It’s been almost a year since I’ve posted a recipe. Creative juices have not been flowing, so I’ve been falling back on tried and true comfort dishes. I’ve posted most of my favorites already, but somehow missed this one. I can confidently say that this is actually my favorite soup of all time, and I make it any time I find ground chicken in my fridge. I’ve been craving Taiwanese food more and more lately since my work hasn’t been bringing me to Asia as much, and this soup is so transportative, I can almost close my eyes and imagine being there. I aggressively season with white pepper and sesame oil, and I don’t use as much cornstarch as most recipes, so the soup is light but very very flavorful, and the smell of it alone is enough to make you think you’re about to sit down to some sort of 20 course meal in a Chinese banquet hall (though for me the soup itself is enough of a feast because I always eat at least 5 bowls of it).
Sometimes if I’m running low on ingredients, I like to prepare a smaller batch of this soup and add way more cornstarch than most recipes call for, and thicken the soup into more of a gloopy, glossy, almost bouncy sauce, which I serve over rice with some steamed bak choy. The flavors are robust enough that they don’t get diluted by the rice, but sometimes I add a little fresh tomato if I’m preparing it this way, just to give a little extra acidity to compliment the sweet and vegetal bak choy. Honestly the base is extremely versatile so you can prepare it however you want once you practice the art of thickening with cornstarch enough.
Anyway, like I said, creative juices aren’t flowing, so I hope you make this and I hope you enjoy. Let me know how it goes!
Butter Count: It’s Chinese Food
INGREDIENTS:
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb ground chicken
6 cups chicken stock, separated
4 ears fresh corn, shucked
1 Tbsp Xiao Xing rice wine
4 Tbsp corn starch
6 Tbsp water
3 eggs, beaten
1 package silken tofu, roughly chopped or crushed
2 green onions
sesame oil to taste
salt to taste
white pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS:
Add the vegetable to a large pot over high heat. Just when it starts to smoke, add the ground chicken. Separate it into a single layer and cook about 2 minutes. Stir and continue cooking so that it cooks on all sides.
While the chicken cooks, add the corn and 1 cup of chicken stock to a bowl. Crush the corn with a potato masher, or blitz it a few times with an immersion blender. Be sure not to cream all the corn - a few whole kernels in every mouthful is key for texture.
Add the Xiao Xing rice wine to the corn mixture.
Add the remaining 5 cups of chicken stock to the pot with the ground chicken and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Add the corn mixture to the pot and bring back to a simmer, still over medium heat.
In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and water, stirring with a fork until there is no resistance at all, to make a slurry.
When the soup starts bubbling, slowly add the cornstarch mixture and stir it in. Allow it to cook about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the soup is thickened to your liking.
Slowly pour the beaten eggs into the pot, while stirring gently, to make ribbons.
Add the silken tofu and stir until it has broken up a little.
Add the green onions, and then season with the sesame oil, salt, and white pepper. Be careful not to use too much of any of the seasonings.
Get to slurping!