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Soup

Oriental Coconut Chicken Soup

A light soup of coconut milk, ginger, lemongrass, and chicken, finished with lime, fish sauce, and cilantro.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and fish sauce work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 362 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: soy, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice chicken into strips.

  2. Smash lemongrass with the flat of a large knife and cut into 1‑inch pieces.

Make the soup

  1. Heat coconut milk and water in a saucepan over moderate heat but do not boil.

  2. Add lemongrass, ginger and chilies and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

  3. Add chicken strips and simmer 5 minutes.

  4. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 1 minute.

  5. Serve garnished with cilantro.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Coconut + fish saucetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Lemon grass + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Ginger + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,621 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Boneless skinless chicken breast
Provides the protein; cooking it gently in the broth keeps the strips tender and moist.
Unsweetened coconut milk
Forms the rich, creamy base of the soup and adds body and fat.
Lemon grass
Releases citrusy aroma into the warm liquid as it simmers.
Fresh hot chili peppers
Add heat and pungency to the broth.
Fresh lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich coconut milk.

The step that matters

Heat the coconut milk without boiling. Coconut milk can separate or turn grainy when it boils hard, so keeping it at a gentle heat preserves a smooth, creamy texture.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, lemon grass, coconut, milk, ginger, pepper, lime):

  1. Mangoabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, lemon grass, coconut, milk, ginger, pepper, lime. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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