Soup · Thailand
Tom kha gai
Thai chicken soup in coconut milk, soured with lime.
About the dish
Tom kha gai is a Thai chicken soup in coconut milk. The name says how it is made: tom means boiled, kha is galangal, a firm, peppery rhizome related to ginger, and gai is chicken. Compared with tom yum, its hot and sour sibling, it is milder and creamier.
Coconut milk, often thinned with stock, is simmered with slices of galangal, bruised stalks of lemongrass and torn makrut lime leaves until fragrant. Sliced chicken and mushrooms cook in it gently, because a hard boil can make coconut milk split. Fish sauce brings the salt and savory notes, lime juice the sour, a few crushed chilies the heat, and some cooks add a pinch of palm sugar. The lime juice usually goes in off the heat so it stays fresh.
The finished soup is rich and tart at once, with the citrus perfume of the lime leaves over everything. The galangal, lemongrass and lime leaves are left in the bowl for their aroma but are too tough to eat, so diners push them aside. Cilantro on top is common.
Written from general cooking knowledge, as background on a dish from the game’s recipe book. It is not a tested recipe.
The flavors it leans on
Tom kha gai in Night Kitchen
In the game, Tom kha gai is a soup in the recipe book. A plate is named Tom kha gai when it holds these cards and is cooked with exactly this technique, with at most one extra ingredient.
Ingredients
- Chicken thighs
- Coconut milk
- Lime
Technique
- Simmer
How those cards taste
Cooked from just these cards for an average ticket, before tonight’s mood and quirks, it would please Odile (2 stars) most.
More soups
- French onion soupFranceOnions cooked down until mahogany, simmered in stock, under a lid of bread and melted Gruyère.
- New England clam chowderNew England, United StatesClams, potatoes and onion in a creamy broth, the white chowder of the New England coast.
- Miso soupJapanMiso stirred into hot broth with soft tofu and scallions.
- GazpachoAndalusia, southern SpainCold Andalusian soup of raw tomatoes and cucumber, sharpened with vinegar.
- AvgolemonoGreeceGreek chicken soup thickened with egg and lemon.
- PhoNorthern VietnamVietnamese beef and rice noodle soup, its broth built on charred ginger and warm spices.
- CongeeChina and across East and Southeast AsiaRice simmered until it breaks down into a silky porridge, with ginger and scallions.