Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Adapted from Thai Home-Cooking, by William Crawford and Kamolmal Pootaraksa, Penguin, 1985. ISBN 0-452-26133-3.

Otherwise known as Tom Ka Gai. A real easy dish to make.

Ingredients

1 lb chicken with bones, or 1/2 pound chicken without bones
3 cups coconut milk
5 pieces galangal
3 Kaffir lime leaves (I think you can substitute 1 stalk of lemon grass, bottom 6 inches only, chopped into 1-in pieces or smaller if you're actually going to eat them).
4 serrano or jalapeno chillies, seeded, stemmed, and cut into very thin strips lengthwise.
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 limes

Directions

Cut the chicken into 3/4 inch strips. If you're using canned coconut milk, shake the can before opening it to try to get the solid chunks as dissolved as possible. Put the chicken (if boneless, slice into thin slices), galangal, lime leaves and coconut milk in a pan and bring it to a boil. Simmer, covered for 15 minutes or until chicken is done.

Add the chillies, coriander, fish sauce, and the juice from one of the limes, and turn the heat off or to low. Stir well, and then taste. It will probably taste milky. If so add more lime juice. Continue, until it doesn't taste milky any more, but not so much that it tastes like lime. It should be a balance of tart/sweet. Usually, a total of 1.5 limes is about right.

Serve. You shouldn't eat the galangal or lime leaves (eating lemon grass is up to you -- it's kind of fibrous).

Comments

The book says to leave the seeds in chillies. Doing so depends on how hot you want it. They also don't advocate canned coconut milk, but I've had no problem with it.

Jim Plank

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