Tom Kha Gai Recipes

TOM KHA GAI

Steps:

• Warm chicken broth and coconut milk together in a stockpot over medium heat; add chile sauce, lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and kaffir lime leaves. Bring broth mixture to a low simmer until flavors have blended, about 15 minutes.
• Remove stockpot from heat and strain out ginger and lime leaves. Return broth mixture to the stockpot and bring to a simmer. Cook chicken in the simmering broth until no longer pink in the center, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, onion, zucchini, lemongrass, and basil and simmer until onion softens, about 3 minutes.

TOM KHA GAI

Steps:

• Bring coconut milk and broth to a boil, add thinly sliced galangal, minced ginger, and Thai chiles to soup - simmer for 10 minutes.
• Add chicken slices and stir occasionally until chicken is tenderly cooked.
• Add straw mushrooms and thinly sliced & deveined lime leaves.
• (optional : cut a few cross-sections of the lemon grass and add to the soup)
• (optional : cut tomatoes into largish cubes about 1/2" square, and add to soup).
• (optional : if you are using fresh limes, zest the lime peel into the soup).
• (optional : Add Thai chile paste or red curry paste).
• Stir well and simmer for 5-10 more minutes.
• Just before serving, turn off the heat, then add brown sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, and stir well.
• Finisher's instructions: balance the flavors by adding more spicy (chile paste), sour (lime juice), or salty (fish sauce) until perfection is reached. Different brands may have different strength or acidity -- Be careful not to overdo any one dimension, and stir well inbetween
• Top with cilantro, and serve hot by itself or pour over rice.
• Leftovers are often even more flavorful the next day or two.

AUTHENTIC TOM KHA GAI

Steps:

• Pour chicken broth into a wok or medium size pot. Add lemongrass, galangal and shallot. Bring it to boil over medium high heat, then add palm sugar, fish sauce, coconut milk, tomatoes, mushrooms, lime leaves, Thai chilies and chicken. Stir gently and bring it to a light simmer, then reduce heat to medium and gently simmer for 6 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.
• Add green onion and cilantro. Turn off heat. Lastly, add lime juice. 1/4 cup if you like more creamier soup and 1/3 cup if you want more tangy flavor in your soup. Stir gently one last time and serve with warm cooked jasmine rice! Enjoy!

TOM KHA GAI

Steps:

• In a saucepan set over high heat, bring the stock to a boil. Cut off the tough end of the lemongrass stalk, then, using the back of a knife, bruise the lemongrass. Cut into pieces a few inches long. Add the lemongrass, lime leaves, chilies, garlic and ginger to the stock and reduce the heat. Cover with a lid and let simmer for about 10 minutes to let all the flavours infuse the stock.
• Remove the aromatics. Add the chicken and continue to simmer until it's cooked, about 5 minutes. Add the coconut milk, oyster mushrooms, lime juice, fish sauce and brown sugar. Bring back to a simmer until everything is hot and the mushrooms are slightly softened.
• Serve with cilantro (either coarsely chopped or left whole), chili oil and lime wedges.
• Note: Kaffir lime leaves are fragrant leaves that impart a lime flavour to the soup. They can typically be found at Asian markets. The peel from half a lime can be used instead.
• Note: Regular button mushrooms can be substituted for oyster mushrooms, but need a bit more time to cook. Add them at the same time as the chicken.

ADRIENNE'S TOM KA GAI

Steps:

• In a large saucepan over medium heat, heat peanut oil. Stir in garlic, ginger, lemon grass, red pepper, coriander and cumin and cook until fragrant, 2 minutes. Stir in chicken and onion and cook, stirring, until chicken is white and onion is translucent, 5 minutes. Stir in bok choy and cook until it begins to wilt, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in water, coconut milk, fish sauce and cilantro. Simmer until chicken is thoroughly cooked and flavors are well blended, 30 minutes.

THAI COCONUT CHICKEN SOUP (TOM KHA GAI)

Steps:

• Bring chicken stock or water to the boil, add galangal, lemon grass, kafir lime leaves, coriander stalks and boil for 5 minutes until fragrant.
• Add chicken breast to the soup, boil for another 5 minutes until cooked.
• Add a pinch of sugar, coconut milk, chillis, cherry tomatoes and mushroom. Bring the soup to the boil again.
• Take off the heat. Season with lime juice and fish sauce. Add coriander leaves and spring onions.

QUICK AND EASY TOM KHA GAI

Steps:

• Tips: the lemon grass, lime leaves and kha are best left in large pieces to make them easier to pick out later, as they are tough and inedible. I leave them in all the way till serving and tell my guests to look for them and set them aside as they eat. The RecipeZaar ingredient format makes it hard to enter how much galangal (kha) to use: I use a root-knob about twice the size of the ball of my thumb. I use half of a 4-ounce tin of red curry paste (4 tablespoons) for a pretty spicy-hot soup; you can use 1/4 can for milder heat, but the recipe for Tom Kha Gai on the Maesri tin calls for the whole thing- WOW that must be hot!
• In a large stock pot, saute the curry paste, garlic, lemon grass, lime leaves and kha in the vegetable oil for two minutes.
• Stir in chicken broth and bring to a boil.
• While broth is heating, slice the chicken breast and toss it in cornstarch. The amount of cornstarch doesn't need to be exact; just make sure the slices are evenly coated and shake off any excess.
• Add chicken to boiling broth, stir gently, and bring back up to a simmer.
• Stir in mushrooms, coconut milk, fish sauce and lime juice. Bring back up to a simmer, stirring gently a few times, then cut the heat off and you're ready to serve.
• Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve.