cook oriental food and buy authentic Asian ingredients online Thai Chicken Soup With Coconut Milk, "Tom Kha Gai"


This is an ImportFood.com online Thai recipe. Here you can conveniently purchase authentic,
quality ingredients imported from Thailand. We hope you enjoy our website and it helps you enjoy
cooking Thai food!

This is a mild but spicy chicken soup (it can also be made with shrimp, pork, beef or mushrooms),
flavored with the very unique flavor of galangal ("kha" in Thai) which creates a heavenly taste
when combined with hot chile peppers, coconut milk, lime leaves and lemongrass. See our new
Tom Kha Salmon recipe made by the Prime Minister of Thailand.

Ingredients

16 fluid ounces soup broth (chicken stock)
4-5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
4 or 5 2 inch pieces fresh lemongrass, bruised to release flavor
1 inch cube (or a bit more) galangal sliced thinly.
4 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
4 oz chicken breast cut into smallish bite sized pieces
5 fluid ounces coconut milk
small red Thai chile peppers, slightly crushed (to taste)
coriander (cilantro) leaves to garnish.

Note the number of red peppers is a personal choice. It can be as few as half a chilli per diner, to
as many as 8-10 per diner, but the dish should retain a balance of flavors and not be overwhelmend
by the chili peppers. We suggest about 8-12 chili peppers for this recipe.

Method

Heat the stock, add the lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, fish sauce, and lime juice. Stir thoroughly,
bring to a boil, and add the chicken and coconut milk, then the chile peppers. Bring back to the boil,
lower the heat to keep it simmering and cook for about 2 minutes (until the chicken is cooked through).
Enjoy!

Not really intended to be eaten as a separate course, we like it served ladled over a bowl of steamed
Thai jasmine rice. This quantity serves 4 with other food, but is probably only enough for two if eaten
separately.

If you would like to have a decent-tasting tom kha without spending the time to prepare above, we also
suggest you try our convenient Tom Ka Paste (click to see description).
Variation: Here, in the photo below, we prepared the tom kha the same as in the above method, but without any soup stock. The liquid is only coconut milk, and a touch of water. We also added, after it was ladled into a small bowl, a half teaspoon of roasted chile in soybean oil (prik pao). This gave it nice color and flavor.
E-mail address:

Add New Comment About This Recipe
Name: (optional)
Email: (optional)

January 15th, 2009 12:03 AM

Arjay said:

Recipe came out entirely too salty, but was edible, the first time around. The second time around I used only 2 tablespoons of fish sauce and instead of using chicken stock, I used water and simmered the mixture for one hour prior to adding the second round of ingredients. Additionally, I added two tablespoon of palm sugar, 8 oz of fresh coconut milk and topped off with fresh diced crimini mushrooms and cherry tomatoes just before serving. It was delicious!

January 22nd, 2009 4:08 PM

Shaun said:

One of the first recipes I learned to cook on this site and absolutely delicious! I've tried some other recipe variations for this soup, and I keep coming back to this one as it's the best! I like adding shitake mushrooms to it as they absorb the flavor beautifully. I also sometimes add a bit (1 tsp. to 1 tbsp. depending on preference) of Nam Prik Pao, which alters the flavor just slightly and makes it a bit "smokier".

April 17th, 2009 11:07 PM

Lyn said:

YUMMMOLA! I used the ingredients as listed, except I used 2T fish sauce which seemed enough, but I also seasoned (salt & pepper) the chicken before adding. I had to make the soup a day early. I had the chicken stock/broth, galangal, lemon grass, lime leaves, lime juice, and fish sauce and simmered them for a time, added the chicken and simmered until the chicken was done. The next day, I added the coconut milk and chilis about 1/2 hour before serving while reheating and it came out great. I added the chile peppers the next day because I thought they'd get too hot over night. Served it with the jasmine rice. PERFECT! This is a FAB recipe! Just what one would expect from you guys! THANKS!

August 12th, 2009 4:01 PM

A J Barkis said:

I MAKE THIS RECIPE ADD RICE NOODLES AND STRAWMUSHOOMS. I ALSO ADD ABOUT A TABLESPOON OF PALM SUGUR. IT IS TRULY A MEAL. SERVE WITH LIME AND GARNISH WITH CILANTRO. TRY IT YOU'LL LIKE IT. TRUST ME, I'M A LAWYER AJ BETHEL AK

September 9th, 2009 3:08 PM

caron higham-wood said:

Made this tonight, cheated so it took less than five minutes to prepare. I blitzed the lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves along with the chilli's and ginger, and also put 3 garlic cloves in, in a food processor with the lemon juice. Added this to the rest of the ingredients in a pan and only used 2tbsp of fish sauce. This was plenty, as the smell is quite overpowering until the coconut milk is added. i also added some fine noodles at the end of cooking to make this more of a meal. Absolutely scrummy!

| About Us | Thai Food Store | Thai Recipes | Site Index |

Copyright © ImportFood.com 1999-2009. All rights reserved.
We rated "Best Overall"
by The Wall Street Journal!
Thai Granite Mortar &
Pestle This hefty mortar
makes quick work of herbs,
spices, seeds, and nuts.
$39.95