tom kha gai - thai coconut galangal chicken soup

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Tom Kha Gai Recipe ( ) A Tutorial for

Beginnersby Leelaon November 5, 2010 in She Deglutenizes, She Simmers, She Thais
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Id waited two years to introduce Tom Kha Gai(RTGS: tom kha kai) ( ), one of the

most loved Thai dishes of all time, on this blog because and this probably wont make a

lot of sense Ive loved it so much and for so long that I didnt know how to write about

it. I still dont. And while some dishes, e.g. Pad Thai (which is even more popular), havebeen left out mainly due to apathy, this one had been put on hold solely due to fear. (Um,

not anymore. On November 27th, 2011, I published my Pad Thai recipe.)

Tom Kha Gai isnt just any dish its one of my top five most favorite dishes in the world, Thai
http://shesimmers.com/2011/11/pad-thai-recipe-part-five-making-pad.html


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or otherwise. At a risk of taking anthropomorphism of food a bit too far, I felt that if I let

myself write about Tom Kha Gai with the kind of unbridled affection from the depth of my

bowels, Id bore or scare you. Yet, if I held back, Id be remiss for not giving the dish

the love it deserves.

Overwhelmed with affection for this soup, Ill write in numbered points.

Sliced paper thin, tender galangal tips provide crunch and herbal aroma to this dish.

1. Tom Kha Gai is a soup made of chicken (Gai) cooked (Tom) in coconut milk which has

been infused with galangal (Kha), lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves.

2. Tom Kha Gai is seasoned primarily with lime juice and fish sauce. Palm or coconut sugar

is not necessary as the natural sweetness of coconut is enough for me. In fact, I find

cloyingly sweet Tom Kha Gai kind of disgusting, though not as vile as Tom Kha Gai

seasoned with lemon juice or vinegar.
http://www.zealouswaterbuffalo.com/2010/11/i-love-you-with-all-my-bowels-splanchna.html


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Since the purpose at hand is infusion, the entire lemongrass stalk, even the fibrous part,

can be used.

3. In our household when I was growing up, Tom Kha Gai was made with bone-in, skin-on

pieces of chicken that have been cooked until tender. Coconut cream(the head ofcoconut milk or ) would be added toward the end along with the fresh herbs,

followed by fresh birds eye chilies and fresh cilantro. The broth isnt so thick and creamy,

yet it is very flavorful due to the chicken bones. Some street vendors also throw chicken

innards, feet, and congealed blood into the mix. Rarely would you find that kind of Tom

Kha Gai at a Thai restaurant overseas. Most of the time, youll get thick and creamy

coconut broth with friendly boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces.

Nothing wrong with that. In fact, thats the version Im presenting here. You just have to

employ a different cooking method to make up for the loss of savoriness in the broth.
http://shesimmers.com/2013/03/tom-kha-gai-the-rustic-way.html


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Part of your mise en place: smashed lemongrass, torn kaffir lime leaves, sliced galangal,

smashed chilies

4. Some restaurants have taken to adding roasted chili oil or sometimes Nam Prik Pao(Thai

chili jam) to Tom Kha Gai just as they do to Tom Yam. Its a bit strange to my eye and

tongue, and I dont recall ever seeing it made that way in Thailand growing up or even

now.

5. Tom Kha Gai is always relegated to the soup category in cookbooks and on

restaurant menus. Heres an annoying, hair-splitting, philosophical question: is everything

broth-y a soup? Is the soup designation based on its appearance or the way in which

it is served and consumed? You decide. The fact is that Tom Kha Gai, like most Thai dishes

soupy or not are almost always served with rice as an entre, as part of the wholemeal ensemble and not as a stand-alone. [That little bowl of Tom Yam or Tom Kha Gai

which your local Thai restaurant serves you with a couple of mini spring rolls as part of your

lunch special is a westernized practice.]

6. How do I eat Tom Kha Gai? (I delusionally assume you care to find out.) This freaks out

pretty much every American friend who has dined with me at various Thai restaurants in

the US: I usually order a serving of Tom Kha Gai from the dinner menu which usually comes

with rice, dump the rice into the Tom Kha Gai bowl, give it a stir, and eat it like that. Theone-bowl approach is not a sophisticated (or traditional) way of eating Tom Kha Gai, but I

like it that way. Regardless, eating this dish with rice is a common practice. Tom Kha Gai is,

after all, an entree a soup entree to be eaten with rice .
http://shesimmers.com/2011/10/tom-yam-kung-%E0%B8%95%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%B3%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B8%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%87-with-video.htmlhttp://www.shesimmers.com/2011/01/nam-prik-pao-thai-chilli-jam-secret.html


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Straw mushroom is my favorite, but oyster (or white button) works too. Anything but

shiitake!

