Copycat PF Chang's Chiang Mai Noodles is Basically a Dish Called, "Khao Soi" in Thailand, Americanized Yet Still Delish

Chiang Mai Noodles

My husband was researching recipes for us to do recently and had the idea to have a lunch date at PF Chang's.  He thought this would be a good idea because they just started offering a new dish.  I loved the idea of a lunch date as something new and novel for our relationship and the dish is only available at lunch anyway.  The dish is called Chiang Mai Noodles but I recognized it's my home town dish called Khoa Soi by its ingredients immediately (even though there're something slightly different from the ones I had before).

Pf Chang's Chiang Mai Noodles We Got At the Restaurant

Copycat PF Chang's Chiang Mai Noodles Pinterest Image

If you are wondering why PF Chang's doesn't just call it Khao Soi, we have a theory.  Research we just listened to on Freakonomics podcast, has shown that after the age of about 34 people's desire to try new things, especially foods, falls dramatically.  By calling the dish Chiang Mai noodles it sounds way less foreign as most Americans have grown up having Asian noodles and it succinctly tells the origin of the noodles.  PF Chang's is really spot on in catering to people's tendencies and you can tell they do their research.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand

I am very proud of the city I came from.  It is the second biggest city in Thailand and is a destination for tourists from around the world due to its rich culture.  There are beautiful sights, smells and of course tastes all around.  Chiang Mai, spelled with the "i" before the "a", is located in the northern half of the country which is more mountainous but still tropical.

Starting From Scratch

We made a lot of changes to the dish while keeping the same ingredients as much as possible.  Some have criticized us for not exactly copying our copycat recipes, but if you read the title of this blog you understand that part of the point is to have healthier recipes.   We definitely are copying what they are doing overall.

So, we don't want to take away from PF Chang's at all in the modifications we made.  We would never want to run fancy restaurants out of business the way one big company is probably doing to the malls across America.  My husband and I want to have something to do and somewhere to go as a couple to relax, but we improved on this in several ways.

Modifications We Made

To make the recipe healthier, we opted out some ingredients like egg noodles, deep fried onions, and the crispy wontons and replaced them with whole grain brown rice noodles, raw chopped red onions, and whole wheat crackers that are broken up into pieces.

Making the Paste

Khao Soi Paste Ingredients

I made the paste for the dish from scratch using a mortar and pestle.  I think it's better if we can control what we put in our body as much as we can.   We separated the recipe for the paste out into a separate recipe since we use it so much.  This way you can just print the recipe for it for other uses.

Copycat PF Chang's Chiang Mai Noodles Pinterest Image

Chiang Mai Noodles Paste

Let's make the "Chiang Mai Noodles"

Ingredients: 

  Noodles and Soup

• 1 lb. uncooked brown rice noodle (the round type, not the thin angel hair type)
• 1.5 lb. sliced chicken breast
• 4 cups of  lite coconut milk
• 1 cup of water

Chiang Mai Noodles Topping 

• Fresh beansprout
• Cherry tomatoes cut halves
• Chopped green onion and red onion
• Pickle mustard sliced
• Crushed whole grain cracker

Chiang Mai Noodles paste

•  1½ tablespoon Shrimp Paste
•  ½ tablespoon Curry Powder
•  1 teaspoon Tumeric Powder
•  5 Dried Thai Chili
•  1 tablespoon Sliced Pickle Rhizome
•  1 tablespoon Minced Garlic
•  1 tablespoon Sliced Lemongrass
•  4 tablespoon Sliced Shallot
•  1 tablespoon Sliced Lemongrass
•  1 tablespoon Stevia

Instruction:

To make Chiang Mai Noodle Paste

1. Get a mortar and pestle ready. If you don't have them, you can use a processor.  In a case that you're using the processor, you can throw all the paste ingredients at once in the processor.  But if you're going get real and do something truly traditional way by using the mortar and pestle, here's what you need to follow.
2. Crush the Thai chili in the mortar with the pestle then add pickle rhizome, minced garlic, sliced lemongrass and shallot in the mortar.  Pound everything until it becomes smooth.
3. Lastly, add shrimp paste, stevia, curry powder, and turmeric powder mix and crush all the ingredients together.

To make Chiang Mai Noodle Recipe

1. Cook the brown rice noodles, follow the instruction on your choice of brown rice noodles package.
2. Heat 1 cup of lite coconut milk in a large pot on medium-high then add the homemade Chiang Mai Noodle paste in it and stir the paste with the coconut milk.
3. Add sliced chicken breast once the coconut milk is boiling.
4. Stir the chicken with the coconut milk until the chicken is no longer in pink color.
5. Add the rest of the lite coconut milk and the water.  Remain on the same heat level until the curry soup is boiling and let it boils for few minutes then turn the heat down to medium low and let the curry soup sits on the heat for another 5-8 minutes.  Turn off the stove.

Chiang Mai Noodles

To serve the Chiang Mai Noodles

Add the cooked noodle in a bowl and pour the curry soup ever it then top with the topping. Enjoy!!

If you like this, you may like 

Copycat PF Chang's Chiang Mai Noodles Pinterest Image

Copycat PF Chang Thai Harvest Curry with Tofu

Green Curry Noodles

Copycat Pei Wei Super Green Thai Curry

Bitter Melon Curry Shrimp: Why Bitter Foods Stabilize Blood Sugar

Thai Green Curry Spaghetti

Did you know that recent research has shown strong evidence that there is an increase in total calories consumed with an increase in processed food consumption?  We try to avoid processed ingredients as much as possible.  In fact, we have a category for homemade sauces and pastes so you can make them at home and avoid the extra sodium and other things added to store-bought items, designed to increase shelf life.  Below is the link to that category.

https://healthythairecipes.com/category/sauce/

As always, we do our best to make the healthiest recipes we can but your situation is fact dependent so if you have any special dietary concerns, check it out with your doctor.  We would love to hear your opinions in the comments section below.

If you love Khao Soi, (Chiang Mai Noodles), you might dig one of the recipes below.

Easy Khao Soi- Easier to Make and Still Amazing Rich Flavors

Khao Soi Gai (ข้าวซอยไก่)

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Copycat PF Chang's Chiang Mai Noodles Pinterest Image