New year, new super nourishing, absolutely delicious meal to start your week. After weeks straight of holidays, birthdays, and plenty of Christmas cookies, I’ve been craving some much-needed nutrients.
This cozy and delicious ginger chicken soup has a beautiful creaminess from coconut milk and is super satisfying thanks to brown rice. The fresh ginger, garlic and turmeric add anti-inflammatories and a little immune boost (so necessary right now) and make this chicken and rice soup truly feel like a hug-in-a-bowl.
If you’ve had my famous best ever chicken soup recipe, you’re going to LOVE this creamy version that has wonderful flavor from soy sauce, fish sauce and a kick of heat from red chili paste. Check out even more options to make it your own throughout the post and enjoy!
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Ingredients in this healing ginger chicken soup
This beautiful ginger chicken and rice soup is filled with nourishing ingredients and tons of amazing flavors. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Veggies: you’ll need green onion and carrots to cook up in the soup. You’ll also need some regular or toasted sesame oil to cook them down.
- Broth: we’re using low sodium chicken broth and canned light coconut milk to cook everything together and make a luscious broth.
- Flavor: this ginger chicken soup gets its delicious flavor and nutrients from fresh ginger, ground turmeric, garlic, soy sauce, red chili paste, lime juice and fish sauce.
- Chicken: I like to use boneless skinless chicken thighs because they’re easier to pull apart once cooked and stay nice and tender, but you can also use chicken breasts.
- Rice: adding brown rice gives the soup the perfect amount of heartiness to keep you full and satisfied.
- To garnish: top your bowl with freshness from scallions, cilantro, mint, basil and some chopped, roasted peanuts. YUM.
Can I make it vegetarian?
Sure! Feel free to swap the chicken for a can of chickpeas or even cubed tofu. Be sure to use low sodium vegetarian broth as well, and omit the fish sauce if you’d like.
Add your fav grains
I love the whole grains and heartiness that brown rice gives the ginger chicken soup, but you have some options:
- White rice: feel free to use white jasmine rice instead of brown, but just note that you’ll only need to cook the soup for 25-30 minutes total.
- Noodles: try adding 8 ounces of rice noodles or ramen noodles! Add them in the last 10 minutes of cooking so that they don’t get mushy.
- Couscous: if you haven’t, you must try my famous best chicken soup recipe. Or, you can add pearled couscous to this ginger chicken soup! Note that pearled couscous is not gluten free.
How to make coconut chicken and rice soup
- Cook your veggies. Start by cooking down the green onion and carrots in toasted sesame oil with ginger and turmeric. Add the garlic in the last minute of sauteing.
- Add broth & flavors. Next, mix in the chicken broth, coconut milk, soy sauce and chili paste.
- Mix in chicken & rice. Finally, fold in the chicken thighs and rice and make sure all of the chicken is covered. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce and simmer. Stir every so often so that the rice doesn’t get stuck on the bottom.
- Shred & simmer. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pot, shred it, and stir it back into the soup. Cover the soup and let it cook longer so that the rice is tender. In the last few minutes of cooking stir in the fish sauce and lime juice.
- Garnish and serve. Divide the soup into bowls, add fresh garnishes and enjoy!
Choose your soup thickness
This ginger chicken soup thickens over time because of the rice in, so if you like a more brothy soup feel free to add about 2 additional cups of chicken broth to the pot when you add the shredded chicken back into it.
Storing & freezing
- To store: store this coconut chicken and rice soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 3-4 days. Simply reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- To freeze: I would suggest leaving the rice out if you’re planning to freeze this. Allow the soup to cool completely before placing it into airtight, freezer-friendly containers. Place in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat, simply allow the soup to thaw in the refrigerator before reheating on the stovetop or in the microwave. To add the rice, cook it separately and add it to your reheated soup when you’re ready to serve.
More soup recipes you’ll love
- Butternut Squash Green Chile Chicken Soup
- Courtney’s Curry Chicken Noodle Soup
- The Best Minestrone Soup
- Healing Curry Butternut Squash Lentil Soup (with a slow cooker option!)
- Healthy Chicken Pot Pie Soup (whole 30, dairy free)
Get all of our amazing soup recipes here!
If you make this healing ginger chicken soup be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked it. Enjoy, xo!
