Khao Piak Sen (Laotian Noodle Soup)

Every country has their own soup. The Vietnamese have pho, and the Laotian equivalent would be Khao Piak Sen.

We started with the recipe from House of XTia on youtube.  Check out her channel, she has some great videos on Laotian food.  The amount of water in our recipe is modified because our flour is sold in 14oz bags, where she has 16oz bags.  We added beet juice to the dough to give the noodles a bright magenta colour to cheer up our February.

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​Chicken Broth
8 cups chicken stock
1/4 - 1 tsp salt (to taste - depends on how salty your base stock is)
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 thin slices of ginger
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce

Khao Piak Sen (Noodles)
1 400g bag of rice flour
2 400g bags tapioca flour
5  cups boiling water 
1/2 cup hot beet juice
(or 5 1/2 cups boiling water with no beet juice)
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Garnish
Sliced Tomato
Green onion, sliced
Cilantro leaves, minced
Limes, cut in wedges
Jeow Bong 

Slice the tomato and green onion and set aside for garnish. ​

​Cut the stems and  roots off of the cilantro and reserve for the stock. Mince the leaves and set aside in a dish with the rest of the garnishes.  ​

Cut two thin slices of ginger, and smash and chop five garlic cloves

​Toast the garlic cloves, then add the chicken drumsticks, seasoning them with salt and pepper. Brown the chicken skin. 

Deglaze the pan using the chicken stock, and pour into a stock pot. Add the rest of the stock, cilantro stems, ginger slices, sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Once the chicken is cooked, remove and let cool slightly. Take the meat off the bone and put it back in the soup. 

​Empty one bag of tapioca starch and one bag of regular rice flour into a bowl and stir to combine

Bring 5 1/2 cups of liquid to a boil, and pour into the flour mixture. If you are using the beet juice, be careful to heat the water to a boil first, and then heat the beet juice to just before boiling. If you overcook the beet juice, the colour will turn a muddy brown instead of a beautiful magenta. 

Stir for several minutes, until all the liquid is absorbed, and it looks dough like. 

If you find that your dough resembles oobleck, the liquid was not hot enough and you will either have to restart the dough or cook it on the stove, stirring constantly. I have had to do this once, and it was not fun. 

Wait several minutes until the dough in the bowl is cool enough to work with. Dust your hands with tapioca starch from the second bag.  Kneed dough until it is smooth. Place on a cutting board layered with more tapioca starch. 

Roll out into a thin sheet, how thin is going to depend on your preference. I would not personally roll it any thinner than 1/8".  Coat with more tapioca starch, cut in half length-wise, and fold the dough over. Coat again with tapioca starch and cut in half width-wise and fold the dough over. Cut the noodles, setting them in a dish. You may want to dust the noodles with more starch to prevent them from sticking together. 

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and add the noodles. It should take 30 seconds to 1 minute for the noodles to cook. Wait for them to float to the top of the water and remove with a strainer. 

You can use zucchini noodles or sweet potato noodles to give some extra crunch to your soup, or serve them alone with any leftover broth. 

Serve with a wedge of lime and some Jeow Bong. Enjoy!