Panning The Globe

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Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

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

 Adapted from Cooking Light
This creamy, fragrant Thai coconut curry chicken soup has spinach and rice noodles and everything you want for dinner, all in one pot! [gluten-free and dairy-free]

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.

And it’s really quick to make. If you already have leftover chicken on hand, you can get dinner on the table in about ten minutes. If you cook the chicken and shred it, the whole recipe will take you about 45 minutes. 

This creamy, fragrant, DELICIOUS Thai coconut curry chicken soup has spinach and rice noodles and everything you want for dinner, all in one pot!I adapted the recipe from Cooking Light. It’s a fabulous recipe. 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 or shredded carrots or 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.

This creamy, fragrant Thai coconut curry chicken soup has spinach and rice noodles and everything you want for dinner, all in one pot! [gluten-free and dairy-free]

We enjoyed this as a weeknight dinner and then I had it the next day (reheated in the microwave) for lunch. What’s great is that rice noodles don’t disintegrate in the soup the way egg noodles or pasta do, so leftovers are top notch.

This creamy, fragrant Thai coconut curry chicken soup has spinach and rice noodles and everything you want for dinner, all in one pot! [gluten-free and dairy-free]

Here are More Delicious Thai Recipes From Panning The Globe

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

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Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

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

★★★★★

4.7 from 3 reviews

A delicious chicken soup packed with enough chicken, spinach and rice noodles to make a whole tasty meal.

  • Author: Panning The Globe, adapted from Cooking Light
  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 35 mins
  • Total Time: 45 mins
  • Yield: 4-5
  • Category: lunch or dinner
  • Cuisine: Thai

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts (or 2 1/2 cups of shredded 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
  • 1/3 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 1/2 teaspoons curry powder (I use Madras Curry Powder)
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1/2 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
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
  • 4 small hot red chiles, seeded and chopped (or substitute 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper)
  • 1 lime, cut into 8 wedges

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. Set aside.
  2. Wilt the Spinach and Cook the Noodles: While the chicken is roasting you can get everything else ready. Fill a medium sized saucepan halfway with water and bring to a boil. Drop spinach in and leave it to wilt for about 30 seconds. Transfer spinach to a bowl using a slotted spoon. Add rice noodles to the pot and cook them for 3 minutes. Drain noodles and add them to the bowl with the spinach.
  3. Make the Soup: Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large heave pot or dutch oven. Add shallots, curry paste, garlic, curry powder, turmeric and coriander. Cook, stirring constantly, for a minute. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add coconut milk and turn heat to low. Simmer the soup for 5 minutes. Add shredded chicken, green onions, sugar and fish sauce. 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.

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Would you happen to know the nutritional value of this sumptuous recipe?? My husband and I absolutely LOVE Thai food and have it at least once a week. I am currently following Weight Watchers (perhaps from all that Thai food we are eating….LOL) and it is just so hard to figure out the point value (nutritional value) of their food. It is not as popular as Chinese or Italian, so there are not that many items listed in their data base. Thank you and I hope to be able to slurp this deliciousness down this weekend!

    Reply

    • Hi Kristine, here’s the nutritional info. A serving is 2 cups: Calories 315, Calories from fat 22 %, Fat 7.8 g, Sat fat 3.7 g, Mono fat 2.2 g, Poly fat 1.3 g, Protein 29.3 g, Carbohydrate 30.9 g, Fiber 2.4 g, Cholesterol 62 mg, Iron 3.2 mg, Sodium 841 mg. Calcium 78 mg. I hope it fits in with your diet plan!

      Reply

  4. This soup is AMAZING. It was easy to make and super flavorful. I followed Lisa’a recipe exactly as posted. The only modification I made was to the chicken. Instead of roasting in the oven I cut the raw chicken into strips and seasoned them with salt, pepper, 1 TBS Olive Oil and 2 tsp of Madras Curry powder. I let it sit for 30 minutes then I seared them for 8 minutes each side in a TBS Olive Oil until cooked through. I set them aside and then served the soup with the chicken pieces on top of the noodles and vegetables.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  5. Substitute tofu strips that have been lightly browned for the chicken and eliminate the fish sauce to make this vegetarian and vegan friendly.

    Reply

  6. Thai Chicken Soup- for a soup that takes about 15 Minutes to make I would give it two thumbs up. It had great flavor and one out of my two kids …

    Reply

  15. This soup is AMAZING. It was easy to make and super flavorful. I followed Lisa’a recipe exactly as posted. The only modification I made was to the chicken. Instead of roasting in the oven I cut the raw chicken into strips and seasoned them with salt, pepper, 1 TBS Olive Oil and 2 tsp of Madras Curry powder. I let it sit for 30 minutes then I seared them for 8 minutes each side in a TBS Olive Oil until cooked through. I set them aside and then served the soup with the chicken pieces on top of the noodles and vegetables.

    i will try at home. thank you

    Reply

  17. This soup is AMAZING. It was easy to make and super flavorful. I followed Lisa’a recipe exactly as posted. The only modification I made was to the chicken. Instead of roasting in the oven I cut the raw chicken into strips and seasoned them with salt, pepper, 1 TBS Olive Oil and 2 tsp of Madras Curry powder. I let it sit for 30 minutes then I seared them for 8 minutes each side in a TBS Olive Oil until cooked through. I set them aside and then served the soup with the chicken pieces on top of the noodles and vegetables.

    i will try at home. thank you

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  18. This soup is AMAZING. It was easy to make and super flavorful. I followed Lisa’a recipe exactly as posted. The only modification I made was to the chicken. Instead of roasting in the oven I cut the raw chicken into strips and seasoned them with salt, pepper, 1 TBS Olive Oil and 2 tsp of Madras Curry powder. I let it sit for 30 minutes then

    Reply

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