Tom Kha Gai | Thai Chicken Coconut Soup

How to make perfect Tom Kha Gai, a creamy Thai coconut chicken soup infused with lemongrass, galangal, and makrut lime leaves. A comforting, delicious dish that’s perfect for any occasion!

Tom Kha Gai (tom ka kai/tom ka gai/ต้มข่าไก่) is a Thai chicken coconut soup. This is considered one of the more popular soups in Thailand, second only to Tom Yum.

In Singapore, this dish is not that common at all! In fact, I rarely see this in Thai restaurants in Singapore. We favour Tom Yam a lot more, and I dare to venture most of us aren’t even aware that this Thai dish exists. It’s so underrated! Unlike Tom Yum, which is a spicy, sour soup, Tom Kha Gai is a much milder, and creamier soup. Much like Tom Yum, Tom Kha Gai is served as a dish with rice, as opposed to being eaten by itself like a soup.

Tom = ‘boiling’ or as a dish often refers to ‘soup’

Kha = galangal

Gai = chicken

How to Make the Best Tom Kha Gai

Tom Kha Gai is so easy to make! In fact, it was one of the first Thai dishes I ever attempted – even before the more popular Tom Yum. All you do is boil the aromatics and herbs in the stock, add the other ingredients, and stir in coconut milk. This came out so well on my first attempt, it gave me confidence to make other Thai dishes!

1. Prepare the ingredients

The aromatics will need to be prepped to release flavours first, i.e. slicing the galangal, bruising the lemongrass and mashing the chillies.

2. Saute the aromatics to release flavour

This part is completely optional, but I like to saute the ingredients to release even more of the flavour, and much more quickly too.

If you want to keep this healthier and oil-free, feel free and skip straight to the next step.

3. Pour in Stock

• Use chicken stock as a base of the soup for good flavour. Homemade would be best, but I’ve cheated many times with chicken stock cubes.

• You can also just use water – this is the one dish that you can get away with just water! If skipping the sauteeing step, add the aromatics in with the stock.

4. Let the aromatics infuse the stock

• Allow the stock to simmer with the ingredients for 10-15 minutes.

• If you did not saute the aromatics in oil first, let it simmer for even longer to get proper flavour infusion.

5. Strain or remove the Aromatics

• This is why I like to keep the aromatics in big chunks, for easier removal!

• I like to just use a slotted spoon, you can also strain it to get a clear soup. Leave a few of the more nicer-looking aromatic pieces in the soup – they make for good presentation!

6. Add chicken, mushrooms, seasonings

• Add the chicken, mushrooms and seasonings. If you are using any other vegetables that does not require as long a cook time, add it in at the next step.

• Simmer until chicken cooks through, about 10-15 minutes.

7. Pour in coconut milk

• Making sure the heat is low, gently pour in the coconut milk. This is to prevent the coconut milk from curdling. You can also add it in at the previous step, for convenience, adding it after will simply minimise the curdling.

• Stir to combine and let it heat through for another 5 minutes or so.

• “My coconut milk curdled! Is the dish ruined?” Not at all! The curdling is purely for looks, it does not affect overall taste, and it most definitely hasn’t ‘gone bad’.

8. Turn off heat, garnish, serve and enjoy!

• Once the chicken is cooked through and the coconut milk has heated through, turn off heat.

• Stir in lime juice. Garnish with cilantro. Serve and enjoy.

Important Herbs and Aromatics for Tom Kha Gai

Tom Kha Gai is a VERY EASY DISH to make. The hard part would be rounding up the ingredients, although if you’re coming from Southeast Asia these are very easy ingredients to procure.

Good news: most of the ingredients you need are very freezer friendly! Buy a big batch and store them in the freezer for easy use. You don’t even need to defrost them, take them straight out of the freezer and toss it straight into the pot! All of the ingredients that are freezer friendly are stated below.

I like to keep these ingredients in bigger chunks, since I like to simply remove them with a slotted spoon. You can slice these smaller – thereby releasing more flavours – but make sure to strain the mixture! While these are great flavourings to the soup base, they are not pleasant to bite into at all.

Galangal

The ‘kha’ in Tom Kha Gai is Galangal. As the ‘kha’ in Tom Kha Gai, galangal is essential and should not be omitted for a proper dish.

Galangal cannot be replaced by Ginger, although it’s easy to mistake one for the other. While ginger is a spicy flavour, galangal has a floral, citrusy, almost herby flavour to it.

If you want to replace Galangal with Ginger, you can – but you may not get a dish that tastes like Tom Kha Gai.

Galangal is VERY freezer-friendly! Slice them up first, and place in a freezer-friendly bag, toss in the freezer. Whenever you need galangal, you can easily remove from the bag.

Other Ingredients

• Lemongrass: Lemongrass is a common Southeast Asian ingredient, and adds a citrusy flavour to the dish. With the lemongrass, bruise it prior to using t release the flavours. Watch the video on how to do this, or see my post on “How to Prepare Lemongrass for Cooking”. Freezer-friendly! There is no need to prep them beforehand, they bruise easily even when in a frozen state.

• Kaffir Lime Leaves: Similar to the Lemongrass, these add a nice, citrusy flavour to Tom Kha Gai AND the most zesty, fresh scent to the dish. Kaffir Lime Leaves are one of my favourite Asian ingredients ever! Before using, tear or bruise the leaves to release the flavours. Freezer-friendly – in fact this is a freezer staple in my house.

