Lemongrass Coconut Chicken Soup

It was one of the weekend where it’s hot but i was thinking to make soup . Yes , crazy , but this morning i wanted to make Pho Noodles , it’s been months since i had pho noodles . Before lockdown was the last time we had pho noodles at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant . So i mentioned to my husband i wanted to get beef bones after the gym to make this soup . The soup would take about 5 hours to simmer , to develop its flavor , but he thought it’d be too long to cook in case we wanted to go out some place . I agreed , so i decided to wait til next weekend , friday . It would probably be better anyway to do it when we actually have time .

What should i do for dinner then ? Well i looked through some of my cooking book and opened up the Simply Ming cookbook . It’s like a chinese fusion cookbook , it has good asian recipes , and some fusion recipe . I ran into this particular recipe that looked very easy and simple . But i thought it was lacking of spices , and not too sure how it would turn out . It was this chicken soup that was inspired by Thai soup , i think it was tom kha gai . I never had it actually, but hey why not trying something new .

So it turned out very good , with such a short amount of time to cook , i was surprised with the flavor that it develops . I added some of spices that i think is a must in thai / asian food . Garlic is one of them , heck i put garlic everytime i cook ! Then i also added fresh ginger in there . Using a good brand of fish sauce is a must . I also added rice noodle in the individual bowl , i didn’t add much , just a little bit . The broth is delicious though , i think everyone agreed and everyone actually went for second bowl tonight , and cleaned the bowl pretty good .

The good thing about this soup too , it is actually quite healthy , i did not figure out the macros , but the only ingredients that is not so healthy ( meaning has a lot of fat ) is the coconut milk . But i don’t even use a whole can , just half a can . And if you’re worry about it , choose the light coconut milk .

Ingredients :

• about 800 grams of chicken breast , boneless and skinless , sliced about 1/2 inch thickness
• 3 large carrots , sliced
• 2 celery stalks , roughly chopped
• 1 large onion , sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• about 1 inch of fresh ginger , peeled and smashed
• 3 lemongrass , bruised
• 1/2 can of coconut milk
• 6 cups of chicken broth
• salt and pepper ( watch the salt , esp if your chicken broth is already salty )
• 3 serrano or thai pepper
• 3 tbsp of fish sauce

Directions :

• In a soup pot , heat up oil , and then add the vegetables and saute for few minutes . Add the chicken until it’s opaque .
• Add fish sauce and chicken broth . Bring to boil , cook on low about 20 minutes or until chicken is done .
• If you like you can eat it just like this or serve with rice noodle stick .