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Tom Kha is one of my favorite Thai recipes along with Pad Thai. I regularly ate this creamy, slightly spicy coconut soup during my trip through Thailand. If you have ever been to Thailand you will agree that the Thai like very spicy food. They often made the soup a bit too spicy for me. Nevertheless, I always finished my entire soup bowl, because I cannot resist such a delicious soup.

I learned how to make the recipe for this delicious Tom Kha during my cooking course in Chiang Mai, Thailand. At first it seemed quite difficult to make, but that isn’t the case at all! It’s even very simple and you can serve the soup within half an hour. But the longer you let the flavor infuse, the better the end result!

Tom Kha

Tom Kha Recipe

Ingredients (for 3 – 4 persons)

  • 400 ml chicken stock
  • 400 ml coconut milk
  • 20 grams of galangel
  • 20 grams of ginger
  • 1 stalk of lemongrass
  • 100-200 grams of chicken fillet
  • 100 grams oyster mushrooms and / or mushrooms (cut into pieces)
  • 1 onion (roughly chopped)
  • 3 lime leaves (kaffir)
  • ½ chili pepper
  • 1 tbsp of fish sauce
  • fresh cilantro
  • 1 lime

Instructions Tom Kha

Start by peeling and slicing the galangal and ginger. Also cut the lemongrass in half so that the flavor is released better later.

Pour the stock and coconut milk into a pan and add the galangal, ginger and lemongrass. Put on low to medium heat, but don’t let it boil. When coconut milk boils too quickly or too hard, it starts to curdle. So watch out for this.

When the coconut milk is warm, add the chicken as well. Then add the onion and mushrooms and stir carefully. Let it all heat for 5 minutes on low heat.

Then add the lime leaves and a few rings of chili pepper. Let it heat for a few more minutes and finally add a tablespoon of fish sauce.

Serve with some fresh coriander and a slice of lime.

Easy peasy lime squeezy!

Tom Kha