Chicken and Corn Soup

A thickened soup finished with egg white poured in a thin stream off the heat.

Chicken, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, chicken stock.

Ingredients

• 250 g chicken breast, finely minced or chopped
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 2 teaspoons cornflour, for the chicken
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 400 g tin creamed sweetcorn
• 200 g tin sweetcorn kernels, drained
• 2 tablespoons cornflour mixed with 4 tablespoons cold water
• 2 egg whites, beaten loosely
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. Mix the chicken with the wine and the 2 teaspoons of cornflour. Chopped fine rather than cubed: it should disappear into the soup as threads, not sit in it as lumps.
2. Bring the stock to a simmer and stir the creamed corn and the kernels in. Both tins: the creamed gives the body and the kernels give something to chew.
3. Add the chicken in small pinches, stirring as you go so it separates, and simmer 3 minutes.
4. Stir the cornflour slurry and pour it in while stirring. Bring it back to a simmer for a minute until it thickens enough to coat a spoon.
5. TAKE THE PAN OFF THE HEAT. Pour the egg whites in a thin stream from a height while stirring slowly in one direction. Off the heat and thin: poured into boiling soup the white sets into rubbery lumps instead of threads.
6. Season with the salt, pepper and sesame oil, and scatter the spring onions over.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes