Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

This creamy, fragrant Thai coconut curry chicken soup has spinach, rice noodles, shredded chicken and everything you want for dinner all in one pot.

Thai food is always a happy meal in my house. The nature of the cuisine is to excite every tastebud with its beautiful balance of essential flavors: sweet, sour, spicy, salty, bitter. I love excitement on the dinner table and this soup has it all - it's colorful, delicious, healthy, and a whole balanced dinner in one pot.

This flavor-packed Thai chicken soup is easy enough to throw together on a weeknight.  If you have leftover chicken on hand, you can get dinner on the table in about thirty minutes. If you're starting with raw chicken, the whole recipe will take you about 45 minutes.

I adapted the recipe from a fabulous recipe in Cooking Light magazine. I made just a few tweaks: I amped up the curry paste, shallots and garlic a bit because I wanted more intense flavors, and I doubled the amount of spinach and omitted the snow peas because I'm big fan of spinach in soup. The more the better.

Feel free to add a couple of handfuls of snow peas, shredded carrots, bok choy, or any other vegetables that you like. This is a very adaptable recipe. Blanch the vegetables for a minute or so in boiling water and then add them to the soup for the last two minutes of cooking time.

How to make Thai coconut curry chicken soup

Here's an overview of the recipe:

1. Cook and Shred Chicken: Roast boneless chicken breasts (or thighs) for 30 minutes in a 350ºF oven; or poach the chicken. Then shred or cube the chicken.
2. Wilt the Spinach and Soften the Noodles: Blanch spinach in boiling water for 30 seconds. Soften rice noodles in boiling water for 3 minutes. 
3. Make the Soup: Sauté shallots, curry paste, garlic and spices: curry powder, turmeric and coriander. Add chicken broth and coconut milk and simmer for 5 minutes. Add shredded chicken, scallions, sugar and fish sauce, spinach, noodles, cilantro and chilies. Simmer for a few minutes and done!
4. Serve: Serve the soup in bowls with a lime wedge on the side.

This Thai chicken soup makes a wonderful weeknight dinner and a delicious lunch the next day, reheated in the microwave. What's great is that rice noodles don't disintegrate in soup the way pasta does, so leftovers are top notch.

Other Delicious Thai Recipes From Panning The Globe

• Quick Thai Beef Bok Choy Rice bowl
• Thai Steak and Noodle Salad
• Thai Steamed Fish in Coconut Sauce
• Thai Green Curry Chicken with Snow Peas

Here's the recipe for Thai Coconut Curry Chicken Soup. I hope you have a great day, and please come back to leave a star rating and a comment and chat with me about this soup if you make it. I would love to know what you think!

Thai Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

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★★★★★

5 from 5 reviews

• Author: Lisa
• Total Time: 45 mins
• Yield: 4-5 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Adapted from a Cooking Light  recipe.

A quick curried chicken soup recipe, packed with flavor and enough chicken, spinach and rice noodles to make a whole meal.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts (or 2 ½ cups of shredded poached chicken or leftover cooked chicken)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 8 ounces fresh spinach leaves (6 cups)
• 6 ounces of wide rice noodles (I use A Taste of Thai)
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• ⅓ cup thinly sliced shallots (1 large shallot)
• 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste (I use Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste)
• 1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 1 ½ teaspoons curry powder (I use Madras Curry Powder)
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• 6 cups low-salt chicken broth
• 1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced crosswise
• 2 tablespoons sugar (I used white but brown is ok too)
• 2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 4 small hot red chiles, seeded and chopped (or substitute ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper)
• 1 lime, cut into 8 wedges

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Instructions

1. Cook and Shred Chicken: Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spread chicken out in a roasting pan. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with a little salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes. Shred or cut into bite sized pieces. If you prefer, you can poach the chicken.
2. Wilt the Spinach and Cook the Noodles: While the chicken is roasting you can get everything else ready. Fill a large pot halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add spinach, boil it for 30 seconds and transfer it to a bowl using a slotted spoon. Add the rice noodles to the pot, cook them for 3 minutes, drain them and add them to the bowl with the spinach.
3. Make the Soup: Heat canola oil (1 tablespoon) over medium-high heat in a large heavy pot. Add shallots, curry paste (2 tablespoons), garlic (heaping tablespoon), curry powder (1 ½ teaspoons), turmeric (½ teaspoon) and coriander (½ teaspoon). Cook, stirring constantly, for a minute. Add chicken broth (6 cups) and bring to a boil. Add coconut milk and turn the heat to low. Simmer the soup for 5 minutes. Add shredded chicken, green onions, sugar (2 tablespoons) and fish sauce (2 tablespoons). Simmer for 2 minutes. Add spinach, noodles, cilantro and chilies. Stir to combine and cook for a minute or so, to heat through.
4. To Serve: Serve in bowls with a lime wedge on the side.

• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins
• Category: Soup
• Method: simmer
• Cuisine: Thai

Keywords: Thai chicken soup, Coconut curry chicken soup, Thai chicken noodle soup