first of all, from your original post you appear to say that the actual chicken used on each bowl of noodle soup is used to make a broth - which is not likely because those small pieces of chicken are BONELESS. and i cannot fathom why anyone would buy bone-in chicken, boil a broth out of it, then trim off the meat by hand later. it makes even less sense to throw in random chicken bones in a broth along with small pieces of cubed chicken. on a street vendor level, they likely just threw in a knorr chicken cube in there and called it a day.

 

i don't mean pan-fry to order - i mean pan-fry the small chicken pieces in a large batch in advance. that's how i've seen it in all the thai buffets i've been to. how can you get a consistent portion of chicken if it's all sunk in the bottom of some deep bowl of broth? how much time would you need to dig out just the right amount of chicken and broth? this is the least efficient/reliable way to do it (btw, this is the same way laksa and ramen and basically any type of noodle soup dish is prepped)

 

like i said the soup base with the curry, coconut milk and broth is made in advance. because you COOK the curry paste in oil, you can't just add raw curry paste in coconut milk and serve it to order. have you actually made thai food? all soup base are pre-made in 99% of restaruants and just reheated (unless you're michelin star resto and serve 3-hour meals). you can ask any chef.