This Thai Chicken Soup with zucchini noodles is the ultimate low carb comfort food. It has a rich, coconut-scented broth with plenty of chicken and vegetables. And it takes only 30 minutes to make!
I first created this delicious Thai Chicken Soup back in 2015 and it’s been a favorite ever since. When the chilly rains creep over the Pacific Northwest, we make this easy keto soup frequently.
I really do love soup of all kinds. Rich and hearty soups like my Chile Relleno Chicken Soup, or vegetable soups like Instant Pot Cauliflower Soup. And you will often find a pot of Keto Chili bubbling away in my kitchen.
I made this Thai-style coconut chicken soup recently for a friend when she was under the weather. And she swears it cured her of the flu. Now that’s a healthy bowl of deliciousness!
Why we love it
This recipe is lighter than a lot of keto soups, so it’s great when you don’t want a heavy meal. While the coconut milk does lend some creaminess to the broth, it doesn’t have any dairy. It also has a bright fresh flavor from the green curry paste.
And the zucchini noodles stay nice and firm, without become a soggy mess. The trick is to add them to each bowl before ladling the hot soup overtop. That way, they cook just enough to combine perfectly with the other ingredients.
With all the chicken and low carb vegetables, it’s a healthy high protein recipe. And it takes only 15 minutes to make, start to finish. Easy enough for a busy weeknight!
Reader reviews
“Delicious! My hubby said he could eat this every week forever… he is super picky, so thats a win.” — Jacky P.
“We had this for dinner tonight and honestly we all agreed it was one of the best soups we have ever had! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.” — Kitty
“This was so good! I loved the flavor, but I loved even more that my girls loved it. They are so picky sometimes!” — Julie B.
Ingredients you need
- Onion: You can use white or yellow onions.
- Jalapeño: Skip this if you don’t like spicy food.
- Green curry paste: You can also use red curry paste, but I think green has the right flavor for this recipe.
- Garlic: Fresh garlic is a must for the best flavor.
- Canned coconut milk: This is the base of the soup and gives it flavor and creaminess. Use full fat coconut milk.
- Red bell pepper: This adds some color and flavor.
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs: By cutting the chicken into thin strips, they will cook quickly in the soup. You can also use any leftover cooked chicken you have. Just add to the soup and it’s ready when heated through.
- Fish sauce: There really is no substitute for fish sauce, so don’t skip it. I use Red Boat for a sugar free fish sauce.
- Cilantro: Fresh cilantro offers such vibrant and wonderful flavor. You can use parsley or basil if you can’t tolerate cilantro.
- Zucchini: You will need to spiralize the zucchini noodles prior to making the soup.
- Lime: Again, fresh lime offers more bright and wonderful flavor and a little acid to balance the soup.
- Staples: Chicken broth, avocado oil.
Step by Step Directions
1. Sauté the onions: In a large sauce pan, heat the avocado oil over medium heat until melted and shimmering. Add the onions and sauté until just translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the aromatics: Stir in the jalapeño, curry paste, and garlic, and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and coconut milk, whisking until fully combined.
3. Add the chicken: Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and add the red pepper, chicken, and fish sauce. Let simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cilantro.
4. Add zoodles and serve: Divide the zoodles among 8 soup bowls and ladle the soup over; the heat of the soup will make the zoodles tender. (If you are not serving it all at once, only use enough zoodles for each bowl of soup you are serving. The rest will keep well in a covered container for a few days). Serve each with a squeeze of lime.
Tips for Success
Purchase a good spiral vegetable cutter. The hand-held ones are not worth your time and money, and the bigger ones are not particularly expensive. I have the Paderno spiralizer and it’s lasted me for years.
Don’t add the zucchini noodles to the pot. By placing the zucchini noodles in your soup bowl and ladling the hot soup over it, the heat of the broth cooks the noodles perfectly, without making them soggy.
If you are not serving it all at once, only use enough zoodles for each bowl of soup you are serving. The rest will keep well in a covered container for a few days.
Slice the chicken relatively thinly so it cooks quickly and evenly. No need to cook it before adding it to the soup!
Frequently Asked Questions
Surprisingly, they can. Not too far ahead, mind you. But I’ve had leftover zucchini noodles from recipes like this one and I’ve simply popped them in a tupperware and stored them in the fridge. They are fine for up to 3 days. Don’t try freezing them, as they become complete mush.
You can freeze this Thai soup as long as you don’t include the zucchini noodles. The soup will freeze well for up to 3 months. Once reheated, add the zoodles and enjoy!
This Keto Thai Chicken Soup recipe has 6g of carbs and 1g of fiber per serving. That comes to 5g net carbs per serving.
More keto Thai-style recipes
Thai Chicken Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp avocado oil, can also use coconut or olive oil
- 1/4 medium onion,, chopped
- 1 medium jalapeño,, chopped
- 1 1/2 tbsp green curry paste
- 2 cloves garlic,, minced
- 6 cups (1,419.53 ml) chicken bone broth
- 13.5 ounces (382.72 g) canned coconut milk, (full fat)
- 1 medium red pepper,, thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 pound (680.39 g) chicken breasts or thighs,, thinly sliced against the grain
- 2 tbsp fish sauce, (use Red Boat for sugar free)
- 1/4 cup (4 g) chopped cilantro
- 2 medium (566 g) zucchini (about 10 ounces each), spiralized
- 1 lime, cut into 8 wedges
Instructions
- In a large sauce pan, heat the coconut oil over medium heat until melted and shimmering. Add the onions and sauté until just translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the jalapeño, curry paste and garlic, and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and coconut milk, whisking until fully combined.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and add the red pepper, chicken and fish sauce. Let simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cilantro.
