Skills you will learn in this recipe
Poaching poultry; shredding meat; shredding cabbage; pureeing; making soup
Links to the last recipe
Cooking with chicken; using Asian flavours
We make this soup very often, particularly on weekday evenings, as it is so quick and easy to prepare. It uses poached chicken too, and virtually no fat, so manages to be both healthy and hearty at the same time. The soy and ginger give it a lovely saltiness and rich heat. We feel both virtuous and very full after eating it – it is extremely moreish but also good for you. Win win!
We add cabbage because we like it, but you can adapt it with any leafy or other vegetables you like, or add egg noodles instead.
We use poached chicken breast in this recipe as it is heathy, moist and easy to shred. You can find out how to do this in our Tip. But you could also shred chicken which you have roasted yourself (it’s a good way of using the leftovers from a roast whole chicken) or buy ready-roasted chicken portions and shred those, particularly if you are short on time.
Today we poached two boneless, skinless chicken breasts, in good quality bone broth – which then forms the base liquid for the soup. Bone broth is lower fat and higher protein than most stocks, so makes a great and healthy base, but you could poach the chicken in any type of meat or vegetable stock – just remember to keep the cooking liquid once you have poached the meat. If you are using roasted meat, just use a good quality stock as your base.
Today our chicken breasts were quite thick, so took about 15 minutes to poach – thinner ones can be done in about 10 to 12 minutes, and do make sure to test your chicken is done by cutting into at, as per our Tip. You can then shred the meat with a fork, working with the grain, again as shown in detail in our Tip. The resulting meat will be in nice, long strands, and very moist and healthy.
While the chicken is poaching, prepare your vegetables. Remove the bristly tips and outer layer(s) from your spring onions, to leave nice clean lengths, then chop quite finely into diagonal slices – we find it is easiest to snip them with scissors. Include some of the green as well as the white. Today we used 4 spring onions, but it does depend on how large they are.
Next shred your cabbage. Any cabbage or leafy vegetable you like will work, but we like a green cabbage, such as the commonly available savoy. Remove the outer leaves as they can be tough, then cut off the base of the stalk. Cut the cabbage in half and remove the rest of the stalk. Cabbages can be quite solid and hard to cut; your knife can slip so take care. Use a large and very sharp knife (sometimes we find a bread knife works best to halve it).
Now shred your cabbage. Slice across each half with long strokes to create medium thick shreds. Today our cabbage was very large so we could afford to be picky about which shreds to keep. Discard any that are too small, or have large tough pieces of white vein in them. We only really needed just over half of today’s cabbage so we kept some aside, but if you cabbage is small you may need all of it.
Now prepare your sweetcorn. The reason we specify two small cans is it makes it easier to treat each differently. Drain one can and set the kernels aside. Then drain the other can and put the kernels into a food processor (we used the smaller bowl of its two bowls) or blender and blend to a smooth puree with about one cup of cold water.
Next peel and grate your ginger. You can find out how in our Tip.
You ingredients are now all ready and you can prepare your soup. This has a very short cooking time, so start cooking about 10 minutes before you are ready to serve.
First bring your reserved poaching stock to the boil and add the cabbage. Make sure it comes back up to the boil and then simmer the cabbage until it is tender. This will probably take about 5 minutes, but the best way to tell is to remove a strand of cabbage and bite into it – if you like the texture, and it is soft but still retains some bite, you are ready to add your next ingredients.
Now add your whole corn, pureed corn, spring onions, ginger and soy sauce to your pan, and season with pepper. We generally don’t feel this recipe needs salt due to the stock and soy, but taste and adjust to your preference. How much soy depends again on personal preference – 2 to 3 tablespoons is a good start point. Soy can take over, however, so add, taste and add again if needed, remembering you can easily add more, but can’t take away.
The overall flavour profile you are looking for is an aromatic heat from the ginger, matched with a savouriness from the flavoured stock. You could add other herbs, spices or heat at this point, but we prefer it as is – it has a subtle, almost plain, healthy taste to it that makes it so moreish to eat. Stir, taste and adjust seasonings if necessary, then add your shredded chicken, and stir again.
Jake sticks his nose in
There are various types and many brands of soy sauce you can buy, but they broadly fit into ‘dark’ or ‘light’ categories. For this recipe, we prefer light.
If you wanted to prepare your soup ahead it could be left at this point, with the heat off and lid on – it will keep very happily for a couple of hours or so, though your cabbage will be a little softer as a result.
However if you are serving straight away, you just need to thicken the soup slightly and we do this with a little flour and water mix. You need a light, finely milled flour like corn flour, tapioca flour or arrowroot. We tend to use corn flour as it’s the one we normally have in the store cupboard. Dissolve about 2 tablespoons in a splash of water so you get quick a thick but still pourable mix, stir well with a teaspoon and add to the soup.
Jake sticks his nose in
Don’t use normal plain (wheat) flour to thicken. It will leave an uncooked, floury taste and may leave lumps.
Simmer for another 3 to 4 mins, or until the soup is very slightly thickened, remembering to bring the soup back up the boil first if you have prepped ahead. The soup won’t get really thick and you don’t want it to, you just want to see a very slight thickening. It will look slightly cloudier and ‘glossier’ as below.
You soup is now ready to serve. Enjoy, it really is very healthy, and very, very good!
Healthy Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- First trim down and, if necessary, skin your chicken breasts. Bring the stock or broth to the boil in a large saucepan, add the chicken and poach with the lid on for about 10 to 12 mins or until done. See our poaching Tip.
- While the chicken is poaching and cooling, prepare your vegetables. Remove the root and outer layer from the spring onions, and slice thinly on the diagonal with scissors.
- Remove the outer leaves and root from the cabbage, halve, and shred medium thin.
- Drain both cans of sweetcorn, setting one aside and adding the other to the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add 1 cup of water, and blend to a smooth puree.
- Peel and grate your ginger. See our ginger Tip.
- Allow the chicken to cool slightly, then shred, going with the grain, with a fork. See our shredding Tip.
- Bring the reserved stock to the boil, add the shredded cabbage and cook for about 5 minutes, or until softened but still retaining some bite.
- Add the corn kernels, pureed corn, spring onions, ginger and soy sauce to the pan and season with black pepper. Stir, taste and adjust if necessary, then add the shredded chicken and stir again. Bring back up to the boil, then turn down to a simmer.
- Mix the corn flour with a splash of water and stir thoroughly with a teaspoon to form a thick but pourable paste. Add this to the soup and simmer for about 3 to 4 minutes or until the soup has thickened very slightly.
- Enjoy!