Beautiful, exotic, colorful and most of all complex. This how I would describe both Thailand and it’s cuisine. Finding a Thai recipe for a simple living blog was a little bit of a challenge.
Yet, chicken soup is chicken soup! This Thai Coconut Chicken Soup is based on Tom Kha Gai, a traditional Thai chicken soup.
I just modified the recipe a little. I wanted the soup to be a complete meal, and to me there needs to be a vegetable, preferably a green vegetable in a dish to make it a meal, so I added Lacinato kale. I like this kale more than curly kale because it softens a little and tastes more like spinach. You can use any dark green you like.
To speed up making this recipe I used lemongrass and cilantro paste along with bottled lime juice. You can also substitute Sriracha sauce for chili sauce, since people these days seem to have it on hand. Enjoy this warming flavorful soup over rice or rice noodles.
Thai Coconut Chicken Soup
- 64 ounces of chicken broth
- 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 4 ounces of shitake mushrooms, chopped with stems
- 1 bunch of lacinato kale, stems removed, chopped
- 2 tablespoons of fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon of lime juice
- 2 teaspoons of minced ginger
- 2 teaspoons of lemongrass paste or 1 lemongrass stalk
- 1 teaspoon of sea salt
- pepper to taste
- 13.5 ounces of coconut milk
- garnish: 1/4 chopped cilantro, chili oil
Instructions:
1) In a large sauce pan bring chicken broth to a boil and add the chicken along with the mushrooms. Boil for about 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
2) Remove the chicken from the pot and shred it into piece. Return it to the pot.
3) Bring the soup to a simmer and add the kale, fish sauce, lemongrass, ginger, lime juice, salt and pepper. Lastly, whisk in the coconut milk.