This classic chicken and coconut soup gets its rich and dynamic flavor from quintessential Thai ingredients: coconut milk, lemongrass, fresh ginger, lime juice, fish sauce, chile paste, basil, and cilantro. While warming and thoroughly comforting, this dish comes together incredibly quickly. Of course, it's even better the next day after the flavors have had time to rest and fully meld within the thick and satisfying, savory-sweet broth. Just saying--doubling this recipe to guarantee leftovers wouldn't be a terrible idea. 

Thai Chicken Coconut Soup (Tom Kha Gai)

(14 oz.) coconut milk

(14 oz.) reduced-sodium chicken broth

ginger

lemongrass,

chicken breast

mushrooms

lime juice

Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla)

sugar

Thai chili paste

basil leaves

cilantro

In a medium saucepan, combine coconut milk, broth, ginger, and lemongrass and bring to boil over high heat. Add chicken, mushrooms, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and chili paste. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is firm and opaque, 5 to 10 minutes. Discard lemongrass. Garnish servings with basil and cilantro.


Note: Nutritional analysis is per 1 1/2-cup serving.


  ...of chicken stock, coconut milk and lemon juice that makes this a great classic. Because they all work together, what's added after that can vary quite a lot. For example, I add 1/2 of a thinly sliced hot red chili with the seeds removed, brown sugar instead of white, sesame oil &amp; soy sauce. And I like to let it simmer for hours so the flavours blend very well (it's 8:40 a.m. now in the UK and I have it on the stove for today's main meal at noon). I'll drop in the cubed chicken, mushrooms and baby corn during the last hour so they don't disintegrate but the red &amp; yellow bell peppers, lemon grass, ginger and chili are already in there...dancing together while it simmers. We absolutely love this recipe and will have it on this foggy Sunday with potstickers and Vietnamese summer rolls and spicy peanut sauce.  

Perfect flavor! Loved it- was great the first time!

Just tried this recipe.  I added bean sprouts, snow peas and cherry tomatoes.  I made my own chicken broth.  Great flavor.....We will make this again.

This was awesome! We found all the ingredients at our local Asian market. We did add lime leaves as one reviewer suggested, and we left out the fish sauce. We also substituted 2 Thai chilis instead of chili paste. Waited til the end to add the lime juice as someone suggested to keep lime from getting bitter. Added lime to taste. All in all this was a huge hit. It was pretty quick to make. We served with rice and just put it right in our soup. So good!!!

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We tried this.  Used powdered ginger, and only had a lemon, but turned out fabulous! Did saute a small amount of onions for extra texture. Put over clear noodles!!!!  Us is a bi-weekly dish in our house now.

I made a few adjustments to finish it quickly. I used an already prepared rotisserie chicken, small pkg of match stick carrots, 8 oz. pkg sliced mushrooms, and honey instead of sugar. We had it with a side of rice. It was one of the fastest meals I've ever made.

Excellent version of a classic recipe.  I had home made stock, but otherwise made this pretty much as written other than using galangal instead of yellow ginger.  I think I probably doubled the fish sauce, now that I think about it.  Served with coconut brown basmati rice it made a wonderful, light dinner.  I'll definitely make this one again.

I added 1/2 can more of coconut soup, 2 tablespoons of sugar and tripled the Thai Chili Paste.  I also added bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and baby corn.  Oh, and just a little salt and pepper. Actually, it just needs a little extra of all the ingredients listed above and then it's very delicious.

I feel like there is something lacking in this soup. It is missing depth to the flavor. I added 2 more tbsp of fish sauce and 2 more tbsp of lime but the flavor was still off. I omitted the chicken and chicken broth and added vegetable broth and cubes of tofu. I also added tomato and broccoli. It is a good base but needs some adjustment.

I thought the flavour was great. I added more lime and lemongrass and curry paste &amp; omitted the sugar, added bok choy and reduced the amount of chicken by half.   I didn't have the galangal but thought it was very tasty regardless. I'd definitely make it again and was surprised that it was a quick and easy soup to make.

not bad for an amercanized version but not quite right either. lose the basil,sugar, and half the chicken stalk. replace with i cup water, a small pinch of turmeric, and about 3 times as much lime juice. also in response to sunshine555 im curious where you got your facts, because you could not be more wrong. please no offense , im curious to try adding eggplant.

Tom Kha Gai (Spicy Coconut Chicken Soup) is one of THE most delicious Asian soups I have ever tasted!  It contains lots of flavors that can titillate all of the taste bud receptors found on the human tongue (sweet, sour, salty and spicy)!  This soup can be found at most Thai restaurants, but isn't very cheap and can easily be replicated at home by just about anyone who enjoys cooking at home and trying new dishes.

