Monday, January 30, 2012

Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

I have been blessed (and cursed) to live a block away from a Thai food restaurant. I have them plugged into my phone and I've been known to call on my way home from a late night at the office so that the order is ready to pick up by the time I reach my condo. I have visions of me being like Cynthia Nixon's character on Sex in the City who orders Asian food and is on a first name basis with the person answering the phone.

Thai food is a cuisine I really enjoy and haven't really explored cooking until recently. Fortunately I had all the spices readily available in my pantry for this recipe and since it involved a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, this was a pretty simple dish to make. And my condo smelled like I was moonlighting for the Thai restaurant for a good day or two afterward. This makes a lot of soup but unlike a lot of recipes, not one that is easily cut in half. I opted to freeze a bunch of it, something I'm hoping was a good idea.

Coconut Curry Chicken Soup (serves 7)


Ingredients
  • 4 cups water
  • 3 cups fresh spinach leaves 
  • 1/2 pound snow peas, trimmed and cut in half crosswise
  • 1 (5 3/4-ounce) package pad thai noodles (wide rice stick noodles)
  • 1 TB canola oil 
  • 1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
  • 2 tsp red curry paste
  • 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp ground coriander
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 6 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth 
  • 1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk
  • 2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 1 pound) 
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onions
  • 2 TB sugar
  • 2 TB fish sauce
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro 
  • 4 small hot red chiles, seeded and chopped, or 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Directions

Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add spinach and peas to pan; cook for 30 seconds. Remove vegetables from pan with a slotted spoon; place in a large bowl. Add noodles to pan; cook 3 minutes. Drain; add noodles to spinach mixture in bowl.


Heat canola oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and the next 5 ingredients (through garlic) to pan; sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add chicken broth to pan, and bring to a boil. Add coconut milk to pan; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add chicken, onions, sugar, and fish sauce to pan; cook for 2 minutes. Pour chicken mixture over noodle mixture in bowl. Stir in cilantro and chiles.

    My only improvement to this would be a little more spice, perhaps more red pepper flake towards the end. Otherwise, extremely flavorful and pretty healthy to boot!

    1 comment:

    1. 3 Researches REVEAL How Coconut Oil Kills Waist Fat.

      The meaning of this is that you literally burn fat by eating coconut fats (including coconut milk, coconut cream and coconut oil).

      These 3 researches from large medicinal journals are sure to turn the traditional nutrition world upside down!

      ReplyDelete