Community Pick
Tom Ka Kai (Thai Coconut Chicken Soup)
photo by AaliyahsAaronsMum
- Ready In:
- 35mins
- Ingredients:
- 15
- Yields:
-
4 bowls
- Serves:
- 4
ingredients
- 29.58 ml vegetable oil
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1.23 ml salt
- 113.39 g fresh mushrooms, sliced (I use a stir-fry mix of mushrooms with shitakes, oyster mushrooms, and portabellas)
- 3 green onions, sliced (divided)
- 1 stalk lemongrass
- 1 inch fresh galangal root or 1 inch gingerroot, grated
- 2 red chilies (more or less to desired heat level)
- 1419.54 ml chicken stock (use good quality here)
- 396.89 g can coconut milk
- 22.18 ml fresh lime juice
- 29.58 ml fish sauce
- 2.46 ml brown sugar
- fresh cilantro
- fresh basil leaf
directions
- In the bottom of a large soup pot, heat the oil over high heat until very hot but not smoking. I often make this is a wok on the stove.
- Salt the chicken and add to oil, tossing to brown all the pieces. Cook about 3 minutes or until outside is browned, but not necessarily cooked all the way through.
- Add mushrooms and toss. Allow to cook until some of the moisture is cooked out and the mushrooms are soft. Turn down heat to medium-low.
- To prepare the lemongrass, slice and mince the lower portion and reserve the stalk to flavor the soup. You can use a food processor for this, or just mince it by hand. The woody upper portion of the stalk will be removed later, so don't chop it up, simply score it by making a few superficial cuts in it to allow it to flavor the soup.
- Add the whites of the onions, reserving the greens. Add the minced lower portion of the lemongrass, grated galangal, and chilies. Toss until just warmed through.
- Add the lemongrass stalk, lime leaves, chicken stock, coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar and remaining onions, reserving just a few for garnish. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes to allow flavors to blend well.
-
Taste test and adjust flavors as follows:
- Not salty enough - add more fish sauce.
- Too sour - add a little more brown sugar.
- Too spicy - add more coconut milk.
- Not spicy enough - add more chilies.
- Ladle into 4 soup bowls and garnish with remaining onion greens, cilantro, and basil.
-
Variations:
- Add more vegetables such as some sliced red bell peppers with the mushrooms.
- Serve over wide rice noodles for a main dish serving.
- Make vegetarian by increasing mushrooms in place of chicken and substituting vegetable stock.
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Reviews
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Tweaks
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Absolutely delicious! My first taste of and attempt at Thai food. My DH gave rave reviews, and he's quite the critic. I didn't have lemongrass or red chiles, but I put it some red pepper flakes, and I used ginger instead of galangal. Cilantro in Canada's suggestion of sesame seed oil just put it over the top. Will definitely make it again, and often!
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I had this kind of soup once at a Thai Restaurant when I was starting to get a cold..now every time I start to get sick I crave it. I think the wonderful aromas remind me that I still can smell :) This recipe was great. I made it two weeks ago when I was starting to get a cold, and ate it for a few days. The only thing I did different was use light coconut milk, add the lime juice at the very end (as I turned off the heat) and I used lime zest instead of kaffir leaves (I couldn't find them)...but I did find galangal root to work with for my first time - nice flavor! Thanks for the post!
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Oh my this is a wonderful recipe. This soup is my DH's favorite from Thailand also and he's been requesting it for some time. So glad I found this. As we live in a small town couldn't get all the ingrediants and had to sub green jalapeno for the red chilis and ginger instead of galangal. Did find frozen, chopped lemon grass and was so happy about that. This went together fairly easy and the taste is wonderful. The hardest part for me was finding the proper ingrediants. Thanks so much for posting.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
I live on the coast of Florida, near St. Pete. Great seafood abounds here! Cooking good, family friendly meals is my passion, and my kids are as into it as I am. (My 3 year old cracks a mean egg!)
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