Slow Cooker Thai Coconut Soup–This recipe for Thai Coconut Soup in the slow cooker is super duper easy for really really awesome results! If you love the coconut soup when you go to Thai restaurants, you will love this soup, I promise!! It is jam packed with flavor from the lime, cilantro, lemongrass and Thai curry paste. Make it with chicken or without, whatever you prefer! If you want to make it a meal, I suggest scooping half a cup of rice into each serving bowl. YUMMERS!
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Easy Thai Coconut Soup with Lemongrass
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours on low
- Total Time: 14 minute
- Yield: 4 1/2 cups of soup 1x
Description
If you love the coconut soup when you go to Thai restaurants, you will love this soup
Ingredients
- 1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
- 1 Tbsp Thai red curry paste (I used mild, find it in the Asian section of the grocery store)
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into cubes
- 6 oz white mushrooms, sliced
- 2 Tbsp lemongrass stir-in paste (you can find this by the herbs in the produce section)
- 2 fresh limes, juiced
- 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Combine coconut milk, red thai curry paste, broth, chicken, mushrooms, lemongrass paste in your slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on low for 4 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.
- Stir in lime juice and cilantro. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Ladle into bowls and serve.
Notes
Ideal Slow Cooker Size: 6 quart*
Click here for the Instant Pot version of this recipe.
- Category: Soup
- Method: Slow Cooker
The base for this recipe is fantastic!
I ended up going a little rouge, added a lot more red paste because I like a little more spice, fish sauce, sesame oil & red chili flake infused oil and bamboo shoots.
I used chicken thighs sautéed w/ scallions, a mild sriracha spice blend, salt, pepper and garlic. I wish I would’ve chopped my mushrooms finer, as well as my chicken.
It turned out so delicious and I can’t wait for my beloveds to try it.
Anyway, I am so thankful to have found this on my google search. Thank you for sharing this gift.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this soup. It is one of my favorites!
Great recipe! Too many “recipe bashers” out there. They should start with the basics: coconut milk, red curry paste and chicken stock and send us all their better idea. This one is yummy and simple.
BigOleJim
★★★★★
Thanks BigOleJim! We used to call my dad Big Jim when we were younger so that made me laugh.
Hi. Have you or anyone used Lite Coconut Milk with this recipe?
I haven’t but it has been done and it will work.
I love this soup I made it and can stop eating it. Love it. But I put the leftovers in the fridge. And when I went to go eat some more. It was foamy. So I’m just wondering if that is normal.
★★★★★
If you’re like me about Thai Coconut Soup, I strongly suggest you make a double batch because there will likely be nothing left in your crock with one batch!
For those just curious, let the first comment speak for itself!
Lime and cilantro not necessary but no doubt delicious (also only add those for individual dishes and/ or let someone decide that for themselves). For those obtaining ‘no flavor’, by accident you may be adding the wrong ingredients. I had to be a little creative with my decidedly suburban grocery purchases but found a general ‘curry paste’ and a ‘lemongrass and basil simmering sauce’, but the idea is to look for those particular flavors in a texture close to the recipe. There’s a lot of room to make or break it!
Currently mourning putting remaining soup in fridge for the night. Absolutely addictive (good way!) and fabulous Karen, and thank you for gifting me with a soup I’ve been craving for a decade and turned out better than the first! Bravo!
★★★★★
Amy again, a few hopefully positive hints: the star of this show is the coconut broth and quality ingredients, I would recommend a good quality chicken bullion broth (I used a good powdered bullion with the boiling water), keep the mushroom/ tofu pieces small and bake the chicken breast plain (with a little salt) 350 oven for about 15 – 20 minutes both sides then let cool and shred with your (clean) fingers and add to crock – my opinion the slight qualities of the meaty ingredients blend in to allow the coconut broth to shine! Tasty to a crazy level!
★★★★★
Hi Karen, we made this yesterday for Chinese New Year celebration! It was so yummy!!! I added a bit of rice to the soup and we have some leftover for today. Thank you for this great recipe – my husband said to tell you it was hands down the best Coconut soup he’s had (I guess he’s an expert, which I didn’t know!!) ha ha
★★★★★
Donna, I love this recipe as well. Tell your husband I’m glad he liked it!
How much real lemongrass would you recommend for this recipe. My stores don’t carry the lemongrass paste
1 stalk of lemongrass, bottom 5 inches only, bruised
Great soup! I made it in the slow cooker last week and added some of the ingredients suggested in the comments. Really enjoyed it!
Awesome Martina! I love this one.
I added a couple tablespoons of Vietnamese fish sauce (the sweeter kind with bits of red pepper in it) to amp up the spice — delicious! Thank you for this recipe!
