Thai Spicy Chicken soup

2 stalks fresh lemongrass
1.5 liters homemade chicken stock, or store bought fresh stock
2tbsp coarsely chopped fresh galangal root, or ginger
6 fresh Kaffir lime leaves, shredded, or 2Tbsp lime zest
225g boneless, skinless chicken thighs, or 450g unboned thighs
3tbsp finely slice shallots
3tbsp fish sauce, or light soy sauce
2tbsp lime juice
1tbsp sugar
2 small red or green thai chilies, seeded and finely chopped
handful of fresh coriander leaves

Peel the lemongrass stalks to the tender whitish center and crush with the flat of a knife. Then cut into 3 inch pieces. In a large pot, combine the lemongrass, stock, galangal, and lime leaves, then cover and simmer gently for 1 hour 20 minutes. Strain the liquid and discard the lemongrass, galangal, and lime leaves. Return the liquid to the pot.
If you are using unboned thighs, remove the skin and bones, and cut into 1 inch chunks. Add the chicken to the soup together with the shallots, fish sauce, lime juice and sugar and simmer for 25 min. Stir in the chillies and coriander, turn into a large tureen and serve at once.

This is another Ken Hom recipe.

This is not terribly quick because you need to infuse all the flavors into the stock, but that’s not a terribly big effort either. If you are going to be around for a couple of hours, this is the kind of recipe that you can manage while doing whatever else you need to be doing. Put some stuff in a pot, go about your business, put some more stuff in a pot, finish whatever you were doing. Easy.

It’s really good too. Very fresh and lite. It’s a nice change from traditional western chicken soup.