Thai coconut chicken soup
Feb 24th, 2008 by britnie
After the test run, I decided to make the Thai soup for this months recipe of MGK (My Girlfriends Kitchen). It was quite an adventure, Jer did most of the work while I was putting the kids to bed for the night. I finished just in time to help him put it into bags. The bags keep trying to tip over and in one bag half of the soup spilled onto the counter and ALL over the floor. Luckily we made a little extra to make up for the spillage.
Thai Lime Coconut Soup
1 quart chicken stock or vegetable stock
2 stalks lemon grass, white part only, cracked open with the flat side of a knife
3 kaffir lime leaves, fresh or dried, hand torn
1 (3-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2 small Thai chilies, halved lengthwise
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 (13-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce (nam pla in some stores)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 (8-ounce) can straw mushrooms, rinsed
4 limes, juiced
1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Bring the stock to the boil over medium heat in a soup pot. To make things easier, we added the lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, chilies, and garlic into a cheesecloth to remove them easier. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and gently simmer for 10 minutes to let the spices infuse the broth. Remove the cheesecloth and squeeze the juice out of it into the soup and throw it away (or just strain all the spices out if you didn’t use a cheesecloth).
Uncover and stir in the coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar, mushrooms, lime juice, and chicken. Simmer for 5 minutes to heat the chicken through; season with salt and pepper. Garnish with cilantro. Be careful to avoid chewing the lemongrass, ginger, or lime leaves.
Yield: 6 servings
