Thai Food Recipe: Tom Kha Gai (Chicken soup w/Coconut milk)
(Spicy Chicken, Coconut Milk and Galangal Soup)
Prepare:
2 cups Chicken breast (cut thick)
9 oz. coconut milk (you can use Chao Koh Brand)
1 cup straw mushroom (cut half) or any other kind of mushroom
1 lemongrass (cut diagonally then crushed lightly)
4-8 pieces baby galangal (thinly sliced)
3-4 kaffir lime leaves (rip off the hard part) 1 group coriander (cut 1 inch)
1 group scallion (cut 1 inch long)
4 crushed guinea-peppers
3 tbsp. fish sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
3-4 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Cooking Instruction:
1. Boil coconut milk. Keep stirring. Wait until the coconut milk has its oil come out. Then add baby galangal, lemongrass. Mix it together.
2. When the soup boiling, put chicken breast. Cook for 8-10 minutes. Add peppers, fish sauce. Use medium heat.
3. Maximize the heat. Then add straw mushroom. Cook for 1-2 minute. Turn off the fire.
4. Dress with condensed milk, kaffir lime leaves, coriander and scallion. Add lemon juice. You should eat the soup right away after adding lemon juice because as the time pass the taste of lemon will change.
5. Serve with hot fragrant jasmine rice from Thailand.
This is the best Tom kha gai recipe I’ve ever found. And believe me, from the first time I’ve tasted it in Chian Rai several years ago, I’ve been trying to make some as best as I could, and looked for recipes everywhere. For example, this is the first recipe I’ve found mentioning ‘kaffir lime leaves’, which took me so long to identify from the shape, texture and taste I’d found in my dish in Thailand or when asking Thai people for it’s western name. So I owe Joy many thanks. Just one thing to make sure: for how many servings are the quantities given? Sorry I couldn’t find this element.
N. Chartier
Hi Norbert,
Thank you for writing – and thank you for the kind compliments! We usually make a big bowl of Tom Kha and put it with many other dishes. So, I don’t usually mention quantity of people the dish will feed. It’s just Thai culture… The recipe here is for just 2 people.