Chicken Corn Soup

A good shoveling workout, calls for a hearty, warm soup. To be honest, my soup making skills are not too diverse. I have promised the boys, I’ll experiment with other recipes, but for the time being, this chicken corn soup is my go to soup. It’s a hybrid between an authentic chicken corn and a hot and sour. I like to have it thick with some crunchy noodles or fish crackers.

Snow, snow and more snow!

If you missed the news recently, Colorado got hit by a ‘bombcyclone’ recently. It sounds more apocalyptic than it was. Wait, I take that back. It was quite a snowpocalypse!Highways got shut down, power out for some, cars and people stranded on streets, taking shelter in convenience stores ( or whatever they could find open), and of course, all flights suspended!

Taimoor was set to travel to Mexico the day the storm hit, so you can well imagine my anxiety levels. He, and a group of peers, were going with some teachers to a town called Cuatla to set up a library and a computer lab at a sister school there. As the snow got worse, the flights were initially rescheduled for the following day, but the highway was shut down. School districts had announced two consecutive snow days ( something that is rarely done because if they go over three days, they extend the school year!) Long story short, the trip to Mexico got rescheduled for two months later. Instead of enjoying 70 degree weather, Taimoor ended up helping me shovel the heavy, wet snow!

Ingredients:

10 cups of water
Handful of chicken strips ( breast/thigh)
5 -6 Carrots whole
½ inch piece of ginger whole
¼ onion whole
5 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons chicken stock powder
2 tablespoons white vinegar
Salt, as needed
2-3 shoots green onions sliced
1 can cream style corn
4-5 dried mushrooms, chopped small
1 tablespoon sambal oelek/ chilli paste
Generous pinch of fresh ground black pepper
1 egg, slightly beaten
7 tablespoons of cornstarch whipped in a slurry with cold water

Directions:

1. Boil the chicken, onion, ginger, carrots with the salt, pepper, soy sauce, dried mushroom, chilli paste and vinegar. Tip: If you have reserved chicken bones, they add rich flavor to the stock. However, if you are in a hurry, then use the stock powder. Be careful to check the salt levels because the soy sauce is fairly salty too.
2. Pull out the whole ingredients and chop up/ shred the chicken and dice the carrots. Discard the onions and ginger.
3. Add the corn and corn starch slurry. Simmer.
4. Once the mixture thickens, add the lightly beaten egg. Stir it as it hits the soup for the thick strands to show up.
5. Check all seasonings. Garnish with the spring onions.
6. Serve piping hot!

Here’s some Vietnamese rolls to serve alongside these, if you wish!