Thai Galangal Chicken Soup ( Tom Ka Gai)

Total Time: 45 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 3 cups chicken stock, gluten-free if required for diet (750ml)
• 20 g fresh galangal, peeled and sliced thickly
• 2 sticks fresh lemongrass, cut into 5 cm pieces
• 4 kaffir lime leaves
• 2 teaspoons coriander roots, and stems (cilantro)
• 500 g chicken thigh fillets or 500 g chicken breast fillets, sliced thinly
• 200 g straw mushrooms, drained and rinsed under clean water
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 4 teaspoons lime juice
• 4 teaspoons fish sauce, gluten-free if required for diet
• 1 teaspoon grated palm sugar or 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)
• 2 fresh small thai red chilies, seeded and sliced thinly
• 2 fresh kaffir lime leaves, shredded
• 1 stick fresh lemongrass, sliced thinly

Recipe

• 1 cut the lemongrass into 5 cm pieces and pound the pieces with the side of your kitchen knife to bruise them. this helps to release the flavour into the soup.
• 2 using a large saucepan- combine the stock, lemongrass pieces, galangal, whole lime leaves and coriander (cilantro) roots and stems mixture. bring to the boil. reduce the heat. simmer covered for 5 minutes.
• 3 remove from the heat and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
• 4 strain the stock through muslin or a fine strainer into a large heatproof bowl. discard the solids.
• 5 rinse your saucepan.
• 6 return your stock/soup base to the same saucepan.
• 7 add chicken and straw mushrooms. bring to the boil. reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
• 8 stir in the coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce and the sugar. cook, stirring, until only just heated through. do not boil. remove from heat.
• 9 add the remaining ingredients- coriander (cilantro) leaves, red chillies, kaffir lime leaves and the lemon grass slices.
• 10 serve hot.