Healing Ginger Coconut Chicken Brown Rice Soup
Healing ginger chicken soup packed with feel-good ingredients like fresh ginger and turmeric, plus a lovely creaminess from coconut milk. This nourishing, one pot coconut chicken and rice soup has a boost of whole grains from brown rice and is delicious topped with fresh garnishes! A wonderful meal for colder months.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil (or olive oil)
- ½ cup diced green onion
- 2 medium carrots, sliced
- 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon fresh grated turmeric
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 cups low sodium chicken broth (or 8 if you like it broth-y)
- 1 (15 ounce) can light coconut milk
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon red chili paste (if you like a little heat)
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
- ¾ cup jasmine brown rice (or sub jasmine white rice)
- 1-2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 1 lime, juiced
- To garnish:
- ⅓ cup diced green scallions
- ⅓ cup chopped cilantro
- ¼ cup torn mint
- ¼ cup torn basil
- 3-4 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts
Instructions
-
Add 1 tablespoon sesame oil to a large dutch oven or pot and place over medium high heat. Add in the green onion, carrots, ginger and turmeric; saute for 3-5 minutes. During the last 30 seconds-1 minute of cooking, add in the garlic and saute until fragrant. Slowly add in the chicken broth, coconut milk, soy sauce and red chili paste until well combined. Add in the chicken thighs, brown rice and stir, making sure the chicken is covered with the broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally so the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan at any point.
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After 25-30 minutes, use a slotted spoon to remove chicken from the pot and transfer to a cutting board, but keep the heat in the pot as the rice will need to continue cooking. Use two forks to shred chicken then add back to the pot. If you like a brothier soup, now is the time to add more chicken broth. Cover soup with lid, continuing to simmer on low for 10-15 minutes until rice is tender. Finally to finish, add fish sauce and lime juice and simmer for just a few more minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.
-
Pour into bowls, then garnish with a little of each of the following: scallions, cilantro, mint, basil and peanuts. Serves 4-6. Enjoy.
Recipe Notes
Feel free to use white jasmine rice for this soup; you’ll likely only need to cook the soup for 25-30 minutes total.
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
59 comments
Don’t use coconut milk as d-in-law is allergic. What can I substitute?
You can leave it out or almond milk might work! I haven’t personally tried it, though.
Ginger is good for digestion and gastric related problems. In Kerala we use ginger in most of the dishes and curry.
I’m thinking of serving this with Quinoa. Should I add it during cooking or just serve it with it afterwards?
Hello! Do you mean instead of the brown rice? If so, feel free to add it uncooked to the soup in step 1 and it will cook fully in there 🙂
Can I use ground tumeric?
Sure! It will have a slightly different flavor but it will definitely work 🙂
Delicious!! Was looking for a unique soup on this chilly night and this one was more than perfect. Modifications made: ramen noodles instead of rice, no fish sauce (out of stock), cloves, ground turmeric instead of fresh, and parsley and extra lime for garnish. 🙌
That all sounds amazing! Love the idea of ramen noodles in here–thanks for sharing!
Made this tonight for my husband and I. He has told me on multiple “I don’t like soup” but I really really wanted to make this so I lied and told him it was a curry. He ate the whole thing and has now told me multiple times in the past few hours how much he loves his curry! Our coconut milk cans are 13.5 oz and I used slightly less chicken broth so that it would be closer to a curry than soup but it was still delicious! I added a tiny bit of green Tabasco and used Worcestershire sauce in place of fish sauce (we didn’t have any) and topped with fresh cilantro.
Hahaha LOVE THAT! Happy you guys both enjoyed it!
This is a delicious and totally flexible recipe. I made the broth mixture as indicated. Instead of adding carrots and chicken I added zucchini, spinach, chickpeas and cubed tofu along with the brown rice. I had some leftover white rice from last night’s Thai dinner so I tossed that in too. Added.fish sauce and juice from 2 limes. At the end I beat in two scrambled eggs, similar to egg drop soup. Absolutely delicious! It may sound like I changed the entire recipe, but in fact it’s the fantastic flavors in the broth that make this soup so flavorful and delicious. Made a great big pot of soup we can eat all week! Yum!
That all sounds amazing!! And I’m all about adapting recipes 🙂 So glad you loved it.
Holy cow, the flavors!!!! So so good. Didn’t skip the topping like she said and it was perfect.
I’m so happy you loved it! Don’t the toppings take it over the top?! 🙂
Your original chicken soup has been my favorite soil but this one may be even better. I made this with rice noodles and even the kids were happily eating it.
I’m SO happy you and the kids love this one too!! Thanks, Liz 🙂
This was the most nourishing soup!! Perfect for a cold day. I loved all the flavors – the fish sauce and lime at the end really make it. I just served with mint on top – so so good. I can’t wait to have the leftovers.
I’m so happy you loved it, Molly! Thank you 🙂
I made a version with chicken and one with chickpeas. Both are superb! I added more broth to both, as suggested. I didn’t have red curry paste so subbed garlic chili sauce. Now it is a tie between this and your Vegan Curried Pumpkin Lentil Soup for the my fav! Thanks, Monique!
Oooh that sounds phenomenal! Happy you loved it!
Hi I made the overnight oats and many dishes from ambitious kitchen and all r great and good taste with simple ingredients found at home plus healthy and filling
Thanks Ak
A cozy, nourishing bowl of everything you want this winter! I subbed soy curls for chicken to and veggie broth instead of chicken broth. The subs worked out great and I will have this on repeat!
