This slow cooker Thai soup with chicken is packed with flavor thanks to the combination of curry paste, coconut milk, fresh ginger, and lime.
Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup Recipe
Here’s the thing about cooking with slow cookers. It’s convenient. But only if you’re creating a recipe where you don’t have to dirty more than the slow cooker. Like this slow cooker Thai chicken soup.
I’m all about time management. I eat breakfast while I do the dishes, I brush my teeth while I tie on my running shoes. In other words, I’m a multi-tasker who isn’t terribly efficient at getting much of any of my laundry list of daily to-dos completed because my mind thinks I have to do more than six things at at time. Why? Oh why?
So these days, unless its a lazy day weekend, my to-do list doesn’t always necessitate spending an hour and a half making dinner. I don’t mean letting it cook, I mean MAKING dinner.
Enter the genius invention that has been on every wedding registry since 1973: The slow cooker. And this slow cooker Thai coconut chicken soup. If I’m going to use a slow cooker, I want to make a recipe where I don’t have to brown this, sauté that, and dirty one single other pan to make my dream dinner come true.
Prepare yourself, you will need to dirty a cutting board and a knife to make this Thai coconut chicken soup. And maybe a whisk or big spoon. But other than that? You can put that fancy dish washing scrubbie away my friend, this is a one stop shop recipe I’m happy to make. Just so long as someone else does the dishes dish.
What’s in This Thai Soup?
In the spirit of no-fuss cooking, I tried to keep the ingredients list for this Thai coconut chicken soup as minimal as the prep work. Here’s what I used in this Thai chicken soup:
- Red curry paste
- Coconut milk
- Chicken Broth
- Fish sauce
- Brown sugar
- Peanut butter
- Chicken breasts
- Red bell pepper
- Onion
- Fresh ginger
- Frozen peas
- Lime juice
- Cooked white rice
- Fresh cilantro
How to Make Slow Cooker Thai Soup
Add all the ingredients but the lime juice, cilantro, rice, and peas to your slow cooker. Pop the lid on, turn the slow cooker to High, and let the Thai soup cook for 4 hours.
After 4 hours, stir in the peas and let the crockpot chicken soup cook for another 30 minutes.
I like serving this Thai coconut chicken soup over white rice with a sprinkle of fresh cilantro on top.
Can I Omit the Fish Sauce?
Technically, yes. But that small amount of fish sauce adds so much umami flavor to this Thai soup. There’s really no substitute for fish sauce, so I highly recommend using it in this recipe. You should be able to find it in the Asian section of your grocery store or online.
Can I Make Thai Soup in an Instant Pot?
You likely can. However, I’ve only ever made this Thai coconut curry soup in a regular slow cooker so I can’t give any tips on adapting this recipe for the Instant Pot.
Tips for Making Slow Cooker Thai Soup
This Thai chicken soup recipe is easily adaptable when it comes to the veggies. Sub in or add carrots, potatoes, or leeks. Or for a purely veg version, change up the chicken broth for vegetable broth and omit the chicken. Just be sure to keep the lime and the peanut buttery taste to complement the spiciness of the curry and you’re in business.
For the best flavor, I recommend using freshly grated ginger and freshly squeezed lime juice. Ground ginger won’t give you the same flavor as fresh, and pre-bottled lime juice doesn’t compare to freshly squeezed limes.
A few readers have said their soup has split near the end of the cook time. That’s just the coconut milk and broth separating from each other — your Thai soup hasn’t gone bad. Just give the soup a stir to bring everything back together. To avoid this separation, I recommend using full-fat coconut milk in this recipe.
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Bookmark this recipe and leave a comment below, or take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.
Slow Cooker Chicken Thai Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 2-12 ounce cans of coconut milk
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 1 ½ pounds chicken breasts , cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
- 1 red bell pepper , seeded and sliced into ¼ inch slices
- 1 onion , thinly sliced
- 1 heaping tablespoon fresh ginger , minced
- 1 cup frozen peas , thawed
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- cilantro , (for garnish)
- cooked white rice
Instructions
- Mix the curry paste, coconut milk, chicken stock, fish sauce, brown sugar and peanut butter in a 4-½ to 6-quart slow-cooker bowl. Then, place the chicken breast, red bell pepper, onion and ginger in the slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.
- Add in the peas and cook for 30 minutes longer.
