This Asian-inspired soup with chicken, coconut, and shiitake mushrooms is flavorful, nutritious, and so easy to make.
With 30 grams of protein per serving and full of minerals and vitamins, this soup is the perfect weeknight meal that is Whole30 compliant, lectin-free, dairy-free, and keto-friendly.
Soups made with coconut milk and Asian flavors used to be my favorite restaurant meals. Since I stopped going to restaurants so often, I learned how to recreate some of my favorite meals at home. This chicken coconut soup with dry shiitake mushrooms is delicious and rich in nutrients.
Shiitake mushrooms
Shiitake mushrooms are a nutritional powerhouse. They provide protein and fiber, while supporting your immune system. They are rich in natural copper and selenium as well as other essential vitamins and minerals.
Shiitake mushrooms add a ton of natural umami flavor to any meal, and if you can’t find them fresh, you can always use the dry version. They need about 30 minutes to rehydrate.
Ingredients for chicken soup with coconut milk and shiitake mushrooms
- 1 stick lemongrass, smashed and cut into 1-2 inch pieces
- 1 thumb size or bigger piece of ginger, cut into smaller pieces
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 2 big garlic cloves
- avocado oil
- 4 chicken thighs or drumsticks with bones (choose pasture-raised chicken)
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 oz dry shiitake mushrooms
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 organic lime
How to make this delicious soup
- Add the ginger, lemongrass, garlic, and coriander seeds to a mortar and pestle and smash them slightly to release more of the flavor. Add them to a heated soup pot with a little avocado oil. Sautee the spices and aromatics until fragrant.
- Season the chicken with salt and add it to the pot. Cook it lightly on both sides, just to get infused with the spices and to seal the juices.
- Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, and complete with water, to cover the chicken.
- Add mushrooms. Add some more salt, and juice of 1/2 lime and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
- When the chicken is all cooked through, strain the soup (you want to remove all the hard pieces of lemongrass and ginger), remove the chicken from the bones, slice the mushrooms and add the chicken and mushrooms back to the strained liquid. Put back on the heat, taste, season with salt and pepper if necessary, and let simmer for a few more minutes.
- Finish with slices of lime and fresh cilantro.
Try more of our healthy recipes
If you like this Asian-inspired soup, you might also want to try our Thai Style Curry, Low Histamine. And for other nourishing and delicious soups try our Healthy Ground Chicken Soup or the Lectin-Free Root Vegetable Soup.
For more recipes with pasture-raised chicken, check out our article: Plant Paradox Recipes with Pasture-Raised Chicken. Healthy Meal Ideas.
*This post contains affiliated links, which means I get a small commission if you choose to purchase something via one of my links, at no extra cost to you.
Chicken Coconut Soup with Shiitake Mushrooms
(15 votes, average: 4.07 out of 5)
Loading...This Asian-inspired soup with chicken, coconut, and shiitake mushrooms is flavorful, nutritious, and so easy to make. With 30 grams of protein per serving and full of minerals and vitamins, this soup is the perfect weeknight meal that is Whole30 compliant, lectin-free, and keto-friendly.
Ingredients
- 1 stick lemongrass, smashed and cut into 1-2 inch pieces
- 1 thumb size or bigger piece of ginger, cut into smaller pieces
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 2 big garlic cloves
- avocado oil
- 4 chicken thighs or drumsticks with bones (choose pasture-raised chicken)
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- about 2-3 cups of hot water (to cover the chicken)
- 1 oz (28 grams) dry shiitake mushrooms
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 organic lime
Instructions
Add the ginger, lemongrass, garlic, and coriander seeds to a mortar and pestle and smash them slightly to release more of the flavor. Add them to a heated soup pot with a little avocado oil. Sautee the spices and aromatics until fragrant.
Season the chicken with salt and add it to the pot. Cook it lightly on both sides, just to get infused with the spices and to seal the juices.
Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, and complete with water, to cover the chicken.
Add the dry shiitake mushrooms. Add some more salt, and juice of 1/2 lime and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
When the chicken is all cooked through, strain the soup (you want to remove all the hard pieces of lemongrass and ginger), remove the chicken from the bones, slice the mushrooms and add the chicken and mushrooms back to the strained liquid. Put back on the heat, taste, season with salt and pepper if necessary, and let simmer for a few more minutes.
Finish with slices of lime and fresh cilantro.
6 Comments
Mary LynnLaker
May 17, 2022 at 4:16 pmI see you recommended organic lime and then suggested if not organic to wash well. I come a long line of farmers, both organic and not organic. Your comment concerns me. I gather from it that you don’t feel it is important to wash organic products as you do non-organic products. All produce should be washed as thoroughly as possible without damaging them this includes your fruit from trees as well as your fruit and produce that grows close to the ground. The one of the major differences in organic and non organic, is where the fertilizers comes from. Non-organic tend to be Fertilizers that are produced from petroleum products and in some areas the method of distribution of those petroleum products is through the sprinkler systems. that water the crops. While organic products are usually fertilized with such things as organically feed animal manure, that is emulsified with irrigation water, also spread on the crops through sprinkler systems. Another method is spreading it on the ground prior and during the planting. So all produce whether organic or not can be exposed to the fertilizers used to grow those crops. The crops fertilized with petroleum products may not affect your health immediately, but over the long term build up in your system and cause God only knows what diseases.if consumed without proper washing. This is part of the reason people like organic, however organic is exposed to more natural bacteria that can cause such things as E. coli which can have an immediate effect on your body.. When organic products were coming into fashion the major concern in the medical community was people would think that they did not have to wash their produce as well as with the non-organic and their concern was they would see a lot more things such as E. coli and quite frankly that has happened.. when I was a child we rarely Heard of people getting E. coli from food nor huge food recalls.
Also tree fruit gets pooped on by birds and rodents, which does not exclude organic.
Washing all fruit and vegetable is extremely important with vinegar, or commercial fruit and vegetable wash.
Your recipes look great…
Claudia
May 18, 2022 at 4:09 amHi Mary, thanks for sharing this knowledge. I thoroughly wash everything, and I never ever recommend anyone not to wash produce. I was just highlighting that if not organic, to pay even more attention to washing, not because of the pesticides, but because the non-organic citrus can be coated with wax. In Europe is clearly mentioned on non-organic citrus that the peel is not for consumption, for example. E-coli is another story, and to be honest, when you have e-coli on produce, it’s hard not to contaminate everything around it, even when you wash it. The only thing that entirely destroys e-coli is cooking. And while food hygiene is an important aspect of cooking, I can’t really lay down all the rules for food hygiene on every post. I guess there are educators for that and people, in general, know how to handle produce.
Patricia
April 7, 2021 at 10:55 amI made this one last week and we loved it! I didn’t have enough chicken so I added more (regional) mushrooms instead, and I didn’t have coriander seeds so I replaced with ground cumin. Thank you!
Claudia
April 17, 2021 at 5:43 amSounds delicious. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. xx
Liz
March 29, 2019 at 7:14 pmThis was excellent! Made it last week and it was a hit! Thank you for creating and sharing.
Claudia
March 30, 2019 at 4:43 pmThank you Liz, so happy you loved it xx