Great subs! So glad you loved it, Jessa 🙂
Amazing! Probably the best soup I’ve ever made. It was so flavorful! My husband even commented on his good it was. My 9 year old also enjoyed it, which is a huge win!
Ahh that’s amazing to hear! Thanks for leaving a review 🙂
Made this tonight, it’s absolutely delicious! I followed the recipe exactly except I added a bag of spinach at the end. Super cozy, nourishing, and flavorful. I love comforting winter recipes that also taste vibrant and fresh. Thank you!
Spinach is a great addition! So glad to hear you loved it 🙂
Delicious! Love the flavor profile. This soup is comforting without being a heavy dish. Thank you Monique!
I made a nice big pot of this soup for my husband and I after eating out for a week on vacation. We wanted something healthy and nourishing to get back on track that was also comforting. We both LOVED this soup – my husband, a fairly picky eater who doesn’t eat much when he doesn’t like something, said this soup was one of the best things he’d ever eaten. It’s packed full of flavor, so healthy and based on lots of fresh, wholesome ingredients. This is definitely going into our regular dinner rotation (along with the healthy turkey chili). Thank you for such a great recipe!
Omg I’m SO glad you both loved it! Thanks, Jasmine!
Wow! This soup is SO SO good! Such simple ingredients, and it packs so much flavor. I used fresh ginger but dried turmeric. For the toppings I used the suggested fresh basil and cilantro. Seriously delicious! Thank you for the yummy recipe!
Nice! So happy you loved it, Rebecca!!
This soup is insanely delicious – I’m eating it as I type. I made it exactly as written but I think it’d be even better with rice noodles. Definitely going to make it on repeat these cold winter months!
Oh I’m SO glad you’re loving it. Yay! I bet rice noodles would be amazing in here 🙂
This is such a lovely soup!! Tons of flavor!
I’m going to make it tomorrow again but my grocery stores are out of green onion. Would red onion be ok?
Sorry for the delay! Totally fine to use red onion 🙂
This soup was AMAZING. I couldn’t even finish my bowl without stopping to send the recipe link to my friends to try. The flavor is incredible and the soup ends up being so creamy. I used full fat coconut milk (only because I was out of low fat) and I would use it again. The peanuts on top are a must! 10/10!
I’m so glad you’re a fan! Yay!
SOOO GOOD!! I didn’t add chili paste because I’m a wimp with spice but the whole family loved it including my 18 month old!
All good, totally fine to leave that out! So happy you all loved this 🙂
This soup is fantastic
Happy you’re loving it, Tyler!
So unbelievably delicious!! Heartwarming like classic chicken soup but even better!
Thank you so much! Thrilled to hear you enjoyed it 🥰
Absolutely incredible. This will be a new staple in our home for years to come.
I’m so glad you love it!! Thank you for the review, Tom ☺️
Delicious! Threw in some kale I needed to use up towards the end, which added a nice heartiness 🙂
Great addition! So happy you enjoyed it 🙂
I’ve made this multiple times. It’s a favorite in our house! I’ve made it as written but also have subbed using tofu, ramen noodles instead of rice, and always omitting the fish sauce.
Those are all great modifications! I’m so glad you and your family are enjoying the recipe — thank you 🙂
I make curries often and love turmeric but this dish tasted flat. I made no substitutions.
Liz
I added cumin and coriander and it tastes much better.
Thanks for the feedback, Liz. I + lots of my readers find it really flavorful! Any chance it needed more salt? Glad to hear the cumin + coriander helped 🙂
This is amazing! I’ve had a cold all week, saw this and had to make it. I followed the recipe exactly. Perfection!
My wife had an upset stomach so I made this for her for dinner. I used vegetable broth and substituted tofu for the chicken since we’re both vegan. It was a fabulous, healing soup that made both of us feel great. Thanks for sharing this recipe! (BTW, I didn’t have fresh turmeric on hand and wouldn’t know where to get it, so I substituted 1 tsp powdered — seems to have been about right.)
Made this soup because my husband and I are healing from COVID and needed something soothing. Because we were quarantined, we made due with what we had! I used yellow onion instead of green onions and ground Turkey instead of chicken. I browned the Turkey after sautéing the veggies and before adding the broth. I used quick cook brown rice and because I had browned the meat already, I covered the soup immediately and simmered until the rice was cooked. It came out great! Thank you so much for the comforting recipe.
My husband and I both have Covid right now, so I made this for us for dinner last night. Loved the heartiness, the ginger, and the turmeric. The soy sauce was just too strong for both of us, it mostly tasted like soy sauce. I made a note on my printed out recipe to just add a dash next time instead of a 1/4 cup. I did use reduced sodium soy sauce. Other than that it was a great recipe!
Hi! So sorry to hear you both have Covid — I hope that clears up ASAP! Glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂 And thanks for the feedback about the soy sauce. Good call to reduce the amount next time 🙂