Happy New Year! I hope everyone is looking forward to 2025 as much as I am. At this time of the year, when we are all recovering from the festivities and the weather is quite chilly, I bring out this particular chicken noodle soup. This Malay soup is a style that is heavily spiced, and then cooked low and slow for a couple of hours to achieve an immense depth of flavour. Think cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves and star anise in a homemade chicken stock. So good! I hope this bowl hugs you from the inside as much as it does me this January.
Ingredients:
- ½ chicken
- 2 litres water
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 5 slices ginger
- 2 big red onions sliced
- 5 cloves garlic sliced
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 6 star anise
- 5 cardamom pods
- 4 cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 cup of iceberg lettuce chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh coriander
- 1 tbsp crispy shallots
- 100 gm rice noodles
Instructions:
In a big pot, heat up your oil and sweat your ginger, onions and garlic until fragrant. Add all your dry spices into the pot, fry for a minute and then add water. You could opt to use a spice bag here for convenience, but I never bother. I prefer to sieve out the spices at the end.
Slowly lower your chicken into the pot of water, put the lid on and then leave it to simmer for the next hour. After an hour, you can remove your chicken from the pot and set aside. Allow your broth to simmer for another hour while you take your time to shred your chicken and prepare your other garnishes.
When you are ready to serve, blanch your rice noodles, or any noodles of your choice, and then dress your bowl with chicken, lettuce or a vegetable of your choice, fresh coriander, crispy shallots, and, finally, as much broth as you like. This bowl of noodles is best served with a side of coriander chilli chutney.
Coriander Chilli Chutney
- 1 fresh big red chilli
- 1 small red chilli (piri)
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
- 1 tbsp dark sweet soy
Blitz the chillies, garlic and coriander in your food processor or chopper, and then mix with dark, sweet soy sauce. That’s it!
Joy Entry is a Malaysian home cook based in Lagos who is obsessed with the provocative, unapologetic flavours of South-East Asian cuisine
Instagram: @thatasianhomecook
