Homemade Tom Kha Gai

📝 Ingredients

• 300 g chicken breast
• 120 g jasmine rice (uncooked weight)
• 250 ml coconut milk
• 500 ml chicken stock
• 1 lemongrass stalk
• 30 g fresh ginger (or galangal)
• 4 makrut (kaffir) lime leaves, optional
• 150 g button mushrooms
• 1 fresh red chilli
• 2 tbsp fish sauce (nuoc mam)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 lime
• 1/2 bunch fresh coriander

🍴 Utensils

• Large saucepan
• Small saucepan with lid
• Knife and cutting board
• Colander
• Ladle

📖 Steps

1. Rinse the rice in the sieve until the water is almost clear. Cook it in the small saucepan according to the packet instructions (about 12 minutes, covered, over low heat), then leave it to stand covered off the heat.
2. Remove the dry outer leaves of the lemongrass, bruise it with the flat of the knife and cut into 3 cm pieces. Peel the ginger and cut into thin rounds. Slit the chilli and deseed it so it's less hot.
3. Pour the stock into the large saucepan with the lemongrass, ginger, chilli and crumpled lime leaves. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes so the aromatics flavour the broth.
4. Meanwhile, cut the chicken into thin strips of about 5 mm and slice the mushrooms. Thin pieces cook quickly and stay tender; if too thick, they toughen before they're cooked through.
5. Add the coconut milk and bring back to a simmer over medium-low heat. Never let it boil hard, or the coconut milk will split and the soup will turn grainy.
6. Add the chicken strips and mushrooms to the soup and cook for 6 to 8 minutes at a gentle simmer, until the chicken is white and firm all the way through, with no trace of pink.
7. Off the heat, add the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. Taste and adjust: the soup should be salty, sour and slightly sweet all at once. The lemongrass, ginger and lime leaves add flavour but aren't eaten.
8. Ladle the piping hot soup into two large bowls, sprinkle with chopped coriander and serve with the jasmine rice on the side or straight in the bowl.