This soup can be made in as little as 25 minutes if using pre-prepared chicken stock and canned creamed corn. Add some greens to the soup, with some bread on the side, and there is a complete meal.
The best chicken soup, however, means making your own stock from good-quality chicken. The added bonus is the extra shredded chicken for use in other dishes, as sandwich filling, or frozen for use in the next batch of soup.
Cook one whole chicken on a trivet in a pressure cooker for an hour, or in a pot or casserole dish with a lid with 500 ml water, a chopped onion, a stick of celery and a chopped carrot until falling apart.
Remove the chicken, cool and take the flesh off the carcass, putting the skin and bones back into the original pot with the original liquid. Top up the water to just cover the bones, boil again for 20 minutes, strain and use as the soup base. Alternatively, 500 ml pre-prepared chicken stock can be used for ease. Poach a chicken breast in the stock to shred for later addition to the soup.
INGREDIENTS
4 steamed corn cobs – remove the kernels and purée in a food processor, or use 1 can of creamed corn
1 tablespoon soy sauce (use light soy)
1 tsp grated ginger
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon cornflour, made into a slurry with cold water
1 beaten egg
1 cup shredded chicken, reserved from making the stock or from poached breast
Salt and pepper to taste
Sliced spring onions to serve
METHOD
Bring the stock, corn, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and cornflour to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes to thicken, add the beaten egg and stir through. Add the shredded chicken and garnish with sliced spring onion.
