"Silly chilli chicken Thai noodle soup" with Hoegaarden

 This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an authentic recipe. This grew out of a desire to produce a light supper with some punch that felt like it was doing you some good. In essence it is a simple, spicy noodle soup with caramelised chicken on top!

Before you do anything you need to bone out and skin your chicken thighs. (You could buy these already prepared but you will miss out on a couple of things: Bones for the stock and skin to garnish. However, these are not critical to the recipe). This will take a little more time than you think but you get much quicker with practice.

This is one of those dishes that can simply make you feel a bit better. The name grew over a couple of drunken discussions about what this delicious soup should be called.

Silly Chilli chicken Thai noodle soup

• 4 Chicken thighs (boned and skinned)
• 3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
• 3 tsp soy sauce
• 1 ltr vegetable or chicken stock (made with cubes is fine)
• 2 red chillies
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 or 4 coins cut from from a ginger root
• 2 slices of lime zest
• 1 bunch leaf coriander
• 2 or 3 spring onions
• Two "nests" of dried noodles (you can use fresh ones too)

Cut the thighs into pieces about the size of the last knuckle on your thumb and pop them in a bowl with the sweet chilli sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce and soy sauce. If it looks a bit dry, add a tiny bit more of all the sauces. pop this in the fridge for at least an hour, though it wouldn't hurt if it was overnight.

put the stock into a large saucepan and bring to the boil (you can add the bones to this is you have done the hard graft!). Roughly chop up the chilli, and garlic. through them with the ginger bits and lime zest into the hot stock, skins an' all! Cut the stalk of the coriander about two cm from the bottom and add them too. Keep this broth at a simmer for an hour or so.  

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions and refresh under a cold tap until there is no warmth left in them. Split the noodles between two bowls and leave aside.

After an hour or so, strain the broth into another saucepan and keep it hot on the hob. 

Grab a frying pan and get it really hot before adding a tiny amount of neutral oil. Pour in the chicken. I will spit and fizzle. Do not panic, this is good. Cool the chicken until all the marinade is starting to caramelise around the pieces. Be brave here, the coating should be a deep mahogany in colour.

Pour the broth over the noodles so that they are just peeking out and share the chicken over them so that it appears to be floating. Chop up the spring onions and sprinkle over the top with a small handful of the coriander leaves. Serve with soy sauce.

If you have the skins, sprinkle a little salt over them and roast them in the oven until they are crisp. Either add them as garnishes or secretly eat them in the kitchen and tell nobody, your secret is safe with me.

The Match

Hoegaarden is a Belgium wheat beer. This means that around half of the grain bill in production is wheat rather than malted barley. Unlike German wheat beer the wheat is not malted but goes into the mash tun simply dried. This means that the beer is very pale hence the generic name "wit" or white. Again the Germans are very strict about adding anything strange to their beer (since 1516!). The Belgium approach is a bit more lax so they often add interesting flavours. In the case of Hoegaarden, coriander and orange zest are added and a clearly there in the flavour profile. Further to this, owing to the yeast used there are some lovely spicy phenols present which match up well with South East Asian flavours in the soup. There is a very low level of hop flavours which can cause the heat of chilli to be ramped up, so there will be no 3rd degree burns here. The beer is very highly carbonated which can have a similar effect but the carbonation here is so soft and fluffy that is should cause no problems.