Thai inspired Chicken/Prawn Coconut soup

…and do not let yourself be intimidated by the long list of ingredients…

I hardly know how to title this recipe as I you can put pretty much anything you want into this soup. The other day I cooked up left over chicken – carcass and everything, leaving me a great broth, a cleaned carcass and this time I had 300 grams of meat. Cooking whatever is left of a chicken (thighs, wings, breast…anything) together with the carcass leaves you with an amazing soup base. AND if there is the slightest meat left on the carcass from your primary meal (which I presume must be the case), this meat will come off the carcass super easily. Given we are a family of five, I added a few prawns to the soup as well. You can cook it the day before or in the morning for later use. The only downside is, you do have to cook it it for a minimum or 1 hour 30 min. Last time I let mine cook for 2 1/2 hours.

Generally, as said, you can add anything you want…vegetables, chicken, beef, fish, prawns etc. My chicken/prawn version is as follows:

Ingredients

The left overs of a whole chicken including the carcass

2 l. water

1 whole red chili

2 small/medium sized halved onions

1 tbsp coconut oil (if this is not available, use rape seed oil or sunflower oil)

1/2 super finely chopped lemon grass

2 cloves minced garlic

2 tbsp red curry paste

1 finely diced red capsicum

1 cm super finely chopped fresh ginger

super finely chopped stalks of a handful cilantro

1 can of coconut milk (preferably full fat)

7 softened shiitake mushrooms

3 kefir lime leaves

Juice of 1/2 lime

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp brown sugar

300 grams +/- chicken

10 large rinsed and deveined prawns

2 handfuls baby spinach

150 g (+/-) bean sprouts

2 finely sliced spring onions (including green top)

2 handfuls of very roughly chopped cilantro leaves

200 g vermicelli rice noodles

Method:

A day in advance, in the morning or if you have a few hours before dinner: Take your chicken – everything! – and add it to a pot of boiling water (2 literes). Add the whole red chili and halved onions. Cook for at least 1 h 1/2. If you have more time you can easily let it simmer for longer. When finished, take out the chicken and clean the carcass. The meat will come off super easily. Likewise with any thighs, wings or other bones. Use the meat as filling and the soup as the base of the coconut soup.

Coconut soup:

Finely chop the lemon grass, ginger, stems of celantro and mince the garlic. Finely dice the bell pepper and slice the shiitake mushrooms.

Add a good tbsp. of coconut oil to a wok (or if you don’t have a wok, a large pot with a broad base will do). Add lemon grass, ginger, stems of cilantro and garlic and fry for another few minutes. Add the red curry paste and fry for another 5 minutes.

Add 1 l. of your cooked chicken soup/broth, 1 can coconut milk, kefir lime leaves, bell pepper, shiitake mushrooms, juice of 1/2 lime, fish sauce, brown sugar and stir well while bringing to a boil. Let it simmer for approximately 5 minutes. Add the shredded/diced chicken meat together with cleaned and deveined prawns and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the spinach last minute as this just needs enough heat to wilt.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, place the dried vermicelli and cover with boiling water. Let it sit until soft (approximately 10 minutes) and drain.

Assembly:

Place 4 or 5 soup bowls on the table. Add vermicelli to each bowl. Poor over the soup. Top it off with bean sprouts, cilantro, spring onion and perhaps a small lime wedge.

Absolutely delicious! AND do not fear and be intimidated by the long list of ingredients. Just start with the chicken, do the chopping and then have your ingredients ready by the wok/pot.