Thai-Inspired Chicken Meatball Soup

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A vibrant Thai-inspired soup featuring tender ground chicken meatballs, a creamy and spicy coconut broth, rice noodles, and crisp baby bok choy.

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: Thai

Keyword: Chicken, Coconut Milk, Meatball, Noodles, Soup

Servings:

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Set a wire rack on top of a baking sheet, and optionally spray the rack with oil to prevent sticking.
While the oven heats, add garlic, ginger, Thai chili, palm sugar, cilantro, and lime zest to a food processor. Blend until finely chopped and well combined. If you don’t have a food processor, finely chop the ingredients by hand instead.
In a large bowl, combine the panko, beaten egg, fish sauce, and the blended mixture from the previous step. Mix thoroughly. Add the ground chicken and use your hands to combine everything until evenly mixed.
Shape the meat mixture into approximately 16 meatballs, each about 1.5 inches in diameter. Arrange the meatballs on the prepared wire rack, then bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until they are golden and fully cooked.

Add the garlic and ginger to the food processor and blend until finely chopped. If you don’t have a food processor, you can finely chop the ingredients by hand or grate them instead.
Heat avocado oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the chopped shallot and cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add the chopped garlic and ginger, and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring often, until fragrant. Stir in the roughly chopped palm sugar and fish sauce, and cook for 1 minute to allow the sugar to caramelize.
Add the Thai chilis and curry paste, stirring to combine with the other ingredients. Cook for 1-2 minutes, or until the mixture darkens in color. Then pour in the broth and coconut milk, and bring to a gentle boil.
Once the broth is boiling, add the rice noodles and cook until softened. For reference, my noodles took about 2 minutes. Use tongs to remove the noodles from the pot and divide them evenly into the serving bowls. Add the baby bok choy to the boiling broth and cook for about 3 minutes, until tender but still crisp. Use tongs to remove the bok choy from the pot and divide it evenly over the noodles in each serving bowl. Then, evenly distribute the cooked chicken meatballs into each bowl.
Stir the juice of 1 lime into the broth, then ladle it evenly into each serving bowl. Serve with extra lime wedges and fresh cilantro, if desired.

Note 1: I used this Thai Red Curry Paste from Whole Foods and 2 tablespoons was perfect. Brands vary in spice and flavor, so adjust to taste.
Note 2: I used this Thai Lemongrass Bone Broth from Whole Foods. If unavailable, replace the 2 cups of Thai Lemongrass Bone Broth with 2 additional cups of regular chicken broth.