How to Cook Best Chicken Soup

By TPP Tribe
May 21, 2022
11:10 am
No Comments

It is no news. Not many people know how to readily prepare chicken soup as much as they want to have a bit of it. It is undeniably a delicious meal that many people crave.

Everyone appears to like it, both the old and the young, perhaps because of the pleasure in savouring it. But you need to master the act of whipping up the best chicken soup to truly relish it whenever you feel like it. 

When you are sometimes not in the right mood, a comforting bowl of soup might just be the companion you need. And the good news is that this is easy to put together, loaded with spicy, bold, and hearty flavours. It’s so easy-peasy to make and you can hardly go wrong putting this together. 

Some people believe that this kind of soup is not only medicinal but also good to put the body and soul intact, particularly in this rainy season that we are now in. 

When you chomp a well-prepared chicken soup, you might want to eat it again and again. But to get the best out of it, one must know the right ingredients to source for, and the step-by-step approach in preparing the best chicken soup for your delight.  

As much as this approach is recommended, it must be clarified that everyone has his or her own favourite chicken soup recipe. However, rarely have so few ingredients added up so much comfort. This version has classic flavours and, thanks to a simplified method, cooks more quickly than traditional chicken soups. The dish is ready in a little over an hour and good to be served and savoured.

There’s no need to make a separate stock; the vegetables and meat form their own satisfying broth.

Agreeably, you don’t have to be sick to deserve or enjoy it. Chicken soup, as testified by many people, is yum-yum for the body and soul. 

Hardly will you get to any pub or restaurant in Nigeria and other African restaurants abroad and not find chicken soup. Consider serving this soup with homemade no-knead dinner rolls or this crusty no-knead bread.

Ingredients Checklist

Whole chicken or chopped, about four carrots (depending on the size), halved stalks, celery, halved, one large onion and thinly sliced, halved, water to cover, salt, native spice, seasoning, garlic, tomatoes (optional) and chili.

The other ingredient is chicken. Many chicken enthusiasts always prefer to use domesticated chicken. They believe that its meat is tougher, less fat and naturally tastier.  

Crayfish – This adds an unusual depth of flavour to the soup.

Stacy food – Like green plantains, potatoes or yams make a good source of carbohydrates. 

Herbs, peppers and savouries like garlic cloves, ginger root, onion, fresh basil leaves, scotch bonnets, and seasoning powder add that unique flavour to the soup.

The plethora of ingredients used in making chicken soup gives you a whole package of nourishment and flavour for that chicken soup. 

Right from the cooking process, the entire atmosphere is filled with an irresistible smell of a blend of spices. Funnily enough, people believe in the notion that if anyone is recuperating, the healing process starts from merely perceiving the aroma of the soup.

What you purchase and how you prepare them is unarguably a matter of substituting and going for your preferred type of protein.

On many occasions, starchy foods like yam, potatoes, or unripe plantains can be introduced to the soup to make it a complete meal. 

In this recipe, we used green plantains – plantains are highly nutritious and a good source of iron.

Steps in Preparing Chicken Soup

Step 1

Put the chicken, carrots, celery, onion and other spices in a large soup pot and cover with 16 cups of cold water. Don’t forget to massage your chicken with all the spices, allowing it to marinate for some minutes before topping it with water. 

Heat and simmer until the chicken meat falls off of the bones. Reduce heat. Simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes. Remove breast, and set aside. Add carrots. Simmer, partially covered, for 40 minutes.

Remove remaining chicken; discard back and wings. Let cool slightly. Remove meat from bones, and cut into bite-size pieces.

Step 2

Take everything out of the pot. Strain the broth. Relieve the meat of the bones. Chop the carrots, celery and onion. Season the broth with salt, pepper and chicken bouillon to taste, if desired. Return the chicken, carrots, celery and onion to the pot. Stir and serve. Reserve the rest for another use.

You can also garnish the chicken soup with chopped scent leaf (Efinrin in Yoruba. Nchanwu in Igbo. Daidoya in Hausa).

Serving

At serving time, some foodies prefer to spread parmesan cheese over the soup in the bowl to make up for the lack of or insufficient salt. Chicken soup is usually loaded with spicy, bold, and hearty flavours.

Nutritional Facts of Chicken Soup 

While many people eat volume, a handful of others eat value. That is why nutritionists say that per serving, there are 152 calories; protein 13.1g; carbohydrates 4.2g; fat 8.9g; cholesterol 36.9mg; sodium 67.6mg. 

The question one might be posed with still is “Why would I like or go for chicken soup?” These are the simple answers. 

Broth: Good for your health.

Chicken: Good home-raised chicken.

Green Plantains (optional): Good carbohydrate and the soup spice – medicinal.

Scent LeafThis culinary leaf gives more value than just its delightful smell. It relieves bloating and digests meals on time. It also helps stomach aches, dysentery, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Chicken soup is seen as an outstanding delicacy and highly medicinal, made with aromatic spices. Some prefer to eat it when recuperating after childbirth; some like to have it when they want to recover from cold or flu while others eat because they like it. 

Indeed, it would be of great health benefits to relish your chicken soup in sickness and in health.

Note, adding a starchy food to this soup is totally optional. However, if you want to make this a full meal then it’s advisable to add it.

the starchy food stays too long in the soup (like the second day or more), it releases its starch inside the food. The starch released will serve as a thickener to the consistency of the soup. This is a plus. 

If you choose to add more water than the recommended amount of water given in the recipe, it’s advisable you taste for seasonings and adjust accordingly.

Chicken soup is an easy and hearty first course comfort, popular in West Africa. This is one of the delicacies you will have and voluntarily attest that truly to have soup is human, but to eat chicken soup is divine. Enjoy your meal! 

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