“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 up and eaten in the soup.”
Asian chicken noodle soup from The Shortcut Cook by Rosie Reynolds
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1-2tbsp sesame oil
- 6 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
- 6 spring onions, green and white parts separated and finely chopped
- 5cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 4 garlic cloves, sliced
- 800ml cold water
- 2tbsp light soy sauce
- 2tbsp Chinese cooking wine or rice wine vinegar
- ¼tsp 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
Method:
Heat a drizzle of the sesame oil in a large saucepan over a 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.
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, published by Hardie Grant, £15) is available now
