Our Thai inspired red curry chicken soup is a hearty comforting chicken soup recipe that's packed with flavor from fresh lime, lemon grass, minced ginger, and coconut milk. It's low carb, high protein, and dairy-free too.
Our Thai Coconut Soup is Amazing
Our Thai-inspired coconut chicken soup is cozy, creamy, and packed with bold flavors—thanks to a touch red curry paste, coconut milk, and plenty of fresh lime. It’s our twist on the traditional Tom Kha Gai (Thai coconut chicken soup), but we made it easier with simple grocery store ingredients and a touch of heat.
As written, our red curry chicken soup is high protein, low carb, dairy free, and keto friendly. This is an easy soup to change the type of protein (like using shrimp instead of chicken) changing the veggies or curry flavor to yellow or green.
Love high protein chicken soups? We think you'll want to add our chicken noodle no noodle soup, high protein chicken taco soup, and our Latin inspired chicken and sweet potato soup to your meal rotations.
Ingredient Notes
- chicken breast - we used boneless skinless chicken breasts
- mushrooms- shitake, crimini, button, or a mix works well
- coconut milk - this is the canned coconut milk, NOT coconut beverage.
- coconut oil
- chicken broth
- red onion
- lime - fresh is always best, please don't use a lime concentrate
- lemon grass- you can find it with the fresh herbs at many grocery stores or in the fresh Asian section.
- Thai curry paste - we used red, green would be a good substitute, or you could even skip it if you're going for more of a traditional tom kha gai recipe.
- fish sauce - read the labels to make sure it's gluten free, if that's of concern
- ginger - we love frozen minced ginger from Trader Joes, mincing fresh works well too. Just peel the root before mincing.
- sweetener- we used monk fruit to keep it low carb and sugar free, you can also use honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar
- basics - salt, pepper, minced garlic
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Prep the ingredients
Chop all your vegetables, slice the mushrooms, and dice the chicken before you start—this soup comes together fast. Be sure to smash the lemongrass with a kitchen mallet to help release its flavor.
Step 2: Sauté the aromatics
In a large pot over medium heat, warm the coconut oil. Add the onions, garlic, ginger, red curry paste, and lemongrass. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the onions are soft and fragrant.
Step 3: Add broth and bring to a boil
Turn the heat to medium-high, pour in the chicken broth, and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat back to medium.
Step 4: Simmer with coconut milk, chicken, and mushrooms
Stir in the coconut milk, coconut cream, raw chicken, and mushrooms. Let it simmer for 6–7 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
Step 5: Add the finishing touches
Turn off the heat and stir in the fish sauce, fresh lime juice, and a little sweetener. Remove the lemongrass before serving.
Step 6: Garnish and serve
Top with fresh cilantro, Thai basil, lime slices, or sliced chili peppers for an extra pop of flavor and color.
Recipe Tips
- Adjust the spice to your taste. Prefer a milder soup? Start with less red curry paste. Love the heat? Feel free to add more—it’s easy to customize.
- Coconut cream = extra richness. We use both full-fat coconut milk and a bit of coconut cream to make the broth extra creamy and flavorful. If you're looking to cut back on fat, you can skip the coconut cream. Can’t find it at the store? Just grab two cans of coconut milk—chill one, and scoop the hardened cream from the top. That’s essentially the same thing.
- Easy to customize. This soup is super flexible. You can swap the veggies or use a different protein, like shrimp or tofu, as long as you’ve got the basic Thai ingredients on hand.
- Using pre-cooked chicken? Add it at the very end of cooking and let it warm through for just 2–3 minutes so it doesn’t dry out.
Common Questions
Can This Soup be Frozen?
Yes, you can freeze our Thai soup recipe, it doesn't contain any ingredients that doesn't do well frozen and then reheated. Coconut curry chicken soup will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
What to Serve with Thai coconut curry soup?
Easy sides to consider would be rice, a cold cucumber salad, green salad with an Asian dressing, or Thai peanut noodles.
Can I double the recipe?
If you have a large stockpot or Dutch Oven, this is a great soup to freeze for later or just to eat off of for up to 4-5 days when kept in the fridge.
More Chicken Soups
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Soup
- Chicken Pozole
- Pressure cooker soups - crack chicken, chicken gnocchi, traditional chicken noodle soup, creamy chicken taco
✨ Grab your free printable list of high protein foods to help plan more protein packed meals like this!
👉 Click here to get the list
If you loved our recipe, please leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and leave us a comment too! Connect with us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube!
📌 Save to Pinterest for later! 👇
Thai Coconut Curry Chicken Soup
A hearty Thai coconut chicken soup with curry is a dairy free, Whole30, and keto friendly soup that's easy to make at home and freezes great for later.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil
- ½ red onion, sliced
- 1-2 tablespoon red curry paste
- 3 teaspoon grated ginger (or galangal root)
- 2" piece of lemon grass (press to split and release juices)
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk
- ½ can coconut cream
- 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 1 lb chicken (breasts or thighs), cut into thin slices and then cut in half
- 2 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoon monkfruit
Instructions
- Prep all of the ingredients before you get started, Thai coconut chicken soup cooks so quickly, in under 20 minutes, it's best to have all of the chopping, slicing, and dicing done in advance.
- Smash the lemongrass with a kitchen mallet to help release it's flavor during cooking.
- In a large pot over medium heat, heat the coconut oil.
- Add the sliced onions, minced garlic, minced ginger, red chili paste, and lemon grass piece.
- Cook until the onion is soft, which will take about 5 minutes
- Turn the burner up to medium-high, Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Turn it back down to medium heat once it reaches a boil.
- Add the coconut milk, coconut cream, diced raw chicken, and mushrooms. Simmer until the chicken is just cooked through, which will take about 6-7 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and mix in the fish sauce, lime juice, and sweetener.
- Remove the lemon grass stalk before serving.
Terrific garnishes for Thai coconut chicken soup include cilantro, Thai basil, lime slices, Thai hot peppers, or jalapeno slices.
Notes
- Use less curry paste if you prefer a very mild soup, likewise, you can add even more to kick up the heat.
- We used both a can of coconut milk AND a partial can of coconut CREAM. To cut back the fat you can skip the coconut cream, but it does add a lot of extra flavor. If you can't find coconut cream at your store, buy 2 cans of coconut milk and scrape the hardened cream layer off of the top and use that (since that's technically the coconut cream).
- This is a very easy soup to make substitutions, as long as you have the basic Thai ingredients on hand. Feel free to swap the veggies or use a different type of protein.
- If you have pre-cooked chicken on hand instead of raw, add it at the very end and just simmer the soup until the chicken is heated, which should just take 2-3 minutes.
Optional Garnish- cilantro and green onions and limes, siracha or drizzle with oil, or red thai peppers
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information
Yield 6 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 400Total Fat 29gSaturated Fat 19gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 74mgSodium 1269mgCarbohydrates 9gNet Carbohydrates 7gFiber 1gSugar 1gProtein 23g
These are estimates based on a nutrition app and can change based on the brands you're using. Please manually calculate this info if you're on a restricted health plan.
Alexis says
Maybe I'm just missing it, but where does the lime juice come in and how much?