Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (Tom Kha Gai)

           Easy, Entrees, Options, Recipes, Soups
Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (Tom Kha Gai)
1 vote, 5.00 avg. rating (90% score)

tom kha kai

 

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 quart chicken stock

1-2 ½ Tablespoons red curry paste (to taste)

1 (13-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk

1-2 Tablespoons Thai fish sauce (to taste)

1 ½ teaspoon honey

1 (8-ounce) can straw mushrooms, rinsed

2-3 limes, juiced

1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Directions:

In a soup pot or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté until slightly soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and curry paste and cook an additional 1-2 minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover and gently simmer for 10 minutes to let the spices infuse the broth.

While the soup is simmering, place chicken breasts between two pieces of saran wrap and pound with a meat mallet or heavy sauté pan until chicken is of an even thickness. Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat and lightly grease with oil. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. Cook chicken in skillet 8 to 10 minutes, turning once, until juice is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut. Remove chicken from skillet, cover and let rest 5 minutes before cubing into 1-inch bite sized pieces.

Uncover and stir in the coconut milk, fish sauce, honey, mushrooms, lime juice, cilantro and chicken. Simmer for at least 5 minutes to heat the ingredients through; season with salt and pepper.

Makes 4 servings

*This recipe was inspired in whole or in part by The Food Network