This is one of my favorite soups. It’s creamy, salty/sweet, and has the perfect sourness from lime juice to balance everything. It’s the perfect soup for using up leftover roast chicken, but works with chicken breasts as well, if you don’t have leftovers.
The kaffir lime leaves lend the best flavor, so buy a packet of dried leaves which keep for a while, or fresh leaves which freeze well. You can find them online! Pickled leaves, available at Wegmans, also work.
While it’s not traditional, I frequently make this with fresh ginger, if I don’t have galangal, although galangal is ideal and I encourage you to seek it out for this recipe.
Galangal is shaped similarly to ginger, and can be frozen in slices for future batches of Tom Kha Gai, so buy extra when you find it! You can also use dried galangal.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons coconut oil or ghee
2 cups mushrooms, cut into bite sized pieces (any type you like)
1-2 birds eye chilies, roughly smashed but still intact
1 stalk lemon grass, roughly smashed but still intact (optional, but ideal)
4-5 kaffir lime leaves or about 1 tablespoon pickled, sliced kaffir lime leaves
1 thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated OR 1 thumb size piece of galangal, thinly sliced OR 1/4 teaspoon dried powdered galangal
3-4 tablespoons fish sauce, depending on preference
2 cups homemade chicken broth
2 cans full fat, unsweetened coconut milk (13.5 oz each)
2-3 tablespoons coconut sugar
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin slices OR 2-3 cups leftover roasted chicken, torn into bite sized pieces
3-4 tablespoons fresh lime juice, to taste
cilantro, roughly chopped, to garnish
green onions, sliced, to garnish
Method:
In a large heavy bottomed pot, melt coconut oil or ghee over medium/low heat, then add sliced mushrooms, and chilies. Season with a big pinch of salt, and cook, stirring often, until mushrooms are tender but not browned.
While the mushrooms soften, prepare your chicken. If using raw chicken breasts, thinly slice and toss in a bowl with the fish sauce. This will flavor the chicken. If you're using leftover already cooked chicken, there is no prep necessary.
Once the mushrooms have softened, add in lemongrass, lime leaves, and galangal or ginger, along with the chicken and all of the fish sauce it marinated in, chicken broth, coconut milk, and coconut sugar.
Cook over medium heat until soup comes to a low boil, then turn heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the chicken breast is cooked through. Add in lime juice.
Taste for seasoning- if you want it saltier, add a little more fish sauce. If you want it sweeter, more coconut sugar, and more lime juice if you prefer a more sour flavor.
Remove the lemongrass, galangal slices if used, and chilies (or simply eat around them), and serve over rice with cilantro and green onions if desired.
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