This version of Tom Kha Gai is the closest to the authentic recipe I have found thus far, but is the more expensive versions of the recipe.  If you would like to make this soup, but don't want to spend as much, a cheaper and still tasty version of this recipe can be found on this web site posted by MIKEEMO as a "Community Recipe".  The poster made an error in the ingredient list, however, posting "1 Stalk" but not saying what the 1 stalk is.  It's Lemongrass.  Just FYI.

A tom kha gai soup must have galangal in it.  That's what the name is about.  Kha in Thai means galangal.  This recipe also lack of a very important ingredient - lime leave!  For a real taste and flavor, you must make a trip to the Asian shop.  Galangal, lemongrass, lime leave and bird eye chili all freeze well.  You can store them in the freezer for future use.  For better flavor - 2 stick of lemongrass,(use only the white part) cut and CRUSHED.  5 lime leave, torn.  4 tbsp fresh lime juice, 2 bird eye chili, crushed.  3 tbsp sugar and 4 tbsp fish sauce - I think this is better for the two cans of liquid(coconut milk and broth)

I made this in the crockpot (no lemongrass, sadly) and while it was tasty the liquid separated, which gave it a very unappealing appearance. I strained it and put it through the blender with a bit of xanthan gum to homogenize it and it came back together, but that was a bit of a nuisance.

I added about a tablespoon of red curry paste to this soup and cracked open a dried chili pepper for a little heat. It was great! Additionally, coconut has a lot of health benefits so I feel good about eating this dish and it is always better to make it than to buy it...for financial reasons as well as health reasons.

I haven't made this yet, but have made a similar recipe...  Was thinking of adding some curry paste and curry seasoning to it since some reviews say it was lacking flavor... and serve with a bowl of jasmine rice.    ???

super easy recipe and very delicious.  Served over rice.  Added more chili paste and fish sauce.  consider next time more lemongrass too but very good basic recipe.

Great recipe! Quick and tasty, although I added  more lime juice and some soy sauce (no fish sauce). I also used veggie broth and tofu. Whole family enjoyed it.

i made this with tofu and veggie broth and it was superb, thanks!

My family loved this soup.  It's a keeper!!

This is a good base recipe for Tom Kha Gai. I like to make the base with the aromatics, then throughout the week, I reheat what I want to eat, adding chicken, tofu, shrimp, spinach, bok choy, or anything that sounds like a good addition. One pot can last me all week.

This is a very good recipe.  My wife loves it.  Just two observations:

1.  Since it calls for fish sauce, know that there can be a WIDE range of tastes in fish sauce.

2.  This is just as good, if not better, with shrimp instead of the chicken.

This was exactly what I expected in a Thai soup. I did not use lemon grass because I had everything but that. I put more mushrooms and kicked up the heat a little only because my wife and I like things that way. Very good and easy. Will make it again. I used noodles from Trader Joes which was also a nice touch. They have the best egg noodles.

This was okay the first night although it did not have very much flavor even with the ginger and lemongrass and had too much chicken. Soup held badly and was not good reheated for lunch the next day. I will be looking for a spicier thai soup with more veggies.

I have been experimenting with and looking for a simple, delicious recipe for Tom Kha Gai for the last year, and I finally found it!   It tastes as close to those great restaurant flavors as I would wish, and I can make it quickly and easily at home.  I have already made this several times, and it is good every time.   For once, I would not change anything, except to double the recipe.    Also, to make it easier, you can get lemon grass paste in a squeeze tube in the specialty produce section  Enjoy!

A very easy soup to make. It is quite awesome and lush! My family loved it. The only thing I changed is I doubled the recipe and used frozen uncooked chicken tenders. YUM!

This tasted okay- I will keep looking for a more flavorful tom kha gai recipe. I added more lime juice to brighten the flavor, and added steamed broccoli to the soup to improve its nutritional profile. My husband liked it well enough, but it didn't wow either of us.

A keeper!  Our family loved this.  To bulk it up, I started with 1 cup of jasmine rice boiled in a can of chicken broth, and then followed the recipe.  Thanks

This classic chicken and coconut soup gets its rich and dynamic flavor from quintessential Thai ingredients: coconut milk, lemongrass, fresh ginger, lime juice, fish sauce, chile paste, basil, and cilantro. 


thai chicken coconut soup (tom kha gai)

Total: 20 minutes

Servings: 4

Cost: $6.80 /serving

Author : Jiranooch Shapiro, Anchorage, AK

Ingredients

Instructions

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