Panera Thai Chicken Soup is a tasty, gluten-free, dairy-free, nutritious soup with authentic flavors. A simple copycat recipe with tender chicken in a spicy-sweet coconut broth, ready in less than an hour.
In a large pot over medium-high heat add the vegetable oil, once hot add the diced onion, garlic, and ginger, and sauté for 5 minutes until the onion has softened.
Add the chicken broth, chicken breast, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove chicken breast from the pot and with two forks shred the chicken. Return the chicken to the pot.
Add the carrot, mushroom, and coconut milk, and cook for 5 minutes.
Add lime juice and stir in some cilantro. Serve in a bowl, garnish with lime wedges and cilantro or green onions.
Notes
The onion can be white or yellow. I prefer red onions because they're a little sweeter than other onions and add a pretty pop of color.
The garlic can be fresh or jarred.
The ginger can be fresh or ground. If you're using ground ginger, start with a small amount (around ¼-½ teaspoon) and add more to taste. Also try Thai ginger, galangal.
I use portobello mushrooms because they're a little more flavorful than other types of mushrooms, but use any type.
I use full-fat coconut milk because it's richer and creamier than light coconut milk. Do not use coconut creamer, coconut milk that is refrigerated, or coconut water, it will not work in this recipe. Canned coconut milk, or even better, is Coconut Creme.
The lime wedges are optional but add great tartness to the soup.
Variations Traditional Thai Chicken Soup uses lemongrass stalks and galangal; since those ingredients are a little harder to find, I omitted them, but feel free to replace the ginger with galangal (Thai aromatic ginger). And add lemongrass* to the onion mixture when sauteing. *To prep lemongrass, cut off the bottoms and the tough (green) part on top. Should be about 6-8 inches of lemongrass left. Pound stalks with a mallet or rolling pin. Shrimp Tom Kha Soup Add up to 1 pound raw small shrimp to soup after it’s simmered. Stirring until shrimp turns pink. Vegan Tom Kha Soup Replace chicken broth with either vegetable broth or increase the coconut milk or cream to 2 cans.