- Divide the zoodles among 8 soup bowls and ladle the soup over; the heat of the soup will make the zoodles tender. (If you are not serving it all at once, only use enough zoodles for each bowl of soup you are serving. The rest will keep well in a covered container for a few days).
- Serve each with a squeeze of lime.
Notes
Nutrition
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oh my gosh this looks amazing! Thank you so much!
Thai food has become a fan favorite in our home. I will have to give this recipe a try!
My kids are more motivated to eat veggies when they’re in spiral form so I use it as much as possible too! This soup sounds pretty amazing!
This looks so good! Can you make this in a crockpot?
I am sure you can, but I haven’t tried it.
OMG! It is glorious!!! I just had to add celery and little ginger, also I made it without fish sauce or jalapeno, but it is still so close to the original Thai chicken soup! I loved it, and it will be my favorite this winter for sure! so fast, and so good!Thank you SO MUCH!!!
So glad you liked it!
This soup sounds delicious and I’m looking forward to trying it as I absolutely love Thai food but have been avoiding it while on the keto diet these past few months. One question – if I make a batch of this soup for lunchtime at work will the zoodles cook well enough if I just put them in before reheating it in the microwave each day?
I think they should be okay as long as they aren’t sitting in the soup all day.
Delicious! My hubby said he could eat this every week forever… he is super picky, so thats a win!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I made it today and it was delicious!!
Kind regards,
Nancy
Yum, i totally love this kind of meal at my local Thai!
I’ve made something similar – zucchini noodles work so well in Asian inspired sous!
I have been on a MAJOR soup kick lately. This seems a bit spicy for my taste so I have to tone that down a little bit (suggestions welcome) but love the main ingredients.
It really isn’t spicy at all! Give it a whirl.
This soup is soo full of umami flavor that it is a must try. It’s not spicy, really, so if you are looking for some heat you may need to alter a bit. I made it for lunch this week as the recipe calls for. I ended up making another batch of broth (green curry paste + chx broth + coconut milk) and cooked 2lb more of chicken to add to the remaining soup. We like our soups hearty in this house, and there’s NEVER enough broth when it tastes this good. Will definitely add this one to the rotation. Next time I will probably double up on the red pepper also, and figure out something to add to give it a little more of a kick. Maybe habanero as someone else suggested instead of the jalapeno.
This versatile soup was (is, and shall forever be) one of the most flavorful and amazing things I have ever eaten! So much so that I’ve chopped and frozen all of the ingredients in order to have them ready to cook up in my IP whenever I crave it. And crave it I will! Thank you!!! Out of sheer ignorance, I’d never even tried cooking with fish sauce. (I know…) I thought it just added a fishy flavor that many people actually enjoy, and I had always omitted it from any recipe’s. Recently I had been given a 2 Tb sample, and since your soup looked so pretty I tried it. Hello unami! Mind and taste buds blown! For my second batch we were out of zucchini so I used some shredded cabbage and a couple cups of chopped celery. Twas also outstanding. I think pretty much any green veggie would be fantastic. Win, win!
So glad you tried it with the fish sauce.
2 questions:
first, can I use regular coconut milk rather than canned?
second, would this freeze well? Its just me, and I try to make dishes I can eat a serving then freeze the rest into containers to eat at work or on other nights.
Thank you. I love your site, you make me dream about food all day too!
Canned coconut milk is the regular kind. It’s thicker than carton versions and has more good fats. You can freeze this soup as long as you don’t add the zucchini noodles. Those will get completely soggy and gross.
I am not a fan of Thai food, but thought I would try this anyway. It was delicious! My daughter is on chemo, and she also loved it.
I am so glad to hear it hit the spot, especially for someone who is going through chemo.
Do you have a good quality small spiralizer that you recommend? I used to have the big one you linked to but it was just a hassle and bulk for my small house. I saw this one below but it seems kinda dangerous for kids..are they all that way? my kids always enjoyed using the big one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CA6R4RS?psc=1
I do still use the Paderno one but I hear good things about this little one too http://amzn.to/2mFNngA
Thank you so much for this recipe. I’m new to cooking and found this very easy to follow. Also the ingredients weren’t hard to find. I devoured my bowl so fast and it made my sore throat (a bad cold I have) feel so much better. Next time I will add a bit more coconut milk since I only had 13.5 ounce can (it was still perfectly yummy). I also added baby mushrooms, green onions and 2tbsp of the curry paste instead of just 1 1/2 tbsp. I seasoned my chicken breast also before adding with poultry seasoning. Thank you so much. Can’t wait to make this with shrimp next time for my boyfriend.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I made this yesterday and it came out great. I added a little more green curry than the recipe calls for and I added a little season salt. I also cooked the chicken separately (with a little salt and pepper) and added it to the mixture. I like food super flavorful so I modified it a bit. Thanks for the recipe. It was awesome.
I just found this recipe this morning, and made it for lunch just now (after a trip to the store). I was craving soup, and this looked great. Plus, I had the zucchini noodler gadget, and I had only used it once, with disappointing results due to an “eh” recipe.
All ingredients for this soup were easy to get, and this recipe was easy to make. The “Red Boat” fish sauce was $14 at Whole Foods, and I wasn’t that committed. I bought a much smaller bottle for $2-3. I left out the cilantro due to my personal aversion, and I didn’t miss it. I’d probably chop some on the side for my husband, though.
I added a pinch of sea salt.
End result: This was really, really good! So glad I tried it. I like more of a kick to my food, and this recipe is incredibly mild. I’d probably add some red Thai peppers, or a solid habenero next time. I will be keeping this recipe and making it again!
I am so glad you tried it too!
I just made this soup using chicken thighs and love it! Will use someone else’s idea and get a rotisserie for next time. Not a big deal, but my coconut milk seems to have separated. Any idea why? It just kinda sits on top until I mix it in but separates again pretty quickly.