks for sharing, Katherine
Nic says
Cooked this for dinner tonight with prawns instead of chicken & it was so tasty! Had never thought of making noodles a curry flavour, how clever! Always love your recipes, every single one I have tried has been really good. Keep up the good work! :D
Sarah says
Nice! Glad you enjoyed this, Nic. I also hadn’t thought of trying curry paste in a stir-fried noodle dish until now. We have hundreds of recipes on the blog already, so we’re always trying to think of new ideas. :)
Cindy says
I enjoy reading your recipes with curry paste but have not tried any because I don’t know how spicy it is. Is red curry paste spicy? (I can only tolerate a bit of heat.) Would you mind rating the level of heat in yellow, green, and red curry pastes?
Sarah says
It’s somewhat spicy, Cindy. I can’t really rate the heat levels objectively because taste preferences/heat tolerances are so subjective, but if you are nervous about the dish being too spicy, you can just add it in a little at a time (start at 1 teaspoon, for instance).
Steven says
I like your suggestion for cleaning out the fridge by adding misc veggies and meats as available and all simmered in the curry sauce. Looking forward to trying it. May add a little bit of peanut butter to give it a Pangnang taste.
I use canned curry paste often as well. Would love it if you would have a feature where you showed us how to make red, green and yellow curry from scratch. I have a Kiffir lime tree and Lemon grass in the back yard so those ingredients will not be a problem.
Love your site and recipes.
Sarah says
Awesome idea on the peanut butter, Steven. I’ll have to give that one a try myself!
Tom says
Spectacular dish! First time using curry, and I’m hooked. I agree, I would love to see the recipes on how to make the different types of curry from scratch, but I think there’s like 5 major types which could be time consuming to make on a blog
Sarah says
Thanks Tom! Definitely open to sharing recipes for scratch-made curry pastes more often in the future. :)
Susan says
how do you store the unused 1/2 can?
Sarah says
Hey Susan, we usually put it in a small tupperware in the fridge, and use it in another recipe within a week. Try it in our Quick 15-Minute Coconut Curry Noodle Soup! https://thewoksoflife.com/2015/05/15-minute-coconut-curry-noodle-soup/