Tom Kha Gai or Chicken Galangal soup is one of my absolute favorite dishes. Contrasting is spicy cousin Tom Yum, Tom Kha It is a mild Thai soup. It’s a comfort food for me and always gives me happy thoughts and brings me fond memories of our time in Thailand. First Let me explain the Thai name for this dish: Tom means boil, Kha means galangal (a ginger like root popular in many SE Asian food), and Gai means chicken. As the name suggests, galangal is a main ingredient of this dish. If you want your soup to taste authentic, and I cannot stress this more, galangal cannot be substituted. Although resembling ginger, galangal tastes and smells nothing like it. In fact, it cannot be compared to any other known ingredient. It has a white colouration (ginger is a darker yellow) and when young and fresh, has a pinkish tint near the shoots. Two other ingredients are essential for the soup: lemon grass and kafir lime leaves. Kafir lime leaves can be distinguished from other citrus leaves by their distinctive double-leaf or hourglass-shaped leaves. These 3 ingredients, along with coconut milk, form the base of the soup. I will further explain ingredients and their importance when outlining the method. The soup is usually served with steamed Jasmin rice.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 large stalk lemongrass bruised (white portion only)
• 5 kafir lime leaves (fresh or dried) ripped
• 10 slices galangal
• 1 pack 250ml coconut cream or 1 400 ml can coconut milk + 1- 1 ½ liters water
• 1 pack oyster Mushrooms (or any white mushroom or straw mushrooms)
• 2 Thai red chilis (or according to taste)
• Fish sauce
• Lime juice
• Palm sugar.
• Coriander leaves for garnish
• Cooked Thai jasmine rice to serve

Method

• Step 1 prepare the chicken: cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Add ½ tsp fish sauce and leave to marinate while you continue working with the rest of the ingredients.
• Step 2 prepare the soup base. Place the galangal, kafir lime leaves, lemongrass, coconut milk and water into a pot. Gently bring to a boil. Continue boiling till the aroma of the ingredients are released.
• Step 3 adding ingredients: Add the marinated chicken and cook for about 10 mins till the chicken is cooked. Now add the mushrooms and the chilis. If you want to have a spicier soup, add the chilies earlier. The longer they cook, the spicier the soup will be. If you want a less spicy version, add it at the end of the cook. Cook for a few minutes and switch off the heat.
• Step 4 seasoning. This is the most important step in the process, and one many people do not get right. The taste of Thai food fully depends on balancing 3 main tastes. Sweet, salt, and sour. Your sweet comes from the palm sugar, salt will come from the fish sauce, and Sour is from the lime juice. Notice I didn’t mention the quantities of each of these in the ingredients list? That’s because it’s really up to personal taste. But as a guide to begin with, I suggest 3 Tbsp of fish sauce, 1 ½ Tbsp  Lime juice and ½ Tbsp Palm sugar. Keep tasting the soup and balance the 3 tastes.
• Step 5 garnish and serve. Garnish the soup with fresh coriander leaf and serve with steamed Jasmin rice.

Tom Kha Gai is a comfort food. The spice level should be comfortable so feel free to increase or decrease the number of chilis or their cooking time. The soup can be kept the refrigerator for a few days, and you might even find the flavour improving during storage. Many of the ingredients used in the recipe can stored in the freezer. Lemon grass, galangal, kafir lime leaves, and even Thai chilis can be frozen for subsequent use.

Tips for making authentic Tom Kha Gai

• Buy good quality fish sauce. When buying fish sauce, make sure you get a brand that is made in Thailand. Some countries make their sauce with a stronger odour that can be off putting. I find the Thai brands that are produced for export have a much more appealing smell.
• Do not substitute for palm sugar. In Thailand, palm sugar is made from the coconut inflorescence, and are usually sold as cakes or in containers.
• Use lime juice. As much as possible use fresh or even bottled lime juice and not any other citrus variety.

Bonus info!
According to some sources, the word "kaffir" comes from  the "Kaffirs", an ethnic group in Sri Lanka who are descendants of the enslaved Bantu people from Africa.