Coconut & Chicken Curry Soup

Amy tried and loved!

Enjoy!

Coconut & Chicken Curry Soup

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces 1-2 Tbsp. Olive oil

1/2 large onion, finely chopped 1 Tbsp. grated ginger 

1 can (14 oz) unsweetened coconut milk 1 1/2 c. chicken broth

1 jalapeno, seeded and minced 2 tsp. curry powder

1 green bell pepper, sliced thin or diced 2 Tbsp. lime juice

1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro, plus extra for garnish 

1/2 c. unsweetened chipped coconut

2 cups freshly cooked jasmine rice (optional)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a medium sized soup pot over medium heat. Add the chicken and onions, season lightly with salt and pepper. Sauté until cooked through and golden. Add ginger; cook for 1 minute. Add chicken broth, coconut milk, curry powder and jalapeno. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add bell pepper and cilantro and simmer an additional 3 minutes. Stir in lime juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon rice into bowls. Top with a ladle or two of soup. Garnish with additional cilantro and shredded coconut.   

NOTES:

We cooked more rice and served the soup over rice, more like a traditional curry. I would recommend letting the soup sit for about 15 minutes before serving to let the flavors fully develop.

*Ginger can typically be found in the cooler of the produce section, usually near the fresh herbs, and other root vegetables. Peel the ginger and put into a ziplock bag. Store it in the freezer until ready to used. Grate ginger frozen. It makes is a million times easier to grate. Trying to grate fresh ginger usually ends up with a juicy, stingy mess and it is hard to gauge how much you have grated. You can store ginger in the freezer for several months.

**You can use either regular coconut milk or low fat/lite. If you want to go for a healthy soup use the lite coconut milk and reduced sodium chicken broth and omit the rice.

Make sure you use UNSWEETENED coconut milk, and definitely not coconut cream.

Coconut milk can be found in the ethnic (Asian/Mexican) food isle. Oh and open the can from the bottom. The milk settles to the bottom and the fat rises to the top. Make sure you scrape out all that coconut oil/fat in the can. That is where a lot of the flavor is. I was not able to find unsweetened chipped or shredded coconut and skipped it all together.

***You can use either yellow curry or red curry powder. We use yellow, which tends to be more mild. Curry can be found with the spices in the baking isle. 

Special thanks to Amy Karren who provided us with this recipe!