Tom Kha Gai - Take 2 (Thai Coconut Chicken Soup)

This variation on tom kha gai comes from our friend Mark (and he in turn stole it from his mother).  We modified it a little to make use of some of the Thai ingredients we picked up at Bangkok Center Grocery on Saturday, but as written the recipe can be made with ingredients you can almost always find in your normal neighborhood grocery stpre.  The only things you need to visit an Asian market to buy are the green curry paste and the fish sauce.  Otherwise you can pick everything you need up in any moderately well-stocked grocery which is awesome for those people who don't have a Thai market in the vicinity.

I really liked this soup.  It was easy to put together, required very few esoteric ingredients, and came together really quickly.  It was also very flavorful.  Rice isn't a traditional addition to tom kha gai (at least not to my knowledge although I don't claim to be an expert on Thai food), but it helps transform the soup from an appetizer to a full and hearty meal.  I guess with the addition of the rice, this soup becomes a combination of a traditional Asian rice soup (like congee in Cantonese food) and a tom kha gai soup.  And for the record, tom kha gai soup is one of my absolute favorite Thai soups - it was one of the first few Thai dishes that I tried and has remained one of the things I love best about Thai cuisine.  The only problem is that tom kha gai is often too sweet or too thin.  Unlike most of those innocuous and overly sweet soups, this one has the lime and coconut flavor, the slight heat, and the freshness of a true tom kha gai soup.  Yum.

Recipe after the jump!

Tom Kha Gai

INGREDIENTS:

1 13.5 oz can coconut milk

1-2 tbsp green curry paste (we used 2)

4 kaffir lime leaves (or peel of 2 limes)

1-inch piece of galangal, sliced into 4 rounds (or ginger)

1/2-1 tbsp sugar (start with 1/2 tbsp and add more to taste)

3 cups chicken broth

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced

2-3 tbsp fish sauce (to taste)

3 tbsp lime juice (plus additional if necessary to taste)

1 cup cooked jasmine rice

1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped

2 tbsp Thai basil leaves (or regular basil), julienned

2 green onions, thinly sliced

2 Thai chilis or serrano chilis, thinly sliced (optional)

Simmer coconut milk, green curry paste, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, sugar, and chicken broth together in a large heavy pot for 8 min.  Raise temperature to medium, then add chicken.  Poach chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes.  Add fish sauce and lime juice.  Stir to combine and season to taste.

Fill each soup bowl with 1/2 cup cooked rice.  Ladle soup over the rice in the bowls.  Serve, garnished with cilantro, basil, green onions, and chilis (if desired).