Nice! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Have you added shrimp to this recipe? Wondering when I would add it in. Thanks so much!
Shrimp cooks very fast so I would add in at the end. I would stir the shrimp in at the end and let it cook in the hot liquid for 10 minutes or so.
Traditionally in a restaurant they would blanch the shrimp and then keep it chilled and per serving/bowl add a few shrimp then the broth mixture same went for chicken it would be cooked and shredded then refrigerator kept til needed per serving adding a sprinkle of chicken to bowl then the broth mixture. Hope this helps!!
Is there a reason you don’t cut up your chicken before hand?
just because I usually use frozen chicken but you could definitely do it beforehand if you’d like!
Everything was fine until I put in the lime juice. What was the creamy sauce all curdled.
NOOOOO! So sad. I’m sorry!
Hello Michael, I was wondering if you put the lime into the whole pot? That’s the only way I’d see the curdling problem happening. The lime (and cilantro) is used (in wedges usually) once you serve into individual bowls. Add lime and cilantro as a topper and it’ll be just fine. I hope you’ll try it again because it truly is an amazing soup😃
I bought freeze dried lemongrass…can’t figure out how much of it to use, though!
And would I have to try to remove it? They are like little curly flakes and a few short stems. I bought the lite coconut milk and wonder if others have used that and if your recipe curdled like someone mentioned?
Becky, I’ve never used freeze dried lemongrass! What does it say on the packaging? I bet you could just add it in the soup for flavor. I haven’t tried the lite milk but you could try it and see what happens.
It says absolutely nothing on the packaging. And I couldn’t find anything online about it! Maybe it’s a new product?! Guess I’ll start with a small amount and see how that works out. I couldn’t find the paste at the store…thanks for your reply!
This soup unfortunately came out rather flavorless when made following the instructions. I would suggest cooking the chicken separately and salting the liquid before cooking. I was also disappointed about the texture. I was expecting something creamier. Very disappointing.
This makes me sad! I love this soup. When I make it it has tons of flavor. I’m sorry it didn’t turn out for you 🙁
I made this soup last year, and it was awesome. We are now trying a vegan diet, and I am wondering how you think tofu would sub for chicken in here? I would love to make this again.
I don't really know since I'm not familiar with tofu at all. But I bet you could do it.
Try Seitan as a meat substitute. It can be seasoned to have a similar flavor to chicken if you like and it has a very similar texture to meat.
Pinterest won't let me pin this recipe, any idea why? I'd like to save it to try later!
Loved it!
We decided we would like it just as much without the chicken and we would prefer chopped green onions on top over the cilantro.
Definitely ad lime "to taste" at the end
Man this was delicious. Added scallions like someone else mentioned and a bit of chili powder as I wanted a little more spice to it. Thanks!
yum! that sounds fantastic
I have a couple of questions. First, should the chicken broth be low sodium, or do you use regular? Second, you say to cook the chicken breasts first, and cut them up at the end, but would it still work if I cut it up before I cooked the soup? Would the chicken dry out? I want to make this soup pretty much exactly as the recipe says the first time I make it, although I am considering adding the salt and pepper at the beginning before the soup gets cooked, instead of at the end.
I had this soup at a Thai restaurant with my mother and I absolutely loved the tart, lemony flavor! It is one of our favorite soups and I am excited to make it for us!
Hi Tasha, I just use regular broth. You can always salt and pepper to taste at the end too. You could definitely cut the chicken up before if you want. It won't dry out the chicken because it will surrounded in broth.
hope you love it!
Karen
Would it be possible to make this recipe vegetarian? The chicken broth would be easy enough to substitute, but in place of the chicken, would tofu work? If so, could I just add it into the pot at the beginning like you would with meat, or should I hold off and add it in a little later?
I'm sure that it would be possible. I am really not sure about tofu. I've actually never cooked with it before, so I'm not familiar with it. Let me know what happens!
Hi Karen! I was thinking of making this soup but adding vegetables instead of chicken! I was thinking of adding yellow, red and orange peppers, any suggestion on quantities?! So excited to make this dish!! 🙂
That sounds great. I bet if you added half a pepper of each kind it would be plenty. Let me know how it turns out!
Paty, I bet it will be fantastic!!
I'm making this tomorrow and I'm so excited about it! The owner of the Asian market where I bought the lemongrass said to also add some galangal slices and a kafir lime leaf. Fingers crossed!
Would this freeze? Trying to decide how much to make. Looks absolutely amazing!
Made this last night and my husband absolutely loved it! It was delicious and tasted just like they make it in restaurants. I doubled up on the mushrooms and also used a third tube of lemongrass paste. Next time I will add scallions also!
