Thai Chicken Soup with Coconut (Tom Ka )

Submitted by Rita1652

"This is an ImportFood.com online Thai recipe. I posted this by request of a recipe search for use in Kaffir Lime Leaves."

 

• Ready In: 25mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 2

ingredients

• 16 fluid ounce chicken stock
• 4-5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
• 2 inch lemongrass, bruised to release flavor
• 1 inch galangal, sliced thinly (Thai Ginger)
• 59.16 ml fish sauce
• 29.58 ml lime juice
• 113.39 g chicken breasts, cut into smallish bite sized pieces
• 5 fluid ounce coconut milk
• Thai red chili pepper, slightly crushed (to taste, Very Hot!)
• coriander leaves (to garnish, cilantro)

directions

1. Heat the stock, add the lime leaves, lemon grass, galangal, fish sauce, and lime juice.
2. Stir thoroughly, bring to a boil, and add the chicken and coconut milk.
3. Bring back to the boil, lower the heat to keep it simmering and cook for about 2 minutes (until the chicken is cooked through).
4. Not really intended to be eaten as a separate course, you could serve it with just a serving of steamed Thai jasmine rice, or together with a Thai meal.
5. This quantity serves 4 with other food, but is probably only enough for two if eaten separately.

Reviews

[rsarahl]

Rita, thank you for posting the importfoods.com source for this recipe. I cannot get fresh thai ingredients locally, so it was a real asset to have the source for online ordering (especially for the kaffir lime leaves)! When my package of lime leaves, thai chilies and dried galangal arrived, I set to work on this soup. The kaffir lime leaves arrive fresh and very shiny. Snipping them into shreds with kitchen shears is an experience akin to peeling a very ripe orange, in that, the citrus scent is released from the leaves like the orange oil sprays from the rind: it's a burst of citrus scent and it's wonderful! I smashed the lemongrass with a rubber mallet to get that lovely light lemony fragrance. The Thai ginger is really so much more pungent than regular ginger that it is worth the purchase. I bought dried and reconstituted it in water, per the package directions. Ingredients aside now, the soup in the pot... the kitchen smells wonderfully light and citrusy. I served this with a mesculan greens salad as a main dish over a scoop of jasmine rice in a deep bowl. It is fragrant and the combination of the kaffir lime leaves, thai ginger and lemongrass is really unusual... refreshing. I used one 1 1/2 inch thai chili and the soup was moderately spicy(but this totally depends on personal taste and on the batch of chili's!). The coconut milk mellows the soup and the fish sauce rounds out the flavor. I wouldn't change a thing but would recommend purchasing authentic ingredients instead of subbing for this recipes incredible flavor. Regular ginger root and a mexican chili pepper would yield a different, but nice result, I'm sure. One last note... I usually like to add salt to soups, but the fish sauce seems to have taken care of the salty side of things in this recipe... no extra salt needed for our tastes.

 

[Deantini]

I love this soup! I made it with fresh galangal and it DOES make a difference as opposed to dried galangal. So use fresh if you can get your hands on it. I added an extra cup of chicken stock, and more could be added without compromising the flavour of the soup. Made for Photo Tag (apologzie for the picture, but the goodies in the soup keep sinking to the bottom of the bowl)

 

[atlfitgirl]

Very nice and easy... I grow my own kaffir limes and I love Tom Yum soup and decided to try this one since my mom used to make it all the time when I was growing up. I had to ask my mom to hunt down the galangal for me... I had no idea what to look for at the store! We also added sliced shiitake mushrooms to it... we love 'shrooms and always add it to this soup and our Tom Yum... My BF said he likes Tom Yum better and I think I agree... I am just not that fond of the coconut milk and galangal... but this soup is really good. We upped the lime juice a bit since we love the tanginess. Thanks for posting!!!

 

[Oolala]

Very good! We all liked it, even the kids which was a surprise. I went to our local Asian market to find kaffir leaves and galangal (both were in the frozen section). I added canned mushrooms when I added the chicken and coconut milk. I used about 2 tsp. of Thai red chili paste from a can. I also added an extra cup of coconut milk since I used a low-fat version and thought I'd add the extra cup at full strengh. Thanks for posting! I'm so glad I finally made it Rita!

 

[cajun chef in Louis]

Love this recipe, I made it with shrimp instead of chicken, delicious!!!!