Coconut Chicken Soup

This is my new comfort soup.  There is nothing authenticly Thai about this.  It's something I was craving so I threw what I thought would taste good into a large pot, and voila!  It was good and so totally comforting.  It's got the perfect amount of heat, great texture and depth of flavour.  You can totally tweak this to make it your own.  Fresh grated ginger would be good but I didn't have any - next time.  You could also use baby bok choy in place of the spinach or shrimp in place of the chicken.  Play with your veggies too.  I just really enjoyed what I used.
If you don't have fish sauce you could perhaps use soy sauce but the fish sauce really does give it great flavour.  If you've never bought and/or used it before, don't smell it.  Just don't do it.  Open it and use it as directed but don't smell it.  It's not worth it.  It stinks but it makes food taste good.  Don't confuse yourself with asking why.  As well, the garlic chili sauce is fairly important but you could probably substitute fresh garlic and chili flakes for it if you really had to or fresh chili.  The sauce is easy to find and inexpensive and it is something that adds great flavour as well as heat to many dishes.  If you don't have lime leaves, use lime rind but it is worth finding the leaves.  Mine weren't fresh, they were dried. 
Again, I know my picture needs work but it was 9:30 at night and I hadn't eaten for almost 10 hours.  I was hungry.  That's my story.  Deal with it.  Enjoy the soup.

Coconut Chicken Soup

Serves 4

4 Cups of low sodium Chicken Broth
1 can Regular Coconut Milk (better flavour than Light)
2-3 tsp Garlic Chili Sauce (I use 3)
3-4 Lime leaves
2 tbsp Fish Sauce
1 Chicken breast, sliced thinly into bite size pieces
1 tomato, seeded and diced
1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms
Big handful of baby spinach
1/2 cup frozen corn (optional)
Rice Noodles, prepared according to directions
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 lime

Pour the chicken broth and coconut milk into a large pot over med high heat and stir to combine.  Add the garlic chili sauce, fish sauce and lime leaves.  Cook over heat for about 10 minutes.  Add the chicken, mushrooms and tomato and simmer for about 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.  Toss in the spinach to wilt and corn if using.  To serve, remove the lime leaves, pour the soup over the noodles in a bowl and garnish with a spinkling of green onion and a fresh squeeze of lime juice.  Yum!