How to unit test async Redux actions to mock ajax response

Note: answer below is slightly outdated.

A much simpler updated approach is described here.
You can still do it the other way too, though.

We now have a section on testing async action creators in the official docs.

For async action creators using Redux Thunk or other middleware, it’s best to completely mock the Redux store for tests. You can still use applyMiddleware() with a mock store, as shown below. You can also use nock to mock the HTTP requests.

function fetchTodosRequest() {
  return {
    type: ADD_TODOS_REQUEST
  };
}

function fetchTodosSuccess(body) {
  return {
    type: ADD_TODOS_SUCCESS,
    body
  };
}

function fetchTodosFailure(ex) {
  return {
    type: ADD_TODOS_FAILURE,
    ex
  };
}

export function fetchTodos(data) {
  return dispatch => {
    dispatch(fetchTodosRequest());
    return fetch('http://example.com/todos')
      .then(res => res.json())
      .then(json => dispatch(addTodosSuccess(json.body)))
      .catch(ex => dispatch(addTodosFailure(ex)));
  };
}

can be tested like:

import expect from 'expect';
import { applyMiddleware } from 'redux';
import thunk from 'redux-thunk';
import * as actions from '../../actions/counter';
import * as types from '../../constants/ActionTypes';
import nock from 'nock';

const middlewares = [thunk];

/**
 * Creates a mock of Redux store with middleware.
 */
function mockStore(getState, expectedActions, onLastAction) {
  if (!Array.isArray(expectedActions)) {
    throw new Error('expectedActions should be an array of expected actions.');
  }
  if (typeof onLastAction !== 'undefined' && typeof onLastAction !== 'function') {
    throw new Error('onLastAction should either be undefined or function.');
  }

  function mockStoreWithoutMiddleware() {
    return {
      getState() {
        return typeof getState === 'function' ?
          getState() :
          getState;
      },

      dispatch(action) {
        const expectedAction = expectedActions.shift();
        expect(action).toEqual(expectedAction);
        if (onLastAction && !expectedActions.length) {
          onLastAction();
        }
        return action;
      }
    }
  }

  const mockStoreWithMiddleware = applyMiddleware(
    ...middlewares
  )(mockStoreWithoutMiddleware);

  return mockStoreWithMiddleware();
}

describe('async actions', () => {
  afterEach(() => {
    nock.cleanAll();
  });

  it('creates FETCH_TODO_SUCCESS when fetching todos has been done', (done) => {
    nock('http://example.com/')
      .get('/todos')
      .reply(200, { todos: ['do something'] });

    const expectedActions = [
      { type: types.FETCH_TODO_REQUEST },
      { type: types.FETCH_TODO_SUCCESS, body: { todos: ['do something']  } }
    ]
    const store = mockStore({ todos: [] }, expectedActions, done);
    store.dispatch(actions.fetchTodos());
  });
});