Peruvian Chicken soup

I spotted this recipe for a Peruvian Chicken Soup on line, and with snow forecast, I decided that today was the day to try it out. It may sound like rather a lot of work, but I found that I could do the next bit of prep as the last was cooking, so it didn’t take me very long at all. The original recipe – I’m not Peruvian, but you knew that already, right? 😉 – called for a rotisserie chicken, but I poached two chicken breasts in stock for about 15-20 minutes, then shredded them as soon as they were cool enough to handle, and they worked really well.  It’s an easy way to use up a cooked Sunday lunch chicken. This would be a great dish to feed a crowd when you have very little meat in the house, but your vegetable drawer needs tidied up! It’s warm, spicy and very comforting – especially nice when the snow arrived just as I was about to tuck into a big bowl of it!

EQUIPMENT:

• A large pot
• Long handled wooden spoon
• a garlic press
• a small herb mill, very useful, but not essential (see notes)

INGREDIENTS: to feed about 6 hungry people

• Cooked chicken, no more than two Chicken breasts, shredded.
• 1 tablespoon of Rapeseed oil
• A green chilli, finely chopped.
• 1 medium onion, diced

• 1 red pepper, seeded, cored and diced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin (I added and extra half teaspoon, because I love it)
• Salt, and Black pepper, to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed through a garlic press.
• 2-3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into smallish chunks
• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced.
• 1-2 cobs of uncooked corn, kernels taken off the cob or a small tin of Sweetcorn, drained

• 120g uncooked white rice
• 1 litre of hot chicken or vegetable stock
• Thinly sliced green onions, for topping

For the Salsa:

• A large handful of fresh Coriander, including the stalks, washed and shaken dry.
• A roughly chopped Green chilli – seeds removed.
• 2 crushed cloves of garlic
• 1 lime, juiced
• Half a mug of hot water or stock.

METHOD:

• Put the oil into the pot and heat it,
• Prepare the onions, green chilli, red pepper, fresh corn and carrot, then add them to the oil.

• Add the ground Cumin, and salt and pepper.
• Stir it around well and let it cook fairly gently for 5-10 minutes until softened but not browned.
• Prepare the crushed garlic and potatoes, weigh out the rice. Make up the litre of hot stock.
• Add the garlic and stir for a minute or so until it’s fragrant.
• Then add the rice, potatoes and all the stock.
• Stir well to combine, then reduce to a gentle simmer and leave for 20 minutes until both the rice and potatoes are cooked.
• Make the Salsa – If you have a herb mill, put all the ingredients into it and blitz until you have a fragrant green sauce. If you haven’t , just crop the coriander and green chilli as finely as you can, add the crushed garlic and lime juice, and mash it together for a while to combine.
• When the soup is cooked add in the shredded chicken and the Salsa, and allow the chicken to heat through for about 5 minutes.

 

• Taste for seasoning, and adjust to your taste.
• Serve in bowls with a handful of finely chopped spring onions sprinkled over.

NOTES:

• This makes a thick, almost stew-like soup, so if you don’t like a thick soup, just add some more stock until it is, as Shakespeare would say, ‘As you like it’ 😉
• If you don’t have fresh corn (I was just lucky today) use a drained tin, but add it towards the end of the  cooking time.
• I didn’t have a lime, so I used the juice of a whole lemon, and it was a little too ‘lemony’ even for me, so just reduce the juice quantities to half a lemon if you’re using it.
• I had most of the ingredients to hand today, but as I mentioned, it’s a great way to use up those rather sad remains at the bottom of the vegetable drawer – virtually anything will be suitable.