Quick Chicken Laksa

With the scorching summer behind us and Autumn bringing in much cooler (albeit wet and humid) weather, it's time to crank up the stove and welcome some warmer Autumn dishes. I've still got a handful of summer salad recipes up my sleeve, but I thought I'd give the blog a break from salad, and share this delicious laksa recipe instead.

Perhaps more of a winter sort of comfort-food, but hey- it's not salad!

I'm usually the type of person who prefers to make everything from scratch, but this is one of the few recipes which I haven't even wanted to try making completely from scratch. Why would I need to when my trusty go-to brand of laksa paste in this recipe gives me exactly the results I'm looking for?

The recipe is quite simple- blitz together some onions, mix it with the laksa paste, then boil it with plenty of coconut milk and you've got yourself a tasty laksa base which you can add your noodles and other ingredients to. The only time consuming part is pureeing the onions, but apart from that it's super simple and quick!

The recipe uses a considerable amount of coconut milk, which I do shy away from using too much of. Coconut milk is quite high in saturated fats, and although there are numerous reported health benefits, there is still yet to be enough solid scientific evidence to recommend using it in large amounts. Until then, here's a handy substitute I learnt back in uni (feels so long ago now!): replace a cup of coconut milk with a cup skim milk mixed with a teaspoon or two of coconut essence. It's not exactly the same, but you'll be surprised how well it works in sauces (especially curries), and it works perfectly in this recipe.

Give it a go and let me know what you think!

Chicken Laksa Recipe
Recipe from Poh Ling Yeow via Adelaide Now

2 chicken breasts
2- 3 tbs vegetable oil
10 shallots or 1 large red onion, chopped and blitzed to a paste
230g laksa paste (Tean's Gourmet is my go to brand)
400ml coconut milk
1 1/2 cups water
1 heaped tsp sambal oelek or chopped red chilli
300g prawns
500g Hokkien noodles, blanched and drained
200g rice vermicelli, boiled until soft and then drained
8 bok choy
4 handfuls of bean sprouts
1 bunch of coriander, leaves picked or roughly chopped with stems
1 bunch of mint, leaves picked
2 limes

1. Poach chicken breasts and shred.
2. Heat oil in saucepan. Add shallot paste and fry until caramelised. Add laksa paste and fry until fragrant. Add coconut milk and water. Bring to the boil.
3. At this point, if the soup is not spicy enough for you, you can throw in a heaped tsp of sambal oelek or chopped red chilli to taste.
4. Add prawns. When they are almost cooked, turn heat off.
5. Pour hot water over the bok choy and sprouts to blanch. Drain.
6. To serve, place Hokkien noodles and rice into four bowls.
7. Distribute chicken and remaining ingredients evenly between each bowl and finish with a cheek of lime.