Thai chicken soup: Recreating vacation flavors at home

We don't just eat exotic dishes on vacation; however, we often find inspiration to recreate them later at home during a trip. A great idea for this is Thai cuisine, especially its classic Thai chicken soup. Perfectly creamy and temptingly spicy, the right selection of ingredients makes this dish compete with traditional chicken soup.

There is plenty of protein, valuable fats, and vitamins in vegetables — a brief description of the products needed to prepare Thai chicken soup. It's good to stock up on exotic additions like lemongrass, soy sauce, and curry paste to capture the original taste.

Thai cuisine can be off-putting due to overly spicy dishes, but it all depends on the main ingredients. The popular curry paste used for one-pot dishes and soups comes in various levels of spiciness. Yellow curry paste, based on turmeric, is the mildest. Slightly spicier due to dried red chili is red paste, while green curry paste, based on fresh green chili peppers, is the spiciest. Interestingly, depending on the region of Thailand, their spiciness may vary slightly.

Thai cuisine features many chicken dishes, but chicken can also be swapped with shrimp or tofu. This recipe can be modified to replace poultry with seafood or a vegan substitute. Thai soup in any of these versions will be delicious.

Ingredients:

                                                              
• 1 chicken breast
• 1.5 quarts of broth
• 2 teaspoons of coconut oil
• 1 cup of good quality coconut milk
• 1 small onion
• 5 ounces of red pepper
• 4 ounces of mushrooms
• 3 tablespoons of curry paste
• 2 teaspoons of soy sauce
• 1 inch of fresh ginger
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of curry powder
• 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
• Thai basil or lemongrass
• Lime and fresh cilantro, for serving
• Optional: rice noodles

Preparation:

1. Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Wash and dry the pepper and mushrooms. Cut them into smaller pieces. Scrub the ginger thoroughly, peel, and slice.
2. Heat the coconut oil in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add the curry paste and heat briefly. Cut the chicken into cubes and quickly sauté on both sides in the mixture.
3. Add the garlic and onions, and mix everything. Add the pepper and mushrooms, sauté for a while, then pour in the broth.
4. Add the lemongrass, curry powder, soy sauce, and sugar. Cook for about 15 minutes. Pour in the coconut milk. Optionally add the noodles at this point. Cook for another 5-10 minutes over low heat.
5. Serve with cilantro and lime wedges — the juice will instantly season the soup, adding a delicious tartness.