A delicious Thai chicken soup, with rice and mushrooms, all in a lightly creamy Thai flavoured red curry broth. A deliciously different chicken and rice soup!
Why you’ll love this Wicked Thai Chicken Soup
- This Thai chicken soup is chock full of flavour, with the wonderful Thai flavours of red curry paste, fish sauce, lemongrass and coconut milk.
- Thai soup with chicken and rice means this soup is also hearty enough to satisfy as a dinner soup.
- Customize this Thai chicken soup recipe to your own taste preferences, making it as wicked (or not) as you like!
Key Ingredients and Substitutions
Chicken – I generally use boneless chicken breasts, though boneless skinless chicken thighs are fine here, too. If you happen to have left-over cooked chicken, you can certainly use that and skip the step of cooking the chicken ahead. Finally, make is super easy by using shredded rotisserie chicken.
Mushrooms – Regular white or cremini mushrooms are best here.
Red Bell Pepper – use fresh bell pepper if you have it. Jarred roasted red peppers will also work here.
Fish Sauce – Ideal if you have it. If you don’t have fish sauce, you can substitute soy sauce.
Worcestershire Sauce – again, ideal if you have it. If not, simply omit.
Lemongrass Paste – look for this in a tube, generally in the produce section. You can also use lemongrass stalks, if you have easy access to them. While the flavour is a lovely addition, you can omit.
Half and Half Cream – this is 10% b.f. cream. You can substitute milk, but your soup will be less creamy. For a non-dairy soup, replace the cream with more coconut milk.
Coconut Milk – I like to use regular coconut milk for the creaminess and thickness, but lite will work here as well.
Thai Red Curry Paste – I prefer red curry paste in this soup. If you only have green or yellow, you can use, though the flavour profile will be a bit different.
Sambal Oelek – this is the spicy Asian Chili sauce that is largely responsible for the “Wicked” part of this soup. It packs a punch, so use to taste or omit if you don’t want any heat. Asian Chili Garlic Sauce is a good substitute or even Sriracha.
Rice – any cooked rice is fine here, but I find classic long-grain rice tends to work best. Basmati or Jasmine should also work well.
For thickening the soup – cornstarch or arrowroot starch, mixed with cold water.
Cook’s Notes
- One important note about this soup! You don’t want to combine the soup with the rice until right before you will be eating it. If you’re cooking rice at the same time you are making the soup, simply spoon some warm rice into a bowl and spoon the hot soup overtop. If you are starting with leftover rice, simply warm slightly before adding to bowl and spooning the hot soup over top.
- Likewise, if you have leftover soup and rice, refrigerate separately. To reheat, you can add the rice to the soup to reheat, as long as you will be consuming right away.
- The reason for this? The rice soaks up the soup as it sits, quickly resulting in a bowl of rice instead of a bowl of soup.
- Start with leftover cooked chicken (or chicken from a rotisserie chicken) and/or leftover cooked rice to make this soup even more quickly!
Top Tip!
Change it Up! Use Asian rice noodles instead of rice. Simply soak or cook any Asian rice noodle and add some to the bowl before spooning over the hot soup.
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Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons cooking oil, such as vegetable or canola oil
- 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 medium red bell pepper, cored and seeded then sliced into thin 2-inch strips
- 8 oz mushrooms, white or cremini recommended
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 6 oz chicken breast, diced or cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon lemongrass paste, or 1-2 stalks lemongrass, optional
- 1 cup half and half (10%) cream, or use 1 cup more coconut milk instead
- 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1 small can or if using a large can stir coconut milk first, then measure out
- 2 teaspoons red curry paste
- 1 teaspoon Sambal Oelek chili paste, or Asian Garlic Chili Paste/Sriracha
- 3 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
To finish soup:
- 2 cups cooked rice, long grain white, basmati or brown rice or try a mix of long grain with wild rice for some added texture
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
For garnish:
- Fresh cilantro, parsley or basil, chopped
- Lime wedges, for drizzling
Instructions
- Make this soup as Wicked (or not), as you like! If you love bold flavours, go ahead and add more of the lemongrass, curry paste and Sambal etc., to your taste preference. If you don't want any heat, simply omit the Sambal altogether. Don't forget to taste and add salt at the end of cooking, as needed, to really bring out all the great flavours.
- Start the rice cooking. *You can cook the rice ahead and refrigerate or you can use left-over cooked rice.
