Thai food

Thai · Halal7 min read

Is Thai food halal?

A dish-by-dish guide to eating halal at a Thai restaurant, from massaman curry, with its Muslim roots, to the noodle bowls built on pork.

By the Forkiee editorial team. Reviewed by an editor before publishing. Editorial standards.

Short answer

Usually not by default. Many Thai dishes are made with pork or cooked with pork fat, boat noodles use pork blood, and chicken or beef needs Islamic slaughter to count as halal. Your best bets are seafood and vegetable dishes cooked in vegetable oil in a clean wok. Ask the kitchen about the meat, the oil and the broth before you order.

A bowl of chicken and potato massaman curry, with a spoon
Chicken massaman with potato, served at a Chiang Mai restaurant that cooks southern Thai food. The name probably comes from an old word for Muslim, but ask whether the chicken is halal. Photo: “Kaeng matsaman kai” by Takeaway, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The menu at a glance

Usually fine
  • Plah plow (salt-grilled fish)Fish stuffed with lemongrass and lime leaves, coated in salt and grilled. Ask that it goes on a grill that does not also cook pork.
  • Mango sticky riceSticky rice under slices of ripe mango, finished with coconut cream syrup. Check that no other topping or sauce is added.
  • Som tam thai (green papaya salad)Green papaya tossed with garlic, chilies, fish sauce, peanuts and dried shrimp. If you follow the Hanafi school, ask about the shrimp and about the crab version.
  • Pad thai with shrimp or tofuRice noodles with tofu, shrimp, egg, peanuts and fish sauce. Ask for no chicken or pork, vegetable oil and a clean wok.
Ask first
  • Massaman curryA sweet, peanut-rich curry whose name probably comes from an old word for Muslim, usually cooked with chicken or beef. Ask whether the meat is halal and who certifies it.
  • Khao mok gaiA Muslim dish similar to biryani: chicken cooked with rice, chicken stock and spices. Ask whether the chicken is halal.
  • Green curry and panang gaiBoth are usually cooked with chicken in coconut. Ask whether the chicken is halal, or ask for shrimp or tofu instead.
  • Pad kra pao (holy basil stir-fry)The order Thais fall back on, made with chicken, pork or minced meat. Ask for chicken or seafood, whether the chicken is halal, and for vegetable oil.
  • Khao man gai (chicken rice)Boiled chicken over rice made with fatty chicken stock, so the rice depends on the chicken too. Ask whether it is halal.
  • Stir-fried morning gloryStir-fried on high heat with garlic, chilies and oyster sauce. Ask for vegetable oil and a clean wok; if you follow the Hanafi school, ask about the oyster sauce too.
  • Thai omelet (kai jiew)The popular kai jiew moo saap has minced pork beaten into the eggs before deep-frying. Ask for a plain omelet fried in fresh vegetable oil.
  • Beef noodle soupBeef noodles often call for garlic and pork rind crisped in pork oil, like pork noodles. Ask whether the beef is halal and for the bowl without that garlic oil.
Usually skip
  • Boat noodles (guay teow rhua)The sweet broth is made with pork blood, and the bowl also gets beef, pork, liver or pork balls.
  • Larb moo and nam tok mooLarb moo is an Isaan salad of minced pork and liver; nam tok moo is grilled pork dressed with chili, mint, fish sauce and toasted rice.
  • Kui tio mu (pork noodles)Noodles with pork, traditionally seasoned with garlic fried crisp in pork fat and bits of pork rind.
  • Kao ka moo and moo yangPork leg simmered for hours in sweet soy with cinnamon and anise, and grilled pork skewers sold with sticky rice.

Where non-halal ingredients hide in Thai food

  • Pork in the name, and out of sight
  • Pork fat and crisp garlic
  • Blood in the broth
  • The meat itself
  • Fish sauce, shrimp and shellfish
  • Shared grills, woks and stock

Pork in the name, and out of sight. Mu or moo in a dish name means pork: kui tio mu is noodles with pork, and larb moo is minced pork with liver. Pork also turns up in dishes that sound meat-free, such as gang jued, a clear vegetable soup that comes with minced pork and tofu. Pork and pork fat are both on the non-halal list.5,4,1

