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Tom Yum Gai (hot and sour chicken soup)

It took me about a year of searching and experimenting, but I finally came up with what I consider the ultimate Tom Yum Gai recipe. I had a great Tom Yum Goong (with shrimp instead of chicken) recipe, but it just didn't work doing a straight replacement of shrimp for chicken. After trying a number of different recipes, I went back and started tweaking the shrimp version. What I found was that it takes a little more tamrind and some clear chicken broth to balance out the flavor.

It is well worth a trip to your local Asian market to get these specialty food items. Fresh Galangal and Thai chiles are best, but get a stash of the dried versions so you can make up a batch of soup whenever you want.

Servings:
4
Preparation Time:
30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups water
  • 2 cups of fairly clear chicken broth
  • 2 stalks fresh lemongrass, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 3 slices fresh galangal or 2 slices dried
  • 3-4 fresh or frozen kaffir lime leaves
  • 2 tablespoons tamrind sauce
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 1 boneless skinless chicken breast half, sliced thin
  • 6-20 Thai chiles
  • 1 small yellow onion, cut in half wedges
  • 2-4 tablespoons roasted chile sauce or chile garlic sauce
  • 10 small crimini mushrooms, quartered
  • 2 cloves garic, chopped
  • 4-6 cherry tomatoes, quartered (optional)
  • juice from one lime
  • cilantro (to taste)
Cooking Instructions
  1. Bring water and broth to a boil and add the lemongrass, galangal, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaf and tamrind sauce. I like to mix the tamrind sauce and the fish sauce before adding them, to help break up the tamrind.
  2. Add the chicken. Return to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.
  3. Add the onion, chile sauce, mushrooms and garlic. Cook at a simmer for another 7 minutes.
  4. Add the chiles and tomatoes. Remove from heat.
  5. Add lime juice. Add additional fish sauce to taste.
  6. Sprinkle on the cilantro and serve
Notes
Don't eat the lemongrass, lime leaves or galangal.

If you like it spicy, chop up the chiles, if you like it milder, leave them whole and avoid eating them. If you use dried chiles, remember that they are hotter and reduce them by about 1/3.

dave – Wed, 2007 – 02 – 21 15:43
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wow! this looks good. im always interested to try new taste of food. i can see it has quite a number of ingredients there, but the cooking seems fairly easy. thanks for this one. definitely worth giving it a try.

jay (not verified) – Tue, 2007 – 07 – 17 23:27
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The recipe calls for 2 cups water and 2 cups chicken broth, but does not state when to add the broth. Is it combined with the water or added separately?

Anonymous (not verified) – Sat, 2008 – 03 – 22 07:14
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You're right, I forgot that part. I'll fix the recipe.

dave – Mon, 2008 – 03 – 31 14:22
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I absolutely love this recipe! It is easy to prepare and beats the Tom Yum Kai soup from the local thai shop by length! All my friends agree...
So, thank you for this recipe, it is delicious and you even got a cookophobic like me on the hob! Well done!
xxx

Gismo (not verified) – Fri, 2008 – 05 – 30 06:32
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