Ginger Chicken Broth is my go-to when I am cold, hungry, and tired and need wholesome food quickly. The recipe uses mainly store-cupboard ingredients. The spicy kick comes from the beautiful Japanese 7 Spice, Shichimi Togarashi, which I highly recommend adding to your spice rack. The spice is perfect to sprinkle over rice, noodles, or vegetables.
Chicken soup is always an excellent recipe to have in your armoury, especially over the festive period. It can quickly and easily (with minimal effort) feed a hungry, full house and is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
Whole Chicken or Pieces – Shredded or Off the Bone
Choose from whole chicken or chicken pieces. I tend not to use chicken breasts as I don’t think they give the same full flavour, but I leave that choice to you. This is an easy throw-together recipe. Chop all your vegetables into relatively thin slices. You can make a garlic-ginger paste, or finely slice the ginger and garlic and throw them in like that. You don’t need a stock; the vegetables and chicken flavour the soup.
We eat it like a chicken stew, semi-shredding the chicken off the bone and then serving it with bones. If that’s not your bag, lift out the cooked or whole chicken pieces and shred them separately. You can also strain the soup to obtain a clear broth, perhaps adding a few selected vegetables back into it. Alternatively, make it more of an occasion by serving the chicken on the side. Guests can then eat the soup and enjoy the chicken piled onto a big plate of rice or noodles together or as a main course.
Shichimi Togarashi and Gomasio
Shichimi Togarashi is quite spicy, so you may want to leave out the added small dried chillies. I roughly crush the green and white peppercorns, but grind them in a pepper grinder if you prefer. From start to finish, the soup should be ready in around 40 minutes.
Serve with noodles, rice, or a big slice of crusty bread. If you have them in the cupboard, I also like to sprinkle over a mix of Gomasio (Japanese sesame salt) and slivered spring onions. Remember not to add salt to the soup if you use Gomasio.
I recommend reading through the recipe carefully as there are several options for making and serving the soup—all are tasty, but it depends on your preferences. And, of course, this is a starting point—please adapt the soup to make it your own.
Ginger Chicken Broth freezes for up to 3 months and keeps well in the fridge for up to 3 days. If you are a chicken soup fan, try our classic Greek Chicken Lemon Soup, Celeriac Soup with Chicken Dumplings, plus all our soup recipes here.
Ginger Chicken Broth
Equipment
- 1 large dutch oven or large heavy based saucepan with a lid
Ingredients
- 1.2-1.5 kilo chicken allow about 180g chicken breast per person – a little more if you are using chicken pieces
- 2 medium carrots sliced diagonally
- 1 rib celery – including leaves – sliced thinly diagonally
- 1 large fennel – sliced thinly
- 1 large onions – finely chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic – finely chopped or grated with the ginger
- 40 g ginger – peeled and finely sliced or grated with the garlic or grate half and finely slice the rest – cooked ginger in the broth is very tasty
- 3 small dried chillies optional
- ½ tbsp green and white peppercorns – roughly chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1½ tbsp Japanese 7 spice (Shichimi Togarashi) plus extra for serving see below
- 35 g parsley with stems – roughly chopped (save some for garnishing)
- 1-1½ litres boiling water
- olive oil
- salt
Serving
- 1 tsp Japanese 7 spice or Gomasio optional
- 2-3 finely sliced spring onions
Instructions
- In a large, heavy-based pan, soften the onions, fennel and crushed peppers in olive oil. When soft, add the celery, bay, chillies, ginger and garlic.
- Chicken pieces: Toss with the vegetables and sprinkle over the Japanese 7 spice. Whole chicken(s): Place on top of the vegetables and sprinkle over the Japanese 7 spice.
- Add boiling water so it just covers the meat. Add the carrots, parsley and celery leaves.
- Bring to a boil and simmer gently until the meat is cooked and starts coming off the bone, approximately 30-40 minutes. Add more water if necessary and check for seasoning – add only a little salt if you are serving with Gomasio.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve as a soup – with chicken shredded away from the bone. Remove the meat and shred off the bone. Strain the stock – return the strained stock to the pan with the chicken and any of the whole vegetables.
- Or serve the shredded chicken separately piled onto a plate of noodles or rice. Guests can then eat the broth and vegetables accompanied by the chicken.
- Garnish all versions with finely sliced spring onions and parsley, and sprinkle with Seven Spice.
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