7. The recipe which Im sharing with you is a compromise between the traditional/old-

fashioned-rustic Tom Kha Gai(with bone-in and skin-on hunks of chicken and gnarly,

curling chicken feet flailing about in the pot) and the kind made by dissolving some

bottled Tom Kha pastein coconut milk. If you dont like bones in your soup, dont feel

guilty. Likewise, if you absolutely cannot find fresh galangal(without which Tom Kha isnt

Tom Kha), fresh lemongrass, and fresh kaffir lime leaves, dont feel bad about using the

paste. Its still better than using dried galangal, dried lemongrass, and dried kaffir lime

leaves which, from my experience, yields probably the most disgusting Tom Kha Gai if

you can even call it that Ive ever had any time anywhere. Broth infused with the dried

version of those herbs tastes like really bad herbal medicine.

8. The problem with boneless, skinless chicken breast meat is that its susceptible to being

overcooked. Your broth could be seasoned well, but if your chicken is tough and rubbery,

that takes the joy out of the whole experience. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are much

better, if you ask me. But if you use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, be sure to slice the

meat against the grain (though, as you can see from the pictures, I broke my own rule )

and cook it very, very gently as if youre poaching the chicken meat. Chef Michael

Pardus shows you how to poach shrimp the right way in the video below, but the conceptapplies to boneless, skinless, bite-sized pieces of chicken breast meat as well.
http://shesimmers.com/2012/08/tom-yam-and-tom-kha-mixes-how-and-when-to-use-them.htmlhttp://shesimmers.com/2013/03/tom-kha-gai-the-rustic-way.html


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Note: Tom kha gai is usually made with bone-in, skin-on chunks of chicken (as explainedhere). The bones turn the plain water-coconut milk liquid into a delicious broth in the

process of long, slow cooking. The low-temperature cooking method is recommended

only when you opt for boneless, skin-less chicken breast meat.

Start off by infusing the coconut milk-chicken stock mixture with the fresh herbs. Get the

temperature of the liquid to the level ideal for poaching, then add the chicken breast

meat last. If we had gone with the old-fashioned Tom Kha Gai, I would have suggested

you use the same method explained in my Old-Fashioned Tom Yampost. But since were

using bite-sized pieces of boneless, skinless chicken breast meat, we need to slightly alter

the cooking method by adding the chicken meat to the liquid last and cooking it very,

very gently.

Also, since theres very little flavor in boneless, skinless chicken breast meat to impart to the

broth (thats why people dont make chicken stock out of boneless, skinless chicken

breasts), the concentrated chicken stock and the fish sauce will be the primary sources of

umami in this light-weight version of Tom Kha Gai. Neither is optional.
http://www.shesimmers.com/2009/06/how-to-make-tom-yam-tom-yam-101-part.htmlhttp://shesimmers.com/2013/03/tom-kha-gai-the-rustic-way.html


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Tom Kha with oyster mushrooms (the best vegetarian option, in my opinion) with added

Nam Prik Pao

9. Can Tom Kha Gai be made vegetarian? Here are my thoughts:

Named as such, the dish has meat chicken, to be precise in it by definition which

implies that it is not meant to be vegetarian. For those who abstain from meat, you can

use tofu or, as I have done from time to time during my detox phases, assorted wild

mushrooms which are very meaty and delicious. A friend of mine loves sliced cabbage

(regular or savoy) in lieu of the gaiin her Tom Kha Gai. My grandmother sometimes threw

in hearts of palm, hearts of coconut, or sliced banana blossoms into the mix. None of this is

traditional yet all of these meat substitutes are delicious. I dont like green leafy

vegetables in Tom Kha, though. In fact, anything in the cruciferous family, except for

green cabbage, tastes pretty bad to me when cooked this way. But thats just an opinion.

