Tom Kha Gai Soup (Photos)

Many of you do not like Coconut in any form. If that is you, then this post is not for you. We love Thai food and coconut, so we make this soup at least every other month. It is a lot better than that frequency indicates. I actually could eat it every other week but we like to vary our menu, there is a good Thai place in Meridian we go to about every other week and there are only so many meals in a month (Sigh).

Tom Kha Gai - Thai Coconut Chicken Soup


There are lots of ingredients in this soup - You'll need:

Two chicken breasts, three cans chicken broth, one chicken bouillon cube, a clove of garlic, a 1 inch peeled piece of fresh ginger - split lengthwise, 1 carrot, 3/4 of a celery stalk, half of an onion, A little basil, a little lemon grass, a can of coconut milk, a teaspoon of Thai chili garlic paste, 2 Tablespoons of fish sauce, a teaspoon of sugar, the peel of a lime, the juice of a lime, the bottoms (white part) of five or six green onions, a cup of heavy cream, salt, black pepper, red pepper and a splash of white wine.





For serving:

Two cups of cooked Jasmine rice



A cup of thinly sliced carrot, five or six chopped green onions, a half cup of sliced mushrooms, Srirachi sauce to your heat preference. Depending on the power of the Chili Garlic paste and how my broth tastes when it is ready to plate, I may not add any Srirachi at all. If you like hot Thai, Srirachi, red pepper and red bird peppers are the way to achieve whatever level of hot you like.



The chicken stock for the soup is made by cooking the chicken breasts in the chicken broth, with a splash of white wine, the carrot, celery, half onion, a clove of garlic, a 1 inch piece of ginger, sliced in half lengthwise, the lime peel, some black pepper and a little salt. If you are familiar with the recipe and like "Hot Thai" you can add one or two red bird peppers here. I never use them in my soup because I almost died of spontaneous combustion once when I foolishly sampled a "Hot Thai" dish.





When fully cooked, remove the chicken, set aside and when cooled, cut into 1/4 inch thick medallions of suitable spoon size. Remove and discard all other additions to the broth. Strain the broth if you like.

To this broth add the bottoms of the green onions, two teaspoons of finely minced lemon grass, two teaspoons of Thai basil, a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of Thai chili garlic paste, two Tablespoons of fish sauce. Cook this for maybe five minutes. Taste for seasoning (salty and hot) and adjust as you like.

Add the chicken, coconut milk and heavy cream. The soup is ready to bowl.

The bowl gets thinly sliced carrot, mushroom and green onion tops



on top of a few Tablespoons of cooked Jasmine rice



and enough soup to finish the bowl



Spoon view




Some will add or substitute green beans. If they are your thing, go for it.


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