I have to give full credit for this photo of Thai Chicken Soup to my boys. They helped me stage the shot and then sat with me at the computer to crop and size the photo. They are becoming such little artists, having far surpassed me in this arena.
The delicious Thai soup above is based on a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. My friend Deb got me hooked on this magazine last year when she gave me a subscription. The recipes in Cook’s Illustrated use fresh interesting combination of ingredients and often are not overly complicated.
We ate this soup for dinner tonight; I downed the bowl in the photo above as soon as I finished snapping the pictures; it is sweet, rather spicy and very comforting. After he finished his, my younger son said, “it was good; this is a happy, happy, happy soup.” That is a direct quote!
I am hoping that with more soup we can build more community. Many people have been leaving comments over here of late which is wonderful. I also want to take a moment to encourage people to respond to each others comments.
Jeanne, one of my regular readers, asked a question here. I hope that any of you who have experience in figuring out which foods work best for you will feel free to jump in and respond to her comment, it’s great when we can support one another…Now, back to soup!
Thai Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil or coconut oil
- 3 shallots, chopped
- 8 sprigs cilantro, chopped
- 4 cups Chicken Stock or Kettle & Fire Bone Broth
- 28 ounces full fat coconut milk
- ½ pound crimini mushrooms
- 1 head broccoli
- 1 pound chicken breasts skinless-boneless, halved lengthwise, sliced on bias, cut into ⅛ inch thick pieces
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 teaspoons red curry paste
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- ½ cup cilantro, minced
- 2 serrano chilies, thinly sliced
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Instructions
- Warm oil in a large saucepan over medium heat
- Add shallots and cilantro, stirring frequently until softened 2 to 5 minutes
- Stir in stock and coconut milk and bring to a simmer
- Pour broth through a fine mesh strainer and discard solids (shallot and cilantro)
- Return broth to saucepan
- Reduce heat to medium, add mushrooms and broccoli and cook until tender 2 to 3 minutes
- Add chicken and cook, stirring constantly, until no longer pink 1 to 3 minutes
- Combine lime juice, curry paste, and fish sauce in a small bowl then stir into soup
- ladle soup into bowls and garnish with cilantro, chilies, and scallions
- Serve with wedges of lime
Equipment
This soup also works very well with leftover chicken. Leftovers are a great thing in so many ways. They save us trips to the store as well as time in the kitchen.
Other uses for leftover chicken? I use it to make a simple Mexican salad for dinner (salad greens with black beans, guacamole and salsa) and to add an extra hit of protein to this sesame noodle dish.
As you can see from the recipes on this blog, while I don’t eat the SAD (Standard American Diet), I do not feel deprived. I focus on the foods I can eat, create as much variety as possible and savor every morsel I put into my mouth! All in all, I feel happy and grateful to have access to the beautiful fresh foods that nourish me day in and day out.
elana says
~M,
Not wrong at all; a fine idea indeed.
Elana
~M says
I have been craving a good Asian-inspired soup…how wrong would it be to just use one 14 oz can of coconut milk and 2-3 extra cups of chicken stock? I think 28 oz coconut milk might might be too rich for my system.
elana says
Chris -Thanks for the report; I think it is great when people adapt my recipes to suit their needs and to the ingredients they have on hand. Glad you liked it :-)
Chris says
I just made this tonight and it was outstanding. I used green curry paste instead of red because that’s what I had and it tasted just like the tom kai gai I get at Zheng’s, which I love!
Thanks!
elana says
Kitchen Goddess -Thanks; we’ve been eating a lot of this soup lately. I am very into it as is my hub.
Kitchen Goddess says
Looks absolutely gorgeous. A fabulous meal.
Great site too :)
elana says
Courtney & ~M,
I so enjoy corresponding with each of you and am glad that the two of you are in touch! This is a very good thing! xo Elana
Courtney says
~M-
I was just reading over these comments to see if anyone had any suggestions yet… you gave me more than I had hoped for. Thank you! Seeing that you are a 3L law student proves to me that cooking doesn’t have to be a time consuming task. I love good food! Having had suffered from an eating disorder for so long, the chaos of too many ingredients and too much time in the kitchen is extremely overwhelming to me. I have heard it said that, “if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” If I do not plan and stock my kitchen with alternatives to wheat and high glycemic foods, my mental health suffers big time. I have had test show that certain foods actually effect my pituitary gland. Back to drawing board for me!
elana says
~M -Your organizational capacities are astounding! Good thing you’ll be putting them to use as a lawyer! I hope Courtney reads this for some great tips.
CC -Thanks for stopping by. I buy my Thai curry paste at a regional health food store called Vitamin Cottage –the store is about 40% cheaper than Whole Foods and further it carries only organic produce (no conventional). You can buy the Thai Kitchen curry paste online by clicking the link above or check out WF, I bet they have it there.
CeliacChick says
Mmmm…you just inspired me to order this for lunch! I had forgotten about how much I love this stuff! So, where would I buy Thai red curry paste? Is it at Whole Foods?