Weekend Plans Post: Thai-Style Coconut Chicken Soup

Called up one of my dear friends that had to miss gaming group a couple of times to check up on him and he told me “I have the ‘vid.” “Oh no!”, I yelled. “Do you need anything?”

“No, no.” He said.

“Chicken soup?”, I asked.

“CHICKEN SOUP!”

Last weekend, I busted out the crock pot and this wonderful little book right here:

Maribou asked me to make her the Thai-Style Coconut Chicken Soup. But make it without onion, please. Oh, and only half as many mushrooms.

Okay, fine. Oh, yeah. People always complain about the long preambles before getting to the recipe so here’s the recipe:

Thai Style Coconut-Chicken Soup

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs rinsed and cut into 3/4 inch pieces
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups bias-sliced carrots
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks lemongrass, cut into 1-inch pieces or 1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 15 ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
1 medium red, yellow, and/or green sweet pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 4-ounce cans straw or button mushrooms, drained
1/4 cup snipped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup chopped roasted peanuts

1. In a 5 quart slow cooker, combine the chicken, broth, carrots, onion, ginger, garlic, lemongrass or lemon peel, and crushed red pepper.
2. Cover, cook on low heat for 6-7 hours or on high heat for 3-3 1/2 hours. If necessary, skim off fat. Stir coconut milk, sweet pepper, mushrooms, and cilantro into chicken mixture. Cover. Let stand for 5-10 minutes. Remove and discard lemongrass (if using). Ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle peanuts over each serving.

—–

Okay.

That’s not how we did it. For one thing, my grocery store doesn’t sell 1 pound packs of chicken thighs. So I used 2 pounds. For Maribou’s batch, I did it without the onion entirely and only used one can of mushrooms. On top of that, instead of chicken broth, I used 2 tablespoons of Roast Chicken Better Than Boullion and four cups of water. But, other than that, I followed the recipe. And it was very good! Maribou thought that the garlic/ginger ratio was off by a little bit… next time she wanted me to do only 2 cloves of garlic and do 3 tablespoons of ginger. She also said that the amount of spice was *PERFECT* for Maribous. (Note: Maribou is from Canada.)

So when my buddy said “I am sick”, I immediately thought “This Man Needs Chicken Soup”. And, this time, I remembered to get pictures. It’s quick and easy to make. You make it in two different sections and the 2nd one takes longer than the first one.

Anyway, here’s how I did it for my buddy. I got my chicken:

And I chopped it up.

Threw it into the (lightly cooking sprayed) crockpot with some carrots and some broth.

Then I got together the onion and the spices. Instead of 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper, I tripled it and went for a 1/2 tablespoon of crushed red pepper. My man’s sinuses need evacuating.

Threw everything but the ginger in there and then got out my grater.

NOTE: WHEN YOU USE YOUR GRATER FOR GINGER, USE THE “FINELY SHRED” SIDE!!!! THAT’S THIS ONE RIGHT HERE:

The first time I made the soup, I used the “finely grate” side and it’s all gunked up. I’ve hand-washed it four times and it’s still a little clogged. I think I have to pick up some nutmeg seeds and just go to town to clean it. So don’t use this side here:

Okay. I made two tablespoons of chopped ginger:

And threw them in the pot:

Then I put on the lid and put it in the fridge overnight.

The next morning, woke up early and put it on low and slow:

Then I waited. And I waited.

Okay. When it was done, I dumped in my button mushrooms:

Chopped up my three traffic light peppers into good sized chunks:

And tossed them in:

Ripped off some cilantro off my bunch of it:

And did a nice rolling chop and tossed it into the pot:

Then I just had to add a can and a half of the coconut milk:

And give it a stir:

And then I took it over to his place and left it on his porch. ZERO CONTACT.

Get well soon.

And the soup is good enough that I think that you should make some of it. I’d recommend at least doubling the red pepper and Maribou would recommend changing the ratio of garlic to ginger.

But this is a fine soup and I think it will treat you and your family well.

This weekend begins for me on Thursday night… and it continues into next year. We’re going over to my Mom’s on Sunday night and my Sister’s at Monday noon. And the weekend up to that point will be doing prep for that. I’ve got to pick up some Cold Stone for Monday, for example. But we have Elf sorted for Sunday night and, heck. The only thing we need to hammer down at this point is whether the cats are old enough to appreciate getting a special usually-only-on-Friday-night packet for Christmas morning or if that would change their baseline for what they think is possible.

As such… Hey. Happy Holidays, Happy Hannukah, and Merry Christmas from us here in Colorado Springs to wherever you happen to be. I hope it’s a good one.

So… what’s on your docket?