Thai Chicken Coconut Soup
Creamy, salty and a little bit sour. That’s what this soup is supposed to taste like. Are you intrigued? Also known as Tom Kaa Gai in Thailand, it’s traditionally made with galangal root and some other ingredients that are harder to find outside of Thailand and southeast Asia.
Over a year ago my family and I went to Thailand where we spent one whole day at an organic farm learning how to cook many Thai dishes. This soup was one of my favorite dishes we made because I was blown away at how flavorful a broth you can make by quickly boiling a few ingredients in water, particularly lemongrass, shallots, and galangal (similar to ginger) root. We made the most flavorful broth and soup in just minutes!
When I started this blog, I knew I wanted to make a version of this soup with the ingredients readily available in my local grocery stores. This post is long overdue!
Other than taste, my favorite part about this soup is that it’s quick! Once you chop up the vegetables, you are standing at the stove top for less than 10 minutes! To make it a full meal for family dinner, I serve it with white rice on the side. If I still have plenty of broth leftover but have eaten most of the chicken, I add leftover rotisserie or chopped chicken so that the soup keeps on giving. And in case you were wondering, when I eat this soup, I don’t eat the larger pieces of ginger, lemongrass or chili peppers.
Enjoy this authentic-as-I-can-get Thai Chicken Coconut Soup!
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup chicken bone broth (or water)
2 stalks lemongrass, sliced into 1 inch pieces
3 inches ginger, sliced (about 50g)
2 shallots, chopped (or half an onion)
1/2 tomato, sliced
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 cans full fat coconut milk
2 chicken breasts, sliced into bite size pieces
3-5 chili peppers, crushed (fresh or dried)
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1.5 tsp monk fruit sweetener (or sugar)
3/4 tsp pink Himalayan salt, more to taste
2-3 Tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed
1 bunch cilantro, chopped, for garnish
4 stems green onion, chopped, for garnish
Instructions:
Bring bone broth (or water) to a boil. Add lemongrass, ginger, shallots, tomato and mushrooms. Boil for 1-2 minutes to flavor the broth.
Add coconut milk, chicken, and crushed chili peppers. Bring to a boil and Season soup with fish sauce, monk fruit sweetener (or sugar) and salt.
Boil the soup until chicken is fully, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and add lime juice. Taste and adjust the seasonings to your preference (salt/lime juice/sweetener).
Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with chopped cilantro and green onion.
