Lemongrass Chicken Soup

This Thai-style chicken soup will brighten your winter days with piquant flavor, and of course it has no gluten! (Cat update today!)

Lemongrass is one of those ingredients that fill a kitchen with its fragrance as soon as it touches the pan. The citrusy, green aroma will make you smile.

One of my favorite recipes with lemongrass is this Thai chicken soup imbued with bold flavors: not only lemongrass, but galangal, ginger, garlic, shallots, lime leaves, and more.

One interesting ingredient you may not be familiar with (I wasn’t before I first made this recipe) is galangal. It’s a rhizome, like ginger, but with a very different taste—to me it is peppery and woodsy, like pine or eucalyptus. The large Asian market where I often shop, Good Fortune, sells fresh galangal, and I believe many Asian markets will have it. You can also use dried galangal for this recipe, which is available online. If you buy fresh galangal, you can keep it in the freezer and partially thaw it when you need a bit for a recipe. I do the same with kaffir lime leaves, ginger, and chopped lemongrass (you can buy frozen chopped lemongrass at Asian markets).

This gluten-free recipe is very easy to make: other than straining out the solids from the first round of seasonings (which you don’t even need to do—I often leave the chunks of ginger, etc., in the soup), all you need to do is slice the ingredients and add them to the pot in stages. The soup is great served as it is, or you can pour it over cooked rice noodles to make a more filling meal.

Scroll to the bottom for an update on Seraphina the cat’s adventures

Ingredients:

For the 1st simmer:

• 6 cups chicken stock

• 4 tablespoons of chopped lemongrass

• 8 fresh or dried kaffir lime leaves (I buy fresh leaves and keep them in the freezer)

• 2 cloves garlic, sliced

• 4 slices galangal root, dried or fresh

• 1 slice of fresh ginger (again, keep fresh ginger in the freezer and partially thaw when needed for slicing or grating)

• 3 shallots, sliced

• 1 teaspoon red curry paste

For the 2^nd simmer:

• 1 13.5-ounce can of coconut milk

• 1 tablespoon of sugar

• 3 tablespoons of fish sauce (I like Red Boat brand)

• 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into bite-sized pieces

For the 3^rd simmer:

• 3 tablespoons of seeded, sliced jalapeno peppers (to remove seeds, cut the pepper in half lengthwise and run a spoon down the inside of each half)

• 3 tablespoons of fresh lime juice

Garnish:

• Chopped fresh coriander leaves and stems

(Scroll down for directions.)

You’ll add these ingredients to the chicken stock for the first simmer: (from top left (kaffir lime leaves, ginger, shallots, galangal, lemongrass (here, in the frozen block of chopped lemongrass I keep in my freezer), garlic, and red curry paste (this is Maesri brand in a can).

The remaining ingredients you’ll need for the second and third simmer, then garnish: (2nd simmer) coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce, and chicken; (2) lime juice and jalapeños; (Garnish) cilantro.

Directions:

• Place all of the ingredients listed for the 1^st simmer in a pot and simmer for about 30 minutes

• Strain out the solids and return the liquid to the pot, adding as much water as needed to bring the volume back to 6 cups after evaporation

• Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, and sugar and bring the liquid to a simmer, then add the sliced chicken and cook for 5 minutes

• Add the jalapeno slices and lime juice, heat just until it starts to simmer, and serve, garnishing with coriander

(Scroll down for cat update.)

After the first simmer with the lemongrass, etc., strain out the solids, which you can see floating on the surface of the soup here. Or you can skip this step and leave it chunky, as I often do, but note that the galangal and lime leaves are too tough to chew.

Soup is served!

Cat Update: Fireside!

Seraphina thought this flame phenomenon required close inspection (thankfully, no whiskers were burned).

Seraphina has a fireplace now, at least when we’re at her new house in Aiken, SC. When she first noticed the flames, she was very curious and got as close as she could to investigate. I believe that was the first time she’d ever seen fire, although who knows what she may have encountered during her days as a stray in Tampa, FL, before being rescued. Since her first examination of the working fireplace, when we start the fire, she climbs onto her bench (she has her own) and stares into the flames. Sitting by the fire with our cat is bliss.