Thursday, November 29, 2012

Thai Whole Chicken Soup

Here's one that I'd been gathering ingredients for for a while but didn't know what I was making.

1) boiled a small whole chicken in about 2 litres of chicken stock with shallots and garlic for 1.25hrs.
Sieved the resulting broth and scooped some oil off the top. separated the meat from the bones and garbage and put back with sieved liquid. discarded everything else.

2) added 2 lrge lemongrass stalks, 4 kaffir leaves, 2 chilis, and a large piece of grated galangal, brought to boil then turned down and added 4 tbsp fish sauce, 1 can coconut milk, and a bunch of sugar snap peas.
turned down some more and added the juice of half a lime, and some sugar and cayenne pepper to taste.
garnished with coriander and basil leaves.
served with wholegrain noodles.

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take 2.
didn't put the chicken meat straight back in as it got too shredded from being boiled about. left it to last step when adding lime juice.
didn't use store bought coconut milk, used my own homemade coconut milk, much more delicate and not overwhelming at all, also a bit more coconuty taste.
consequently needed less fish sauce and no cayenne pepper, but added 3 dried chillis and a whole lime.