Coconut Chicken Soup
My friend Rebecca has been raving about this Coconut Chicken Soup for years. I couldn’t take it any longer. Friends don’t let friends describe delicious food without inviting themselves to dinner, so naturally I suggested she make it for me. Last month, she did just that.
I ate one bowl and decided she was definitely onto something. Then I ate a second bowl just to be sure. My husband was equally as thorough in his taste testing. Instead of dropping by for dinner each month, I decided it was time to learn how to make it myself.
This healthy soup is creamy and flavorful, thanks to the base which combines chicken broth, coconut milk, and soy sauce. You can bump the heat up or down to suit your tastes, by adjusting the amount of crushed red pepper you add. This recipe is another frugal example of how to stretch Simple Roast Chicken into another meal. Use the bones for broth and stir some of the meat into the soup. Leftovers never tasted so good.
Like most soup recipes, this one involves some chopping and a little simmering. Being the food nerd that I am, I loved working with all the different flavors and textures of these vegetables. Crispy greens, chewy mushrooms, spicy peppers. It’s all here and comes together in one delicious pot of soup. An added bonus is how incredible the garlic, ginger, and jalapeno smell while they are simmering on the stove.
I got a little carried away and chopped too many vegetables so I ended up doubling the soup recipe. Thankfully, this soup works great as leftovers or scooped into smaller serving portions and frozen for a fast lunch option.
My husband loves spicy food, so I also made a kicked-up variation of this recipe by adding some curry powder and serving it over a bed of brown rice. Both versions were delicious. This would be a simple way to stretch a big pot of soup into a completely different meal on day 2 or 3.
Coconut Chicken Soup
Ingredients
2 T. olive or coconut oil
6 garlic cloves
2” piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
5 c. chicken broth (How to Make Homemade Chicken Broth)
1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes
4 oz. shitake mushrooms, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 c. greens (chopped spinach, bok choy, and/or broccoli)
2 c. cooked chicken, cubed
1 (13.5 oz.) can of coconut milk
¼ c. soy sauce or tamari (for gluten-free)
- Heat oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, and jalapenos; sauté for 2-3 min, stirring often.
- Add chicken broth, red pepper flakes, and mushrooms. Bring to a low boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 min.
- Add red bell pepper and simmer for 5 min.
- Add greens, chicken, coconut milk, and soy sauce and simmer an additional 3-5 min, until soup is warmed through and the greens are just barely wilted.
How to Wash Leafy Greens
Greens, like chard, kale, spinach, fennel, or bok choy, can be tricky to wash because the leaves trap so much grit and dirt. Here is a fast, easy way to clean greens:
- Trim off the lower stems ends. These are often tough and split. Either discard into a compost bin or wash & use for a green juice!
- If chopping the greens, slice through the leaves lengthwise, then run your knife through the greens to create strips. Whole leaves work great with this method, too!
- Place in a large bowl and fill with cold water. This will keep crisp and clean the greens at the same time.
- Wait for a few seconds to let the dirt settle to the bottom of the bowl. Then using your hands, push the greens down into the water several times, swishing and plunging to remove all the dirt.
- Lift the greens out of the water. Don’t pour them out of the bowl or you’ll dump the dirt back on top of the greens. If you want the greens really dry, place in a salad spinner, towel, or colander until you’re ready to use.
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. With this knife, Victorinox managed to keep the price low and the quality high. I first read about this knife in a review in Cook’s Country magazine, where it beat out knives in the $100-$180 range. On Amazon, this knife has Looking for more delicious weeknight meal ideas?
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Thank you so much for sharing this. Actually making this right now for our supper before we head into Seattle proper for a concert tonight. Oh. My. The house smells amazing. It’s like some sort of Thai restaurant or something. So good. I had to pull out all the stuff the boys don’t like (onions, bell pepper, mushrooms…seriously, guys! Sigh). Added a *really* large peeled/diced sweet potato, some frozen corn, and chopped the bok choy very fine. We’ll have this over boring white rice. The little tastes I’ve been sneaking have been so good; this is going to be amazing! Thank you so much for this recipe! Budget, flavorful, and definitely not boring!
My recipe is very similar except it came about as a variation on ramen noodle soup. Sauted up some vegies, whatever I have on hand, add some water, enough to hydrate the ramen, then coconut milk and add spices. Quick, filling and tasty.
Very similar to a recipe I kept out of sunset magazine a few years ago. Original recipe used shredded chicken, they also suggested using ground turkey or chicken to make meatballs (add your chili flakes to the meatballs, add a little Chinese five spice for flavor) and brown in the pot before adding everything else). Tastes good with water chestnuts added, and we’ve sometimes added rice noodles too if we needed to stretch the soup a bit but still keep gluten free.
Wow thank you this sounds awesome and my daughter has celiac so the version with tamari sauce will be perfect. The suggestions below are all wonderful too;) Thank you!
This is the BEST. SOUP. EVER!
my word of advice is to buy the ingredients at Trader Joes as they have Baby bok choy and the Shitake mushrooms in the perfect sizes and at good prices.
but Emily, you had asked me if I changed the recipe at all and I said I didn’t, well…I lied. I forgot that I don’t do spicy heat well so I leave out the red pepper flakes and I only use one jalapeno. other than that, YES, I follow the rules exactly!
and now I see some soup in my future, your pictures are making me crave that smoky coconut flavor!
I made this tonight and really liked it!
I have been looking for a good recipe for this type of soup! I’m excited to try it! I will have to leave out the spinach however due to allergies… But I’m sure it will still be awesome. Anyone have a suggestion on a substitution?
You could try kale, collards or swiss chard?
I would just add more Bok Choy or Broccoli. The Bok Choy leaves would be the same texture though, so that might be the better choice. You will love it!
Ahhh, Rebecca said she gave you the recipe. It came from me via my Mom, via a Whole Foods pamphlet. The original name is Kickin’ Coconut Soup. And it is kickin’! The original recipe shows how to use 2 T of apple cider vinegar in 5 cups of water with the whole chicken to make the broth and cook the chicken. The ACV adds another tang to the soup and pulls more flavor from the bones. I do it this way, then remove all the chicken and cook the bones again and get more rich broth.
I also use 1 bunch of spinach, 1 sm bunch broccoli, and 4 small baby bok choy. That might total 2 cups.
And the mushrooms? Don’t leave them out! They add a rich smokiness to the soup. This is definitely one of my favorite soups and I hope everyone enjoys. Thanks for sharing Emily!
Yes, that’s the one! Since I already covered the steps of making homemade broth, I decided to simplify the original recipe to use that broth (or store bought) and leftover chicken.
And the amount of greens originally called for gave me around 6 cups! Hence, the reason I had to double all the other ingredients. I guess I have a different definition of “small” so I bumped it down to 2 cups so the greens don’t overpower everything else.
Totally agree! And using regular size bok choy would definitely make a “mess of greens”. I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
Appreciate the tip on cleaning greens! This will save me a lot of time-I eat them frequently & so far have been laboriously washing each leaf!
This looks like a great idea 🙂
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