One of the three most requested dishes in our Thai Cooking Class, Tom Kha Gai is everyone’s favourite. So easy to make if you have the key herbs -lemongrass and galangal. If they are rare where you are, buy them when available, prep and freeze them. Whenever you feel like a smooth and warm Thai classic soup, get your coconut milk ready in pot and toss in the herbs! You can change the chicken meat here to prawns of you like -it will be called Tom Kha Gung.
Ingredients
- 11/2 cup chicken stock or water
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 150g chicken breast (or protein of choice), cut into bite-sized pieces
- 100g Oyster mushrooms, or Straw mushrooms, or Shimeji mushrooms
- 1 stalk lemongrass, smashed and cut into 5 cm pieces
- 3 slices galangal
- 3 Kaffir lime leaves
- 1 coriander root, crushed
- 1-3 chillies, bruised
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce (or extra 1/2 tsp salt for vegetarian)
- 2 Tbsp lime juice
Directions
- In a soup pot, add chicken stock or water, lemongrass, galangal, Kaffir lime leaves, shallots, coriander roots, and salt.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium, add coconut milk, mushrooms, tomato wedges, bring it to a gentle boil for a few minutes.
- Add chicken (or protein of choice). Stir gently to break off the chicken pieces. Leave until the chicken is cooked well.
- Season with fish sauce, lime juice, and chillies, to taste.
- Turn off the heat and add chopped coriander and spring onion.
- Drizzle with chilli oil, if desired, and serve.