Dinner · 30 min · 2 bowls
Tom kha gai
Coconut, lime, ginger, fish sauce — galangal would be right, ginger is Tuesday. Chicken in the broth, not boiled to shreds. Chili at the table. Don't make a yellow curry and call it tom kha.
The sheet · 2 bowls · 30 min
easyWhy tonight. Coconut, lime, ginger, fish sauce — galangal would be right, ginger is Tuesday. Chicken in the broth, not boiled to shreds. Chili at the table. Don't make a yellow curry and call it tom kha.
What it needs
Nothing confirmed on your shelf yet — this list is the whole ask.
- chicken
- coconut milk
- lime
- ginger
- fish sauce
Good if you have them, fine if you do not: chili flakes.
Method
- Simmer coconut milk with ginger, lime leaves if you had them, a bruised chili.
- Chicken in the broth until just done — not shredded. Fish sauce and lime off the heat.
- Chili at the table. It should taste like coconut and lime, not a yellow curry.
An educational plan from a curated corpus. Not a nutrition, allergen, or doneness guarantee.
Cook or pour it, then edit the shelf if you emptied a bottle or used the last of something.
Why each of these is on the list
What the ingredients are actually doing
- chicken
- Two different foods depending on the cut.
- coconut milk
- Fat that carries chili and spice further than water can, with a sweetness underneath.
- lime
- Sharper and more floral than lemon, and it fades faster — juice it the same hour you use it.
- ginger
- Bright and hot when raw, mellow and warm when cooked.
- fish sauce
- Salt and deep savoriness, and it smells far stronger than it tastes once it is in something.
Missing one of them? The substitutions are written against those jobs rather than against a chart, so they say what each replacement costs this dish in particular.
Cooks from the same box
If you bought for this, you can already make these
Shares coconut milk, ginger, lime
Coconut fish curry
Gentle simmer. Fish in last so it flakes, not boils apart.
Shares coconut milk, lime, ginger
Tom kha shrimp
The shrimp version. Coconut broth, lime, ginger, fish sauce. Shrimp last so they curl, not rubber. Don't boil them in the coconut from the start.
Shares chicken, lime, fish sauce
Lime, ginger and fish sauce chicken
Lemongrass stand-in: lime zest, ginger, garlic. Hot pan.
Shares chicken, coconut milk, fish sauce
Panang curry
Thicker than a green curry. Peanut in the coconut, fish sauce, lime. It should cling, not soup. Don't make satay and pour it over rice.
Next
Cook it, then tell the shelf what you used.
The ranking is only as honest as the shelf behind it. Empty the cream, and everything that leaned on cream should stop being offered.