- Heat a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp. oil. When hot, add mushrooms and cook until golden and tender. Remove to a plate. In the same pot, add another 1 Tbsp. oil and heat. Add the chicken and cook, stirring, until no longer pink. Remove chicken to the plate with the mushrooms. Add a splash more oil, if needed. Add the onion and red pepper, and cook, stirring, just until softened. Return the mushrooms and chicken to the pot. Add the broth and heat through. Add the fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce and lemongrass paste (if using) and simmer 5 minutes. Add cream and coconut milk, turn heat to low, then cover and simmer 2 minutes.
- In a small bowl, combine curry paste, Sambal Oelek, tomato paste and cornstarch and mix until incorporated. Stir into soup until combined and heat until soup simmers, thickens slightly and has a velvety appearance. Taste the soup and season with salt and pepper, as needed.
- To serve, spoon some hot rice into a bowl, then spoon hot soup over-top. Serve immediately garnished with cilantro, parsley or basil leaves and lime wedges to add a drizzle of fresh lime juice to the soup.
- Store any leftover rice and soup separately, as the rice will soak up all the soup broth if store together.
Notes
More Thai Soup Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Have you ever used all coconut milk to make it dairy free?
I haven’t Shelley, but I think it would be fine to use all coconut milk. A little more coconut-y, but no doubt still good :)
How important is the fish sauce? I can only find it in giant bottles and when you only use such a small amount I’m afraid the rest would get wasted or stay in my fridge forever
Hi Jen, it’s not a deal breaker :) It adds a flavour note, but the soup will still be good without it.
Hi Jen, I’d say try to get the fish sauce- not sure what country your in but I can find small ones in Safeway, no frills, and Walmart.
I also use it to make pad Thai, lettuce wraps, chilis and many more! It adds such an amazing taste.
Made a double batch of this today. Delicious. Don’t be afraid to add more veggies – makes the soup last longer. Followed recipe as is and it’s great. ‘Restaurant quality!’ – my husband
So glad you are enjoying it! Thanks so much :)
This is really good! It reminds me of a similar soup from a coffee shop by my house.
I added more thai curry and a little more sambal because I’m a bit of a heat-seeker. I also used re-constituted dried shiitakes that I blend up into a paste because I’m not a big fan of mushroom texture.
Great soup! It doesn’t last me very long at all!
So glad you enjoyed it, Matt! Thanks so much :)
Instead of rice could I sub cauliflower rice?
Hi Judy, First, I should say I have exactly zero experience with cauliflower rice, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Again, no experience trying this, but I feel like you could cook it to tender in the soup or you could cook separately and add in at the end, similar to how the regular rice is added. And while the rice soaks up the broth in leftovers, I suspect the cauliflower would kind of melt into the soup, changing the texture of the leftovers accordingly. Hope that helps. If you try it, let me know how you did it and how it worked out :)
Hi Jennifer,
This soup is awesomely delicious, a restaurant in Ottawa called Green Rebel make a similar one and run out of it all the time, now I can make my own. Love this recipe, I never knew I liked coconut milk…lol
How many calories per serving? I don’t know what Kcal is?
Thank you
Brenda
So glad you enjoyed it Brenda! Now that you’ve discovered coconut milk, you should try some Thai curries. Similar flavours to this soup really. And kCal is just the scientific short form for calories (or Energy from food), so whatever is listed there is the calories per serving.
This is the most amazing soup! My favourite.
So glad to hear, Shelley! Thanks :)
Cooked a double batch for the Soup Club at work today. Turned out really nice.
So glad to hear, Dale! Thanks :)
This was absolutely amazing! I wish I had doubled the recipe! I didn’t use cream. I used a can of coconut milk instead.
Glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks!
It isn’t soup weather as far as our area of Florida goes but who cares when you can enjoy a soup this good. It is always soup weather!
I’m jealous of your not-soup weather, but glad you get to enjoy soup, anyway :) Thanks!
I am wondering if this soup freezes well?
Hi Cathy, as long as you freeze the soup separate from the rice, you should be good :)
This was delicious! Subbed some sauteed ground turkey instead of the chicken and used 1 TB more of fish sauce. Everyone loved it and had seconds. Glad I made a double batch!! Thanks Jennifer. :)
Thanks Maria! So glad you enjoyed it :)
This soup looks, and sounds amazing!!! Approximately how much chicken (by oz or grams) did you use, I have thighs in the fridge, and I’m dieing to make this soup!!
Hi Linda! Somewhere around 10-oz is probably good. Doesn’t need to be exact. Just depends on how much chicken you want in your soup :)
This sounds and looks wickedly delicious!
Thanks so much, Chris :)
So up my alley Jennifer! We enjoy soup a few times a week for dinner during the fall and winter months, and we love this one! I’ve made this one before and it got rave reviews!