Tom kha gai is one of my favorite soups. Whenever I go to a Thai restaurant I order it, but I’ve never made it at home. Partly because it features galangal. I have no idea where to get galangal. Because of this I’ve let myself be intimidated from making this delicious soup.
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The other day I was craving Tom kha gai and decided to try making a substitution. I used ginger instead of galangal. The results were wonderful. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 chick thick fillets chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cans coconut milk
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced ginger
• 1 stalk lemon grass sliced
• 1 cup straw mushrooms
• 1 red chili sliced
• 2 Kaffir lime leaves torn small pieces
• 1/2 onion finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons lime juice

Put stock and coconut milk in a pot and bring to a boil. Add lemon grass, ginger and lime leaves and turn heat down to medium. Let simmer for a couple minutes. Now add the chicken and mushrooms let simmer for a couple more minutes, just until the chicken cooks. Add fish sauce lime juice and chilis and remove from heat. You can garnish with fresh cilantro if you want. I didn’t have any on hand when I made this recipe.

Photo by jetalone