“This is a deeply comforting soup that will fill your belly while nourishing you,” says food writer Rosie Reynolds.
“It’s a super easy one-pot soup that works well with most vegetables. Use the best quality chicken thighs you can afford, as these are the base for the broth, and the meat is shredded and eaten in the soup.”
Read: Leek and Potato Soup
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 1-2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 6 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
- 6 spring onions, green and white parts separated and finely chopped
- 5cm piece of ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 4 garlic cloves, sliced
- 800ml cold water
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine or rice wine vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon caster sugar
- 250g dried fine egg noodles
- 4 pak choi (bok choi), halved lengthways
- fermented black bean and chilli sauce or your favourite chilli sauce or chilli oil, to serve.
Read: Five-Bean Chilli and Cornbread
Method
Heat a drizzle of the sesame oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chicken thighs, skin-side down, and leave to cook undisturbed for three to five minutes, or until the skin is golden brown. Flip over and cook for a further three minutes.
Push the chicken to one side and add a little more sesame oil to the pan, then add the white parts of the spring onions, along with the ginger and garlic. Fry for two minutes then pour in the cold water, soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine, along with any remaining sesame oil.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning, adding more soy, rice wine or sesame oil as you feel necessary.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken thighs from the soup. Discard the skin (if you don’t like it) and the bones, then use a couple of forks to pull the meat apart.
Add the noodles to the soup and cook for two minutes, then add the pak choi and cook for a further three minutes until tender.
Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup, then ladle into four serving bowls. Serve topped with the spring onion greens and a drizzle of chilli oil.
Make ahead
Make the soup base up to three days in advance, or cook and freeze the broth and chicken. Pre-cook your noodles and add to the soup with the greens.
Read: Best recipes for freezing
The shortcut
This one-pot method means you waste no time in making a broth to then make a soup – it all works magically in one step.
The Shortcut Cook by Rosie Reynolds, photography by Louise Hagger, is published by Hardie Grant.
How many one-pot meals are in your repertoire? Are you a fan of soup during the colder seasons?
– With PA