• Thai Bird’s Eye Chillies: Is it really a Thai dish if it’s not bitingly spicy? The spice in Tom Kha Gai is much milder though, and often a subtle hint. To achieve that, the chillies are often added lightly smashes and added whole to the soup. If you want more kick in your Tom Kha Gai, chop your chilli peppers! Similarly, if you do not want spice at all, feel free to skip on the chillies. Tom Kha Gai is the one dish that fares so well without spice. Freezer-friendly!

• Cilantro or Coriander Root: This ingredient is optional, but coriander root has so much herby flavour to it! Even more so than the Coriander. I like to add it in since I use the coriander as garnishing. The root is freezer-friendly, but the leaves are not. I would say the roots are definitely more important than the leaves though.

• Onions and Garlic: You can actually skip adding onions and garlic to flavour the soup – but I like to add them in since it enhances the flavour! Plus they are easy alliums that are always available in my kitchen (and I would think most) so they are easy additions. Garlic is freezer friendly, but onions… not so much. They will turn mushy and disintegrate in the soup as it boils. I have these two in my pantry all the time, and most people do, so I wouldn’t bother freezing.

• Lime Juice: Lime juice is added at the end for a fresh burst of zest. This is easily replaceable with Lemon Juice. Add this only at the end of the dish so it does not turn bitter in the high heat!

What Chicken to use for Tom Kha Gai

‘Gai’ is chicken, so the main protein used is Chicken. Boneless chicken is used; both chicken thighs and breasts work for this.I personally prefer the leanness of chicken breast for Tom Kha Gai.

Chop the proteins into cubes. That’s it! You can season your chicken with fish sauce and white pepper if you like, but it’s generally not practiced for Tom Kha Gai for the sake of simplicity. If seasoning your chicken, make sure to adjust the seasonings later on.

How to Get a Coconut Soup that is not Curdled?

Coconut Milk is an important ingredient for Tom Kha Gai. I use Coconut Cream, which are simply cartoned (or canned) versions of coconut milk since this is what I have access to and easily available from the supermarket. It is the same as coconut milk, except that i tends to be thicker. For the purposes of this recipe I use the term Coconut Milk to refer to both coconut milk and coconut cream.

Coconut Milk can be a finicky ingredient to work with. The first few times I made this, I end up with gross, curdled milk! The solutions to not curdle your coconut milk are simple:

1. Stir it in at low heat.

The high heat of the dish is what would immediately cause the coconut milk to curdle.

2. Add at the last step of the dish

Other tips that I’ve learnt which you can try include stirring the coconut milk in one direction, and to be gentle in stirring. I’m not too sure about stirring it in one direction; I find that if I stick to the two tips above, it makes no difference.

What happens if I curdled my coconut milk anyway? Even if your coconut milk curdles… it’s fine! Perhaps it does not look as pretty, but there’s no difference in taste.

How to Serve Tom Kha Gai

Tom Kha Gai is typically served with rice as one of the dishes.

Serve with extra lime wedges on the side, cilantro leaves and a drizzle of chilli oil for a dash of heat.

You can serve this as a proper soup – I’ve done it before as an appetiser! Remove the Thai Bird’s Eye Chillies for a more drinkable soup.

More Recipes Like This

If you like this recipe, you might enjoy these too:

• Ayam Masak Lemak Cili Padi | Spicy Bird’s Eye Chillis and Turmeric Chicken Stew
• Opor Ayam | Indonesian White Chicken Curry
• Singapore Chicken Curry

Tom Kha Gai

Recipe by Sha

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: Recipes

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups or 500ml chicken stock

• 2 cups Coconut Milk (or 1 cup carton coconut cream)

• 200g Chicken, cubed

• 50g or 1 loose cup of Mushrooms

• 1.5 tbsps Fish Sauce, or to taste

• 1 tsp Sugar, or to taste

• 2 tbsps Lime Juice

• A handful of Cilantro

• Aromatics

• 1 Onion, cut in half

• 2 cloves Garlic, smashed

• 1 Lemongrass, bruised

• 1 inch Galangal or Blue Ginger

• 4-5 Makrut or Kaffir Lime Leaves

• 2 Bird’s Eye Chillies, mashed

• 2-3 Coriander or Cilantro Roots

• Served with

• Jasmine rice, for serving

Directions

• Slice the galangal thinly, bruise the lemongrass, lightly mash the Thai Bird’s Eye Chillies and garlic with the flat side of the knife, and cut the onion in half. Try to keep the aromatics in big chunks for easy removal later.
• Add a bit of oil to the pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the galangal, lemongrass, chillies, cilantro root, onions and garlic and saute until fragrant. Once fragrant, pour in stock.
• Let it come to a boil, before turning down the heat to a gentle simmer. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes or more to allow infusion.
• Remove the aromatics or strain soup. Turn the heat back up to a medium, and add chicken. Tear in Kaffir Lime Leaves. Let chicken cook.
• Once chicken cooks, add mushrooms.
• Turn heat down to a low, and gently pour in coconut milk. Season with fish sauce and sugar, to taste.
• Stir to combine and allow this to come back to a boil.
• Once bubbling, turn off the heat. Pour in lime juice and cilantro. Tom Kha Gai is ready to serve.

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