Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Chicken Soup)

Friday night dinner with the family. Rachel and I decided this Food and Wine recipe for Coconut Chicken Soup looked good for dinner so I made the recipe with a few modifications. The recipe called for chicken thighs, but I really don’t care for dark meat chicken so I used organic skinless, boneless chicken breasts; I also couldn’t find the specific type of thai chili paste, so I used the one I had in my fridge(Thai Kitchen brand roasted red chili paste); I didn’t have kaffir lime leaves so I substituted a tablespoon of grated lime rind; and lastly Whole Foods didn’t have thai chilies, so I substituted serrano peppers. If I had been more motivated I could have found these items at another grocery store, but it was Friday, and I wanted to keep things simple. Despite the substitutions the soup turned out very well, I got a thumbs up from 3/4 of us (I left the serranos out of the spice-phobe’s soup, he found the soup just “okay”). I have no idea why my soup came out whiter than the Food and Wine picture, maybe it was the different chili paste I used? I served the soup with some plain brown jasmine rice and broccoli roasted in the oven with olive oil, squeeze of lime, garlic, salt and pepper.

Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Chicken Soup)

Adapted from Food and Wine magazine, May 2016.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, trimmed and sliced crosswise 1/4 inch thick
• 1/4 cup Asian fish sauce
• 3 cups chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons Thai chili paste (nam prik pao — which is a sweet and spicy Thai condiment. I couldn’t find this at my local store so I used Thai Kitchen brand roasted red chili paste)
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 fresh or frozen kaffir lime leaves (I used 1 tablespoon of finely grated lime rind)
• 1 stalk fresh lemongrass, tender inner white part only, minced (about 2 tablespoons)
• Two 14-ounce cans unsweetened coconut milk (I used the lite type)
• 1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 Thai chiles, seeded and very thinly sliced on the diagonal, plus more for garnish (or serranos)
• Kosher salt
• 1/3 cup cilantro leaves, for garnish
• Limes wedges, for serving

Shiitake mushrooms and chopped lemongrass

PROCEDURE:

1. In a medium bowl, toss the chicken with the fish sauce.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the chicken broth or stock with the chili paste, sugar, lime leaves and lemongrass and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Stir in the coconut milk and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add the chicken and fish sauce to the saucepan along with the shiitakes and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and discard the lime leaves (if using lime leaves). Stir in the lime juice and chiles and season with salt. Ladle the soup into bowls. Sprinkle the soup with the cilantro and serve with lime wedges and sliced chiles.