- Stir in lime juice and serve with cilantro and white rice.
Nutrition
More Crockpot Soups to Try
- Vegetarian Crockpot Lasagna Soup
- Slow Cooker Corn Chowder
- Slow Cooker Hatch Green Chili Verde
- Slow Cooker Tortellini Soup with Sausage and Kale
- Slow Cooker Healthy Turkey and Sweet Potato Chili with Quinoa
- Slow Cooker Turkey Meatball Soup
More Thai-Inspired Recipes You’ll Love
- Thai Quinoa Salad
- Thai Basil Chicken (Pad Krapow Gai)
- Shrimp in Thai Coconut Sauce
- Thai Coconut Chicken and Rice
- Thai Coconut Noodle Salad
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Daddy B
re: coconut milk curdling – it’s actually breaking – from too much heat. coconut milk shouldn’t be boiled. Different cookers heat at different rates – low setting might be needed and adding the coconut milk in later. broken coconut milk can sometimes be stirred back into emulsion and doesnt affect taste if it breaks. I always make sure I shake the can really well before i use as sometimes its separate in the can. Hope this helps!
Elisabeth
Mine curdled, too. Ate it anyway, it was okay. Needed a LOT of acid, and more heat. I don’t like very spicy food, but really couldn’t taste any heat in it at all. Sounded better than it actually was. I used bone in chicken thighs (no skin), and the meat fell right off the bones as it cooked. I only had to remove the bones from the cooker.
Randi
If I am trying to eliminate sugar from my diet, how do you think this would be without the brown sugar and peanut butter? It looks delish
Liza
Just made it and it was delicious! Substituted green curry paste for red, almond butter for PB, lemon juice for lime and a mix of worcestershire and soy sauces for the fish sauce (all of that was what I had on hand and didn’t feel like going to the store). Added the pepper and onion 2 hours into cooking so they wouldn’t be too mushy, also added some broccoli. Finally, added a bit (well, a lot) of sriracha so it would have the right amount of kick. Ate it with quinoa cause that was what I had left from the night before. Soooo tasty and satisfying!
Liza
Oh, and I also added 2 tbsp of flour near the end so it would thicken a bit.
Chrisitne
I love this recipe! I’ve made it 3 times, and my husband really likes it! Hope it’s ok that I featured it on my blog!
charlotte
All your recipes are so delicious and I can’t wait to try this one. Do you have any thought on how to adapt this recipe so that people with nut allergies can enjoy it? Do you think that Sunbutter or some other peanut butter alternative, would ruin the flavor?
robin
made it tonight; it curdled. used full fat coconut milk cans from whole foods.
Rhonda
I use the light coconut milk and I’m just reading the comments here about the curdling. ??? I didn’t even know that coconut milk COULD curdle. O_o At any rate, I have made this at LEAST 4 times in the past 3 weeks and it comes out great every time. I’ve cooked it on high every single time (sometimes for really long periods with not much stirring) and if that “curdles” it, I don’t care or notice because it’s so freaking good. I *did* notice that the coconut milk tends to separate from the chicken stock but give it a stir and it looks just fine LOL. And once it’s refrigerated it tends to come back together (if that’s even such a thing). ANYWAY … my point is this is an AWESOME, EASY recipe and I have made it so many times because my friends keep coming over and EATING IT ALL!!!!!! :( Thanks for the great recipe, Heidi! :)
Mari
My soup curdled as well. After reading the comments I believe it’s because of the light coconut milk I used. I strained the meat and veggies out of my soup and re-blended the liquid together with a immersion blender, and it seems to be OK now. It would be helpful if the need to use full-fat coconut milk was mentioned in the recipe, since multiple commenters have pointed out the problem. I didn’t read all the comments until it was too late.
Thanks!
Eliz
This is currently in my slow cooker – it smelled beautiful all afternoon… but unfortunately the soup (coconut milk) is completely curdled.. has this happened to anyone else? I’m going to pour it over rice and eat it anyway… Maybe it cooked too long? (it finished and switched to “warm” for about 1/2 hour). I’m also new to slow cooking. let me know how this happens? thanks.
It could have cooked longer or your cooker cooks hotter. I also use authentic Thai coconut milk that has less additives than some I’ve found on my grocery store shelves. They seem to be thicker and I haven’t had a problem using them. Also, I use full fat coconut milk rather than light.
