Spicy Sour Soup with Chicken (Tom Yum Gai)

Thai translation – Tom = Spicy Soup, Yum = Sour, Gai = Chicken

Tom Yum soup is a flavoursome and aromatic soup that is a favourite of many people. It is a simple and fresh dish that is made with chilli, galangal, lemongrass, coriander and kaffir lime leaf. It is made with prawns (tom yum goong) or in this case, chicken but is also often made with mushrooms (tom yum het), frog (tom yum kob) or fish (tom yum pla).

Ingredients

1 litre water

1 piece lemongrass

1 inch piece galangal

2 chillis

1 kaffir lime leaf

1 small bunch coriander.

1 small tomato

1 small onion

200g chicken

1 tsp chicken stock

2 tsp fish sauce

½ lime

100g mushrooms (straw or oyster are best)

1 tsp thai chilli jam or paste (optional)

Cooking Time – 20 minutes

Preparation Time – 5 minutes

Serves 4

Method

1. Put the water and chicken stock into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil on high.
2. Meanwhile, peel and bruise the stick of lemongrass and chop into inch long pieces. Crush the chilli (chop in half if you like your soup spicy) and peel the galangal and slice thinly. Remove the woody stem from the kaffir lime leaf and tear into pieces.
3. Place all the herbs plus 2 stems of coriander with leaves into the boiling water and reduce the heat. Simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Chop the tomato and onion in half and then half again. Add these ingredients to the stock. Cook for 5 minutes.
5. Slice the chicken into bite size pieces and add this to the stock and cook until it changes colour to white – approximately 5 minutes. If you are using chilli jam, add this to the stock at this time.
6. Add the mushrooms, squeeze of half a lime and fish sauce and stir well, then turn off the heat. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then serve with a few sprigs of coriander.