Thom Kha Gai (Thai Chicken Soup)
Preparation time: 40 mins
Serves 4.
Medium Spicy
Ingredients:
Serves 4.
Medium Spicy
- 1 Chicken
- 7 Chillies
- 2 Galanga Roots
- 4 Sticks of Lemon Grass
- 3 Tins of Coconut Milk
- Bunch of Lemon Leaves
- Bunch of Coriander with Roots
- Juice of 1 Lemon/Lime
- Fish Sauce
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Chopped Ingredients
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Ready Soup
- Cut lemon grass sticks into three and bash gently with a pestle.
- Cut galanga root into segments to release more flavour.
- Rip lemon leaves into halves.
- Separate coriander leaves and roots.
- Boil 1 litre of water.
- Put lemon grass, galanga root, lemon leaves, coriander roots and chillies into a large pan.
- Put chicken into the pan and add the boiling water.
- Allow to boil gently for about 30 minutes, then switch off heat.
- Remove chicken from the pan. Peel off the meat and add into the pan.
- Add coconut milk.
- Add fish sauce to taste, generally you will require at least one ladle of fish sauce.
This soup is best served with boiled jasmin rice. For decoration, I sprinkle some
coriander leaves over the rice on each plate.
I recommend adding a bit of lemon juice to a bowl of soup to tweak the flavour, or try
the Thai Fish Sauce in my list of recipes.
I do not add lemon juice to the soup in the pan, because it coagulates the coconut milk,
making it unsuitable for storage. The soup can be kept safely for the next day, in fact
it will have a stronger taste on the second day as the flavours develop.