Chicken soup with miso and rice
A salty, chunky chicken soup for fragile days - a filling and satisfying meal in a bowl removing all traces of cravings (and possible hangovers).
Servings: 2 with leftovers
Ingredients
- 1 shallot
- 2 cm fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1100 ml water
- 50 ml soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- ½ tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp honey
- 2 carrots
- 1 1.3-1.4 kg free-range chicken legs and wings removed
- 1 pak choi
- 40 g basmati rice
- 2 tbsp white miso and equal parts water
- Softly cooked boiled eggs, sesame seeds, sliced spring onion and coriander to serve
Instructions
- First, finely dice the shallot. Warm the sesame oil in a roomy stockpot or saucepan - one that could fit a wingless, legless chicken - over medium heat. Grate in the ginger and the garlic and add the diced shallot. Fry for a minute then remove from the heat as you make the broth.
- In a large jug, combine the water, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce and honey. Pour it all into the stock pot and stir it all together to ensure there is no garlic or ginger stuck to the bottom. Return the pan to the heat.
- Wash and peel the carrots then chop them in half so they become big chunks. Add them to the stock. Taste the stock and adjust seasoning as you wish.
- Now gently lower the chicken into the stock, make sure the liquid fills the cavity otherwise it will float. Turn the heat up to high and bring the stock to the boil. Once it is bubbling, reduce the heat to low again and put the lid on. Leave it to simmer for 1 hour.
- While waiting, you can prepare the soft boiled eggs for the garnish. Slice the pak choi in half to be poached in the broth later. Weigh the rice. Prepare your garnishes. Wash up! Keep checking on the soup to make sure it is still simmering very gently.
- When the hour is up, gently remove the chicken with some tongs. Set it and the carrot chunks on a chopping board, and using a knife and fork - try to avoid burning your fingers - slice off some chicken. If it falls off the bone, it is ready.
- Bring the broth to the boil and add the rice which will cook for 10 minutes. Shred the chicken and slice the carrot.
- After the rice has cooked for 5 minutes, add the pak choi to the stock and cook for another 5 minutes. Once the rooty base is soft, remove them from the saucepan.
- Dilute the miso with equal parts cold water. Stir it all together in a ramekin then pour it into the soup.
- Return the chicken and carrot to the soup and stir everything together. Remove the pan from the heat and serve the soup in bowls, scooping out rice and shredded chicken into each bowl. Top with the pak choi halves, half a soft boiled egg, sesame seeds, sliced spring onion and coriander.