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.
Amanda Serna says
Tried this soup tonight and have to share that it was delicious! Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful recipes. My husband and I have tried many of your other recipes and are always delighted with them. The only changes I made with this soup is that I used coconut oil instead of grape seed and we added a little sriracha sauce as a garnish (we love our Thai spicy!). We also left out the fish sauce as my husband’s not a fan of the stuff. Thanks, again and I can’t wait to try more! Amanda
Angela says
I made this last night and it was soooo good. Thank you for the recipe I will try to make one a week.
Kirsten says
If I didn’t use mushrooms, would it taste different? I really want to make this soup but I don’t have any mushrooms.
Jill says
I’m wondering if using “light” coconut milk would be fine, or if you think the regular full-fat version is necessary for the success of this recipe?
Thank you!
Kim Weisberg says
Hi there! I love this soup very much, but I have a question. I have made it several times and it never looks like the picture. My color is very very light, how do you get that beautiful orange color? DO you add more spicy?
Thanks,
Kim
elana says
Nope, it’s the Thai Kitchen red curry paste that gives this soup its gorgeous color.
Amy Cupp says
I just made this using the exact red curry paste and it is very light, just like your reader commented. I’m wondering if it was Tablespoons, not Teaspoons your recipe calls for?
Elana says
Hi Amy, we use 2 teaspoons for this recipe, but you are welcome to add more if you like. I think part of the reason my soup is so orange is that I use homemade chicken stock when I make this recipe and it has a deep golden color.
Kare says
Absolutely delicious!! However, as some others mentioned, I had to add more chicken broth on our second meal…the coconut milk was a bit too heavy for me. We also added more of the Thai curry paste. And we didn’t discard the cilantro and shallots. Such a wonderful soup!
JKH says
Absolutely delicious! I’ve been trying to change my family over to our ‘new’ eating plan, and not without some struggles. My 3 year old happily ate her portion, and my husband, who is normally not a soup fan, was very enthusiastic about this. Thank you!
~M says
Hi Elana,
I wanted to follow up on this soup. It’s SO delicious! I have recently been able to tolerate coconut milk better than before so I went with your proportions of stock and coconut milk. I usually dislike broccoli, especially in soup, but here it was wonderful…so were the mushrooms which soaked up the curry-coconut goodness. The one change I made was that I braised the chicken breasts whole and then shredded them by hand…I prefer that texture to sliced pieces, and the shreds hold onto the soup a bit better. It also reheats beautifully, even in the microwave at work. I’ll definitely be making this again!
KB says
Are these recipes ok for someone wanting to lose weight? I work out , watch what I eat but miss scrumptious flavors!! Thanks
LearningMama says
ohhhh, mmmmm, hopefully you can hear my contented sighs from this amazing soup. So wonderful! I’m glad I bought all the ingredients for this recipe. I was a little nervous purchasing the fish sauce, but I’ve used it twice this week with your recipes. Can’t wait to try more recipes with the red curry paste. I look forward to making this soup often, this freezing Colorado winter.