10. Regardless, when gai is omitted, you cant call it Tom Kha Gai just as you wouldnt

say vegetarian barbecued pork. Tom Kha Hed (mushroom), Tom Kha Tao-Hu (tofu), or

Tom Kha Ka Lam Pli (cabbage) whichever applies would be more appropriate.Oh,

and dont forget to boost the flavor by using very concentrated vegetable stock and

seasoning the broth with salt instead of fish sauce for the use of soy sauce would be a

surest way to kill this lovely dish.
http://www.shesimmers.com/2011/01/nam-prik-pao-thai-chilli-jam-secret.html


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Though anemic-looking, this coconut-y broth packs in lots of flavor from concentrated

chicken stock

This recipe yields 2-3 servings of main dish soup (meant to accompany rice)

4.9 from 7 reviewsTom Kha Gai ( )

Author: Leela

Recipe type: Entree

Cuisine: Thai

Ingredients

3 cups (24 fluid ounces) sodium-free chicken stock

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces across

the grain

lb (8ounces) fresh or canned straw mushrooms (drained)

One stalk lemongrass

5-6 fresh bird's eye chilies (more or less depending on your heat

preference)

2-inch piece of fresh galangal, sliced thinly crosswise

4-5 fresh kaffir lime leaves

4-5 limes

cup fish sauce (but have more ready)

cup fresh cilantro leaves

1 cups (12 fluid ounces) full-fat coconut milk

Instructions

Print
http://shesimmers.com/easyrecipe-print/788-0/


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Stir-Fried Chinese Water Morning Glory Pad Pak Bung Fai Daeng ( )Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

1. First, concentrate the stock. Put th e chicken stock in a wide and shallow saucepan (to ensure fast

evaporation), bring it to a boil, and reduce it over medium-high heat until the liquid measures half its

original volume. [If you have access to very, very good chicken bouillon granules which are not all about

salt and very little flavor, by all means, dilute double the amount you normally use in 1 cups of plain

water and use that in place of the concentrated chicken stock.].

2. Halve (or quarter) the straw mushrooms into bite-sized pieces set aside. [You can also use white button,

cremini, and oyster mushrooms. Any meaty, mild-flavored mushrooms will do. Portobello mushrooms are

fine flavor- and texture-wise, but even with the gills carefully scraped off they still turn the broth into an

unappetizing shade of gray. Do not use shiitake the flavor is way too strong for this. Also, I would never

use any kind of dried mushrooms which will change the flavor profile of this dish quite drastically, and not

in a good way.]

3. Cut the lemongrass stalk into 1-inch pieces and smash them with the side of a large Chinese cleaver, a

pestle, or any heavy object lying around in the house set aside.4. Do to the chilies what you just did to the lemongrass set aside.

5. Remove the stems and the tough veins that run through the middle from the kaffir lime leaves, and tear

them up into small pieces. You can also bruise them a little. Set aside.

6. Juice 2 limes set aside. (You may need more you may not. It's better to have more than you need than

not enough.)

7. Put th e coconut milk into a 4-quart pot, followed by concentrated chicken stock, kaffir lime leaves,

lemongrass pieces, and galangal slices.

8. Bring the mixture slowly to between 160 and 180F (slightly below a simmer), allowing the herbs to

infuse the liquid for about a minute.

9. Keeping the temperature steady, add the mushrooms and the chicken to the liquid adjust the heat to

maintain the temperature. The liquid should never at any point come to a rapid boil. Dont worry at

160-180F, your chicken will be thoroughly cooked.10. Stir gently to ensure that the chicken is evenly cooked. (If you want more liquid, add more plain water or

unconcentrated broth.)

11. Once the chicken is cooked through, throw in the smashed chilies and remove the pot from heat

immediately.

12. Add the juice of 2 limes and the fish sauce to the pot, stir, and taste. Add more lime juice and fish sauce, if

necessary. The soup should be predominantly sour, followed by salty. The sweetness comes from natural

sugar in the coconut milk.

13. Stir in the cilantro leaves and serve your tom kha gai with steamed jasmine rice as an entree.

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126 Responses to Tom Kha Gai Recipe ( ) A Tutorial for Beginners

Lydia

November 5, 2010 at 7:17 pm#

Interesting Leela about the nam prik pao not being traditionalIm pretty sure every time Ive had the

soup, it has that in it, and I just double-checked all of my Thai cookbooks (some thai and some american/english)

and they all either call for nam prik pao or some combination of chiles, shallots, coriander, etc. that would

resemble it. I will have to try it your way next time, while, even though I love it with the npp, I am always looking

for something a little different than what Im used to. Thanks for the info!

ngry sian

November 5, 2010 at 7:29 pm#

sigh. i have a problem with finding kaffir lime leaves, tho i did do a dance jig last week when i stumbled

up on galangal at the market.
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tom kha gai - thai coconut galangal chicken soup

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