Barb
Came across your recipe & knew I needed to try it…but I didn’t have all the exact ingredients, so I improvised (something I do offen and usualy works out)
So what I did was put frozen chicken breast in the bottom of the crock pot, then added the onion & red pepper, mixed together the peanut butter, brown sugar, curry powder (didn’t have the paste) and dry ginger (didn’t have fresh) and instead of fish sauce (yet again didn’t have it) I subsituted it with 1 tbsp of worchestershire & 1 tbsp of soya sauce (not the excat same but gives you that salty taste you want) with about 4 cups of homemade chicken broth. I also added about 1 tbsp of garlic & 1 tsp of basil.
I let it cook for 4 hours on low, then I took out about a cup of the liquid and mixed about 1 cup of coconut milk (that’s all I had on hand) then slowly poured it back in the crock pot whisking it so it would not seperate (a hint I got from another user’s comments! thanks it worked!!)
Let it cook for another 2 hours on low, took the chicken breast out shredded it (was falling apart was so tender) and then added it back in with the peas (mine were still frozen, forgot that part!) and lime juice, let it cook for another hour & then served it with rice.
IT WAS SOOOO GOOD!!! So even though I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, it was my inspiration for an awesome addition to my “go-to” dinner ideas!! So thank you & looking forward to finding more of your recipes for my “inspirational” cooking lol
MBagchi
Love this recipe. It’s an easy dependable go to recipe for a large amount of Thai style chicken! I increase the red curry paste to spike the heat and add some lemon grass if I have it handy.
Kiri
It says to cook on high for 4 hours, can I do it on low for 8 hours?
I haven’t tested it for 8 hours on low, but I’m pretty sure you could.
Amber Rule
Hi there,
I have a quick question. I have had this in the crockpot all afternoon. My broth is very thin and looks curdled. I have added a small amount of cornstarch to thicken it up a little. I did not use lowfat coconut milk. I followed the direction to a tee:)
Do you think it is okay if it curdled.
Thank you,
Amber Rule
Hmmm. I will email you directly to assess!
Diana
Made this the another night and it was amazing! The store didn’t have red curry paste but they did have red curry sauce so I used that instead but used a bit more. DELICIOUS is all I can say about it. I doubled the recipe for leftovers and I swear I think it got better the next day and day after that. This is definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing!
Caitlin
I just made this tonight. I cooked it on low for 5 hours, and read that some suggested waiting to add the coconut milk until 30 min before serving. I did that and mine was so creamy, no curdling! My only issue was, there wasn’t a TON of flavor. No kick or spice. I was expecting something pretty flavorful. Maybe the coconut milk and peanut butter sweetened it?
Jamie
Made this for dinner tonight with a few modifications, it was delicious! I browned the chicken first. I used a small bag of frozen peas and julienne carrot mix. I did not add fish sauce or the bell pepper, and used pb2 powder as a substitute for regular peanut butter. I served this over rice noodles, and it came out awesome. I will definitely be making this again!
Bea
Made this tonight sans the chicken and fish sauce and it was outta sight! Def making this a regular, go-to meal.
Sierra
I’ve got this in the crockpot now. Can’t wait. Was gonna use rice (pad Thai) noodles instead of rice would you cook those seperation or throw then in with the peas? Also I was gonna chop green beans instead of peas. Has anyone else tried this? Thanks!
Barbara
I just wanted to thank you for sharing this delicious recipe. I lost count of how many times I’ve made this soup, it has become one of my all time favourite crock pot recipes! I just love it! So thanks…again ;-)
Wendy Watson
WOW! Yumyum this looks so good!!!
collegecheese.com
HeidiG
I’m not sure if you’ve seen this, but another blog has blatantly stolen your content and recipe. I found it on pinterest and I have changed my link from this jerk: http://www.lsvtoutesversions.com/2014/09/slow-cooker-thai-chicken-soup.html to you.
Sherry D
Where’d you get this bowl? It’s beautiful!
Azurewren
Oooh.. I saw this recipe and it looks so nice. So I scoured my cupboard and yay, I have everything I need….. except the thai red paste.
I was wondering whether I could use a laksa paste instead of a red paste? I know the flavours would change, but do you think a laksa paste could be used as an alternative?
Sure, give it a try.
michelle
Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup
my kdsiallgery fish sauce and what need to put add?