Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (Tom Kha Gai)

This soup was a bit of a disaster for me. I don't think it was through any fault of the recipe though. I looked everywhere and finally found some shrimp paste (not too hard living in SF), the less repulsive looking of my options, had tons of food coloring in it so it turned the soup bright pink. Superficially speaking it was a disaster, but it tasted pretty good. It did taste a little too shrimp-y for me, it seemed to overwhelm some of the milder flavors. I think I'll make this again, but next time I'll leave out the shrimp paste and instead use a little shrimp or seafood stock - maybe a 1/2 cup in place of part of the chicken stock.

very good! i used coconut cream and made a ton of it to eat with jasmine rice for a week.

Thank you for a lovely soup that is very close to the Thai original. I made this as written, but would suggest a few changes to get even closer. I'd replace the ginger with an equal amount of fresh galangal slices (or a few teaspoons of its dry version -- laos powder). The 'Kha' in the title is actually the Thai word for galangal. I'd also use kaffir limes leaves and probably delete the soy sauce. I used one small bunch of bok choy and 4 ounces (125 grams) of noodles, which made the soup a meal for four of us. Even the fussiest eater loved it. Made and enjoyed for Pick a Chef.

Excellent. Tried it this weekend with friend. Everyone liked it. One of my friend's sister in law is a Thai and she said this is very similar to her soup.

This is a delicious tasting soup. It tasted just like the Tom Kha Gai that you can get at a Thai restaurant. I made the soup for a small lunch party and everyone LOVED it. The only suggestion I have is to use half of the bok choy and the noodles. I found that using the whole bok choy and package of noodles ends up over powering the soup. Great recipe!