Tom Kha Gai

Thai Chicken & Coconut Milk Noodle Soup

Servings: 4-6 | Prep Time: 15 mins | Cook Time: 40 mins

How to make tom kha gai, a popular Thai chicken and coconut milk soup loved for its spicy, sour notes and galangal and kaffir essence. We like a lighter tom kha gai than what's traditional. Traditionally, it's a rich soup made without noodles served alongside rice. But we love the idea of slurping clean white somen noodles from a steamy coconutty soup on a cold day. So we've adapted it into a comforting noodle soup, a satisfying meal all on its own.

We start by making a flavorful tom kha gai stock with chicken bones and a chicken carcass. Then chicken and coconut milk get lots of personality from galangal root, fragrant kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, and green Thai chili peppers. Aromatic and creamy, but not overly rich. It's a beautiful soup with surprising depth of flavor.

When buying fish sauce, we like a Thai brand fish sauce that doesn't have monosodium glutamate (MSG) listed as an ingredient. If you're sensitive to MSG, watch out for hydrolyzed vegetable protein too. It's just another form of glutamate. Even if you're not sensitive to MSG, we find that some brands use too much MSG for our liking. For this reason and for its classic flavor, we like the humble (and cheap) Lucky brand fish sauce. Every brand of fish sauce has a different sodium content, so if you're using a different brand, check its sodium content and adjust the amount of fish sauce to be used accordingly. See below for Lucky brand fish sauce sodium content.

Lucky brand fish sauce. Ingredients: Anchovy extract, salt, sugar, water.
Nutrition Facts: Serving size 1 TBSP (15 g)/ Sodium (1060 mg)
(Net: 23 fl oz) Product of Thailand

This is a simple tom kha gai recipe that's great for a light meal.

• 2 lbs skinless bone-in chicken thighs
   (or bone-in chicken breasts, if preferred)
• 1 chicken carcass (if available)
• 2 quarts water (8 cups)
• 2 cans coconut milk (13.5 fl oz ea)
• 6 stalks lemongrass, cut into 3" segments
   and crushed w/ broadside of cleaver
• 3" galangal root, sliced
• 16 kaffir lime leaves, fresh,
   hand crumpled to release oils
• 10 TBSP fish sauce, or to taste
• 7 TBSP lime juice, fresh squeezed
• 16 green Thai peppers, or as desired,
   sliced lengthwise to expose seeds
• 2-1/2 TBSP sugar
• 1/2 lb fresh oyster mushrooms
• 1/4 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 5 bundles somen noodle
   (or 1 pack rice vermicelli noodle)

To make the noodles, cook according to package, then drain using a colander. Run under cold water until temperature is easy to handle. Separate into single-serving clumps and allow to air dry and firm up while making soup.
Debone thighs and slice chicken into bite-sized strips, reserving bones for making stock.
To make the tom kha gai stock, boil water in a large stock pot with chicken bones, chicken carcass, lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaves. Cover and bring to a boil then turn down heat. Simmer 20 minutes. Then using a slotted spoon, sift out and discard all solids, keeping just the stock. This is the essence of tom kha gai.

(Lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir leaves are great as flavoring agents but are tough, fibrous and not easily digestible, so it's better not to serve them at all than have to warn people not to eat them.)
To the stock, add chicken, coconut milk, fish sauce, lime juice, thai peppers, and sugar. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Add oyster mushrooms and cook another 3 minutes. Turn off heat. Your tom kha gai soup is ready.
To serve, place a serving of noodles into a deep soup bowl and ladle enough tom kha gai soup to cover the noodles. Make sure to get a fair share of chicken and oyster mushrooms per bowl. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve hot with a pair of chopsticks and an Asian soup spoon. Enjoy!

STORAGE TIP: Refrigerate leftover noodles separately from soup in different containers until ready to serve. Noodles will turn mushy if combined with soup for storage.