Excellent idea, scallions were a tasty addition.
Mangojh2, so glad that it worked out for you!!!!
Well I used the green Thai curry paste because I made the recipe 1 day before you posted that it was red…. This was the tastiest dish I have ever cooked in my crock pot and the best dish I've had in months. Thank you so much for such a wonderful meal and the house smelled amazing for hours. I also used the lemongrass tube.
I use red curry paste!
Mindy, Wow! I did not know that about lemongrass. Thanks so much for the heads up!
I love coconut soup, and I'm trying to use the crockpot more so I'll be happily trying this recipe. Just a heads up. I bought some lemon grass fresh, that had it's base still on it. You can stick that in water and within a week or so it will grow roots and put off quite a bit of growth at the top. You can then plant it in your garden. Mine's still growing strong after 6 months.
Came out perfect! Just like in my favorite thai restaraunt!
I used one third of lemon grass tube and juice of half a lime. Yum!
Do you use green or red curry paste?
Monica,
Here is a site that will calculate it for you!
Sorry that I can't be any more helpful than that.
Karen
Any ideas about nutritional value? I need it for my app tracker
Bebe,
I don't exactly remember how much paste it was. I want to say the paste container has enough to make the soup 3 times. Look on the back of the container..maybe that will help you out. Karen
How much lemongrass paste would you recommend using? I'm really looking forward to trying this!
– Bebe
Frozen is fine! Just add at the beginning with the rest of the ingredients. Cut up once cooked through and serve!
Hi Karen,
When do you put in the chicken? I have the chicken breasts frozen, should I drop them in whole frozen? Or should I defrost and chop before I put them in?
Thank you!
M,
I'm sorry it didn't turn out!
I have no idea why it curdled. I have only used full fat coconut milk so maybe that is why…I always use frozen meat, so that wouldn't have been it. Sorry I can't be more help!
Karen
I was really excited to try out my first crockpot with this recipe and I don't know what I did wrong but my soup came out completely curdled:( I used the light coconut milk… could that have done it? I alsoput my chikcken pieces in partially frozen… Any ideas on what I did wrong to make it turn out so terribly?
Thanks- M
Did you happen to put the juice from the limes in with everything else while cooking?
This was wonderful! I doubled it for my 6qt, then added another can of c. milk (making 3 altogether), and since I already had rice stick noodles inn the pantry, I threw some of those in there, too. THANK YOU! I will be making this again for sure!
Beth, yes, same cooking time. I used the paste once too. It's easier to find for some reason. It tasted the same to me both times!
How much paste did you use?
probably about 2 TBSP it might say on the container how to to use per lemongrass stalk…
Okay thanks. Cooking time the same? I've made this soup twice, by the way, and my 2 year old eats it up! I couldn't find lemongrass so I got the paste. More expensive but it will last for a few more soups. I love recipes that are short like this and have such good flavor!
Beth, yes you could easily do that!
Do you think I could double this recipe and put it in a 6 quart pot?
Thanks for your reply! I easily had twice that amount, if not more. My limes must have been super juicy!
So sorry Carrie! That makes me sad that it didn't turn out. For me it was just perfect. I probably had about 3 Tbsp of lime juice. Maybe mine weren't has ripe or something. I guess I should change the recipe to say "lime juice to taste".
I just tried this soup and used 3 tablespoons (which was a little less than what I had squeezed out of two limes). It was perfect!
Btw, not trying to be rude! Just hoping for your input.
So, how much lime juice would you say you actually put in this recipe? I used the juice of 2 limes and the result was so acidic that no one would eat it. I didn't measure what came from the limes, but it was somewhere around 1/4-1/3 cup.
Kendra,
I used a 3 quart slow cooker for this recipe. If you have the choice, I would use the smaller size! good luck and thanks for looking at my blog 🙂
Really looking forward to trying this soup! What size slow cooker did you make this and your other recipes in? I have a 6 qt but I'm about to get a 4qt as well.
Kendra
Thanks Meg! You made my day 🙂
I just discovered your recipe websight, and I must say it is fantastic! The pictures, reviews and recipies are absolutely wonderful! You get the best recipe websight award! Fabulous!
Meg
This soup sounds amazing!! I love Thai soups andway!!
Kalyn, it really is a great soup! Yum!
We eat this soup regularly, but I've never made it in a crockpot, that would be really good, and give the flavors a chance to blend, too. I'd love to have you link up at our ongoing link party on my new site: http://utahtopia.com/updates/entertainment/utahtopia-link-party Thanks!
I love it that your recipes are healthy as well delicious and easy! Most slow cooker recipes use too many processed foods and canned creamy soups instead of wholesome real food. Thank you.
I love this type of soup; sounds great!