Pork fat and crisp garlic. Thai cooks relied mainly on rendered pork fat and coconut oil until vegetable oils arrived, and pork oil was long the choice for old-style Thai and Chinese cooking. Garlic crisped in pork fat, with bits of pork rind, traditionally seasons pork noodles, and beef noodles and yen ta fo call for it too. Ask which oil the kitchen uses and whether the fried garlic is made with pork fat.5

Blood in the broth. Halal rules list blood among non-halal foods. Boat noodles are served in a sweet broth made with pork blood, and the name on the menu does not say so. Ask what any noodle broth is made from before you order it.1,4

The meat itself. Chicken and beef must come from animals slaughtered according to Islamic requirements to be halal, and scholars disagree about meat slaughtered by Christians or Jews. Khao mok gai is a Muslim dish and massaman is said to have begun as a halal one, but neither tells you where a restaurant's meat comes from. Ask who certifies it; in Thailand, the Central Islamic Council sets the rules.1,2,6,4,8

Fish sauce, shrimp and shellfish. Fish sauce, which seasons som tam and larb, is made by fermenting anchovies with salt and sugar. Seafood is generally counted as halal and needs no ritual slaughter, but the Hanafi school counts non-fish sea creatures such as squid and mussels as impermissible, and shrimp and crab are debated within it. If you follow that school, ask about dried shrimp and crab.7,3,4

Shared grills, woks and stock. Most restaurants cook pork as well as chicken and beef, and some kitchens share grills, utensils and fryers. Rice can carry meat as well: the rice in khao man gai and khao mok gai is cooked with chicken stock. Halal rules also count alcoholic drinks as non-halal, so ask whether any sauce, marinade or batter has wine or beer in it.2,4,1

What to ask the waiter

  1. Is the chicken or beef halal, and who certifies it?
  2. Which oil do you cook with, and is any of it pork fat?
  3. Is there pork, pork blood or pork broth in this dish?
  4. Is the fried garlic on top made with pork fat?
  5. Could my dish get a freshly washed wok and fresh oil?

When staff cannot say what went into a dish, MUIS, Singapore's halal authority, advises Muslims to leave doubtful food alone until its status is clear. Salt-grilled fish or mango sticky rice, checked with the kitchen, is the simpler fallback.

Questions people ask

Is massaman curry halal?

Massaman is said to have begun in southern Thailand as a halal dish, and its name probably comes from an old word for Muslim. It is usually made with chicken or beef, so whether a given bowl is halal depends on the restaurant's meat and who certifies it. Ask before you order.

Are all Thai restaurants halal?

Many are not: pork and pork fat go into many Thai dishes, and some kitchens share grills, utensils and fryers. IFANCA, a halal certifier, lists separate cooking equipment for halal food among its conditions for certifying a restaurant. Ask whether the restaurant is certified and by whom; in Thailand, certification follows rules set by the Central Islamic Council of Thailand (CICOT).

What are popular halal Thai dishes?

Khao mok gai, a Muslim dish of chicken cooked with spiced yellow rice, is a good place to start, though its chicken is halal only if the restaurant's supplier is, so ask. Seafood dishes such as salt-grilled fish or som tam avoid the slaughter question, but you should still ask about the oil and the grill.

Is fish sauce halal?

Fish sauce is made by fermenting anchovies with salt and sugar, and all four major schools of Islamic law count fish as halal, with no ritual slaughter needed. Processed foods carry more room for doubt than fresh fish, so for a bottled sauce, ask whether the brand is halal certified.

Keep exploring

Sources

  1. Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS), Halal: For consumers
  2. IFANCA, May I eat in fast food restaurants?
  3. Islamic Services of America (ISA), Halal Seafood
  4. CNN Travel, 40 Thai foods we can't live without
  5. Bangkok Post, Oil from the swine still divine
  6. National Geographic, Deconstructing massaman curry, Thailand's mellow classic
  7. McCormick For Chefs, Fish sauce
  8. Central Islamic Council of Thailand (CICOT), About

Good to know

This article is for information only and is not medical or dietary advice. Talk to a qualified healthcare professional before changing how you eat, especially if you live with celiac disease, a severe food allergy or another health condition.

How this page was made. Written by the Forkiee editorial team with AI assistance and checked against the sources above and the allergen and diet lists the Forkiee app uses. Recipes change from kitchen to kitchen, so ask.