Tom Kha Gai/thai Coconut Soup

Category: Soups & Salads | Blog URL: http://desperatefordinner.blogspot.com/2010/01/crockpot-tom-kha-gai.html

This recipe was entered in The Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook contest, a compilation of the world’s best food blogs which was published in Fall 2010.

Ingredients

4 cups chicken broth

3 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts (flash frozen works fine!)

4 1/4 inches slices fresh ginger root or galangal

3 inches piece of lemongrass sliced lengthwise

2 inches kaffir lime leaves or 2 large pieces of lime z

1 tablespoon shaved cane sugar; or 1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1 tablespoon crushed red pepper

1 clove of garlic; crushed

Preparation

Go ahead and cook these all day while you do your thing....

About a half hour before serving remove the ginger slices, pieces of lemongrass, and the piece of garlic. Shred the chicken into bite size pieces and add to the crockpot:

One 10 Oz. can coconut milk

ONe 10 Oz. can lite coconut milk

One Tablespoon fish sauce

Juice of 1 lime

Let heat for a bit then taste...season with more fish sauce or even a little kosher salt if needed.

If you like more stuff in your soup add one or more of these tasty tidbits:

A handful of julienned basil

A small can of bamboo shoots

A handful of your favorite fungi- oyster mushrooms, sliced mushrooms, button mushrooms....

Grated carrot (just to add something for the kids)

A handful of cilantro leaves

Bean threads

Rice noodles

A handful of thinly sliced sweet onion

Chopped green onion

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About

Food purists back off! I'm writing this for my busy working cooks with children...

There are as many versions of a thai coconut soup as there are unmatched socks in my unmatched sock bin... I don't even know what actually constitutes all the differet names of all the different versions of coconut soup on an American Thai Restaurant's menu...but what I do know is that this is the soup I typically order from thai restaurants and that my recipe closely resembles that of a broth soup recipe called Tom Kha Gai that my friend brought back from Thailand.

I do know that I have had this soup as a broth, with just chicken pieces, and with all sorts of different add ins like mushrooms and onions and bamboo shoots. My sister made this soup last night by absconding lemongrass and chili flavored seasoning packets from dried noodle soups packages, adding the packets to chicken broth, and seasoning with a little ginger, then adding coconut milk and sliced crimini mushrooms.

Set out the coconut milks and your other add-ins so that, if you have older kids, they can finish this soup off lickity split by just dumping things in the crockpot!

Make sure to serve chili sauce on the side for folks who like more kick!
Serve with aromatic rice like jasmine or basmati to help fill up hungry tummies...

Here it is, the soup that makes my tastebuds moist...